Duty of Care
Why it’s important for marketers to address masculinity
By Samira Brophy • 10 mins read
What does it mean to be a man in today's world?
"Duty of Care" explores this complex question and its implications for marketers.
Key takeaways:
1
Not all human qualities are valued equally. We ascribe a lower value to qualities like empathy, kindness and collaboration – qualities traditionally coded as feminine in society, for example. Meanwhile, we ascribe a higher value to strength, drive and ambition – qualities traditionally coded as masculine which contribute to division amongst younger generations.
2
There is a real opportunity for marketers to rethink how our communication portrays masculinity. Marketing has had a role to play in perpetuating stereotypes and reinforcing gendered codes of behaviour. This is to the detriment of men & boys as well as marketing effectiveness outcomes.
3
Evidence from the Ipsos advertising testing database shows how progressive male portrayal delivers both effectiveness and creative quality benefits. Ads scoring high vs. low on the Ipsos gender equality measure (GEMTM) are +37% higher on measures of sales lift. They also score better on measures of creative quality such as empathy and fit as well as being more believable, informative and relevant.
Instead of just shutting off from the toxic messaging masculinity, brands should take it on and use their platforms to give masculinity a different meaning, one that is inclusive, positive, authentic and that will resonate with and inspire boys and men everywhere."
Alex Bennet-Grant
Founder and CEO, We are Pi
A narrow view of masculinity on the rise
The challenge to civil liberties highlighted over a year ago in the Ipsos x Effie report ‘A Woman’s Worth’ feels starker than ever. The recent events have caused marketers globally to pause and think about the implications for their brands and how people experience them. This inflection point felt like the right time to draw on the evidence and talk about the societal and commercial implications of gender representation in marketing.
In this article, we will explore how there is a vacuum in the marketing industry’s duty of care to young men and boys, the benefits of positive and empathetic male role models, and steps brands can take to broaden minds while continuing to serve the bottom line.
Misogynistic content online has increased significantly since the US Presidential election with the likes of far-right US activist Nick Fuentes posting “Your body, my choice. Forever” and brushing it off as “obvious rage baiting”. Responses like these normalise these views while excusing the bad behaviour and deem any opposition an ‘overreaction’.
Closer to home, my Ipsos colleague and business anthropologist Lucy Neiland has made a brilliant film recording the rise of misogyny in schools in the UK and how teachers and students alike are struggling to cope. It shows the appeal to young boys of simple answers to complex questions that the ‘manosphere’ provides as ‘codes for living’. These codes are bitesize instalments of harmfully narrow views on what it means to be a man such as not showing any emotion, exerting control over others, especially women and how physical and verbal violence are part of this toolkit.
In the film, the deputy head of a primary school comments: “I have been here for 17 years and I’ve never heard a boy say (until now) ‘she knows when to shut her grunt’ aged 10. And, we’ve recently had a conversation that if we were in the hood, a woman would get tied up”.
Also featured is Mike Nicholson, founder of the organisation Progressive Masculinity, which works with school age boys in the UK to help them work through the information they are receiving on and offline. He explained that there is is a lack of empathetic and positive male role models, with many unable to think of a name beyond Marcus Rashford.
In Ipsos research in 2024, nearly 1 in 2 Britons (47%) said that when it comes to giving women equal rights with men, things have gone far enough. This is a notable increase on the 38% who said the same the previous year, and a stark increase in the proportion who felt this way as recently as 2019 (29%).
One of the core challenges that needs to be tackled is an unusual generational bifurcation in values amongst younger women and men in Britain identified by another Ipsos study.
The crux of this challenge is that while we continue to uphold strength, drive and ambition (traditionally coded as masculine qualities) as aspirational, we have not ascribed the same rockstar status to nurture, empathy and collaboration, which are traditionally coded as feminine qualities.
If kindness isn’t cool, however, no one wins.
The ‘manosphere’ is growing because it stokes insecurities and preys on fear. It offers strength and protection in the form of an angry, loud, powerful mob. Let’s be clear - that’s what we’re up against."
Yelena Gaufman
Chief Strategy Officer, Fold7
Marketing and male stereotypes
In society, it’s clear that there is trouble brewing with a more gender essential views of masculinity filtering down from global leadership and filtering up through younger generations. Let’s look at the role marketing plays to frame, reflect and normalise portrayals of our target audiences.
Marketing is guilty of reinforcing male stereotypes as much as it is female ones. Consider how absent men are in messaging that does not conform to society’s narrow expectations of their roles and interests. We reflect men so little in roles that involve nurture and empathy that we reinforce the expectation of men not needing not participate in domesticity or care. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
More harmfully, one of the most common portrayals in advertising is the strong silent man effortlessly in control, measured, considered, strong and basically… cold and joyless. And this stereotypical version of masculinity where expressing emotion is weak has real world consequences – especially amongst young men and boys, who are finding partners and their place in the world. ONS data shows that males make up three quarters of suicides in England and Wales.
The power of progressive male portrayal
Ipsos has been measuring people’s responses to gender portrayal in ads over the last few years using four questions in all our ad testing research globally. These four questions then feed into the gender equality measure index (GEMTM Index), and we ask them of men/boys as well as women/girls if featured in an ad.
The GEMTM Index has been running for several years and helps us analyse gender portrayals and identify potential bias in advertising.
We analysed the GEMTM Index scores of n=2026 ads tested featuring men or boys and have compelling evidence to suggest that positive male portrayal delivers strong ad effectiveness.
We split the ads into high, medium and low performers on the GEMTM Index and analysed the impact on long- and short-term effectiveness measures. Ads that score high vs. low on positive masculine gender portrayal were +37% stronger on measures of sales lift1 and +38% stronger on measures of equity share gain.
Presentation
What is the overall opinion of the person presented?
Respect
Are they presented in a respectful manner in the ads?
Appropriate
Are they depicted inappropriately?
Role Model
Can they be seen as a role model for other men/boys?
Impact of progressive male portrayal
Globally, ads with high Male GEMTM Index scores are significantly more likely to drive sales.
Moreover, we also noted some key differences in creative response between the high vs. low performers.
High scoring ads did consistently better on ‘is for people like me” and “fits with the brand” as well as being more believable and informative – suggesting better male portrayal also brought creative benefits. Three of the measures go into a pillar of ad response we call ‘Empathy and fit’ because they relate to how the brand relates to people via the ad and vice versa.
Empathy and fit have been proven by Ipsos2 to be a key success factor alongside creativity for maximising ad effectiveness. Empathy and fit is also a discriminating variable between Effie award categories, the evidence for which is explored in our paper ‘The Empathy Gap and how to bridge it’.
What progressive male portrayal looks like
Creativity and effectiveness are linked, of course, but it is helpful to understand what positive male portrayal and role modelling looks like. What themes and story types are rated most positively by people?
To understand this, we took a smaller sample of 70 ads across the database and qualitatively analysed their themes and features. We found two recurring tropes linked to strong positive portrayal of men and boys:
1. Great dads, deeply immersed in care for their kids
2. Being open, expressive, enjoying life
On the flip side, ads scoring poorly on the GEMTM Index tended to portray expressionless or unengaged males and create a sense of ‘empty coolness’. In other words, the narrow perception of masculinity we were discussing earlier on.
We have the privilege to make communications that enter the public’s living rooms and social feeds. But, as ad planners and strategists, we also have a duty to represent the voice of the consumer, keeping our brands in tune with the mood of the nation."
Stuart Williams
Head of Planning, adam&eveDDB
Positive portrayal of masculinity in action
High scoring ads in our analysis portrayed a broad canvas of care and joy in their male protagonists. Let’s look at some Effie award-winning brands and case studies which will help us explore positive masculine portrayal more tangibly.
Summary
There are compelling social reasons to take a more active stance to decode gender bias in society, particularly when it comes to how masculinity is being portrayed. And there are also very compelling reasons for marketers to do so, as Ipsos evidence and Effie cases that show how positive male portrayal can deliver strong effectiveness outcomes clearly demonstrate.
When thinking through gender portrayal going forward, marketers should consider the following principles:
1
Do no harm: There is plenty to be done to deliver real and modern portrayals of people’s lives without needing to push into activism. Not all can be activists, but all brands and organisations can raise the floor and be more nuanced and respectful in their portrayal.
2
Glamourise empathy: The biggest stereotype to break around male portrayal is that of the in control, strong and emotionless man. Showing men participating, caring and joyfully living their lives sets a good example and normalises empathy as a quality that is aspirational for men.
3
Be true to your brand: The Ikea and McCain examples show how supportive, joyful and positive male portrayals being embraced should be expertly executed with the brand principles and tone of voice underpinning it. Stray too far away from who you are as a brand, and you risk falling flat.
Sources
- The outcome measure used is the Ipsos Creative Effect index which is validated to sales lift using market mix modelling data from over 1000+ cases and one of the most robust models
- Misfits | Ipsos
Get in touch
Samira Brophy
Senior Director, Ipsos samira.brophy@ipsos.com
Samira is an Ipsos expert on brand and communication work, with 20 years of experience spanning creative and research roles. She leads Ipsos’ earlystage campaign development offer, is a thought leader on ad effectiveness, and works with clients to adopt a misfit mindset and make bolder, highly creative campaigns that audiences value.
