Where are all the Aussies in Aussie ads?

Australian advertising is teeming with harmful gender stereotypes, our latest work with Women’s Health Victoria has revealed.

Some of them are such dyed in the wool Aussie tropes, it seems many brands have fallen asleep at the wheel when it comes to creating the kind of inspiring and relevant characters that ignite positive action in modern Australians. 

In our campaign Commercial Breakdown, comedians Alex Lee and Lewis Garner had a field day playing stereotype whack-a-mole over a reel of Aussie ads from the last 12 months.

You know them all well;  ‘Dad leaves the family at home to have an adventure’, Man is mystified by cleaning products’, ‘Woman so excited by shopping that she explodes’, ‘Woman embarrassed by the way she smells.’ And that old chestnut, ‘3 blokes sitting on an esky in the great outdoors, with no women for kilometres’.

Lewis, especially mystified by the last one, laments, ‘but all my guy mates drink beer with their girl mates.’

These stereotypes are deeply embedded in an idea of Australian life that is hopelessly out of touch with modern Australians, who statistically are more likely to be born overseas, or have parents born overseas, and make a living in a paid workforce that’s 50/50 men and women. 

When we show our community that men don’t know how to clean, or women should be at home, not away on a camping trip with mates, at best we fail to connect with modern audiences. And at worst, we take society backwards, even contributing to attitudes that cause family violence.

So here’s our call to action:
The real world needs real people in ads.

And with that in mind, I’ve been keeping my eyes open to what and who is real and true in the 5 socio economically and geographically disparate suburbs where I spend all my time.

Who are the people and stories going un-represented in advertising?

There’s the Albanian-Australian tradie dad who takes his daughter to do weekly grocery shopping, tenderly choosing fruit and veg together. There’s a Ugandan-Australian mum who splits her time across an aged care job and a degree in criminology, while her husband does all the childcare. There’s the daughter of WWII asylum seekers who raises her grandkids with her ex-husband.

And don’t forget the woman who gave birth at 43 and constantly gets asked in the park if she’s the grandmother. (That last one’s me.)

Where are those people in our ads? They all drive SUVs. They all use deodorant. And they all drink beer (especially 47 yo mums with toddlers.)

How they would all love to feel represented on screens big and small.

By Amy Hollier