The Gender Stereotype

Have you ever seen a Dad play fighting with his son and said, “Don’t hit like a girl?” The “like a girl” expression he used indicates the gender stereotype granted in our society that women are weaker than men. Though the gender stereotype is wrong, many people accept it unconsciously. Always “Like A Girl” campaign reflects this commonplace in its ad. By utilizing the kairos and exerting pathos and ethos, Always successfully made the campaign influential and drew people’s attention to the gender stereotype problem.

First, the identities of the variety of representatives in the ad help get the connection with the audience. Always found two groups of people. One group is adults and older teenagers. The other one is adolescent girls. When they were all asked to hit, run, and play like a girl? The adults did things playful by the influence of the gender stereotype that women did not try hard playing sports because they were not as strong as men. But the young girls behaved differently. They tried as hard as they can to do things like a girl because their confidence had not been hurt by accepting the gender stereotype. By contrasting the responses of two groups of people, the harm of the gender type to the adolescent girls is reflected. The gender stereotype greatly reduces adolescent girls’ confidence. “Global Self-Esteem Across the Life Span” shows that “puberty is a time affected by a real confidence crisis for girls. Girls’ self-esteem drops twice as much as boys during puberty. Moreover, women never regain the pre-puberty level of self-esteem.” The effects of the gr stereotype are irreversible. Furthermore, the identities of the representatives also add credibility to the campaign and the ad. Whether they are adults or girls, they are ordinary people in life rather than celebrities. They can be anyone in daily life. For example, your classmates, your friends, or even your sisters. Their reactions are real. The audience is receptive to real thoughts. By getting connected with the audience through the representatives in the ad, the campaign can arouse people’s thinking about gender stereotypes. Also, the speaker of the problem is Always company. It sells girl’s products. The target customers are women, especially adolescent girls. Always has years of experience getting connected to girls. It finds a problem that hurts girls’ confidence and draws people’s attention to solve it. Therefore, Always can keep the customers of new generation girls by helping them and supporting them.

Aside from the help of the speaker’s identities, the campaign becomes more influential by connecting to the audience’s emotions. When the campaign focuses on the “like a girl” expression. The audience will spend time to think about the meaning of “like a girl”. Is it a type of insult to women? When they realize the tragedy of the gender stereotype and the harm it brought, they will feel upset about how it hurt the women. People will be willing to change the current situation and solved this problem. Besides, the audience in different positions will have different thoughts when they watch the ad. The people who used the “like a girl” expression before will notice the mistake they made. They will feel bad about the past mistake and avoid doing it in the future. The regret will also prompt them to do something to make up for past mistakes. So they will support the campaign to help the girls. To the people who never use the “like a girl” expression but hear other people use it, they will learn the harm of keeping silent when they watch the ad and take action for the next time they have a similar experience. To the women who were hurt by the gender stereotype in the past, they will be touched by the attention and support they receive from Always. Their confidence will be increased when they learn about the campaign. They will support the campaign and avoid a continuation of the tragedy. When people pay attention to the campaign and support it, the campaign will become more influential and change more people’s thoughts about gender stereotypes. At the same time, Always enhances its reputation and sales because people will be willing to buy the products to show their support. Therefore, the final purpose of the ad is achieved.

Furthermore, Always seizes the right kairos to appeal to emotion. The 60-second ad was released at the 2015 Super Bowl, an event with huge family dynamics. The target audience was mainly families. To parents who want to create a healthy environment for children, they will agree with the harm of gender stereotypes and support the campaign when they learn about the harm of gender stereotypes. The campaign then will become more influential under the mom and dad’s support. To children, they will be aware of the problem of gender stereotypes before they get affected by it. Boys will know it’s improper to use the “like a girl” expression because it hurts people. Girls will be confident when they understand many people in the world are supporting them. If the changes start from the younger generation, the problem of gender stereotypes can be fixed soon.

In conclusion, Always utilizes the ethos, pathos, and captures the right kairos to enhance the influence of the campaign and solve the problem. So fewer girls will suffer from gender stereotypes. By speaking for the girls, Always can improve its reputation. The girls of the new generation will be appealing to buy Always products. As a result, the sales of the products increase. The “Like A Girl” campaign turns out to be a successful ad.