In product advertising specific items are often shown to appeal to a certain gender. For instance, all body soap is the same, but a real man wouldn’t be caught dead using Dove, so there’s Dove “Men+Care.” Dial has a “Dial for Men” product line. Of course, Axe and Old Spice are marketed towards men, as well.
This is especially true when thinking about food. Special K breakfast cereal is always marketed for women; while something like Wheaties, while really a generic sports cereal, mostly leans towards men in advertising. Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max are essentially the same thing, except Max is marketed towards men and has more caffeine.
How often do you see men eating salads in commercials? Fast food restaurants often portray certain genders eating certain types of food – women more often than not are shown eating chicken strips or chicken sandwiches, while men are shown eating big whopping triple layered burgers. Hardees, for instance, pretty much markets their entire brand towards “guys.”
Beer and liquor advertising is particularly gender biased. “Light” beers and wine coolers are almost always marketed for women who “want to watch their figure,” but still wanna get pissed. Pay closer to attention to Smirnoff commercials. Budweiser and Bud Light, Michelob and Michelob Light, Coors, etc. seem to always be aimed towards football and other sports, which of course involve guys getting together, because girls don’t like football, duh.
I thought it would be funny to portray an opposing, realistic side. Plenty of women eat burgers and chili and so forth. My girlfriend loves a good, dark beer, and hates sugary drinks. Guys eat salads and fruit, and a nice cup of hot tea can be really relaxing.
I wanted to present the idea as simply and straightforwardly as possible, so we shot the models straight on with no fancy angles or lighting, and no distracting props or background. We all went through several poses, contrasting masculine and feminine, and I ended up choosing which shots I thought were the funniest. It was a bit difficult figuring out which foods to have, and if I wanted to spend more money I definitely would have had a steak or hot wings involved. I thought the apple would be a nice touch because of the reference to Adam and Eve.
