Family in advertising

Advertising is used to attract customers to a business's products or services, making statements about race, social class, gender, values, and family.[3][8] It describes these social categories and prescribes behavior according to social ideals or norms.[3] According to Belk and Pollay (cited in Burke's master's thesis), advertisements show the ideal life and instruct in how to live.[12] Targeting specific groups of people for products and services, advertisements reflect changes in social norms and acceptable behavior. Some argue that the image of a family only plays a symbolic role, reflecting contemporary cultural values.[8] Sociologists have challenged the public to study ads with family images as marketing messages and vehicles for behavior and attitudes towards society.[13]

Advertisements depicting families note the transition from modernity to postmodernity.[14] This transition is that of middle class nuclear families (where heterosexuality is the norm) to the recognition and acceptance of a variety of family types, embracing societal polysexuality and plurality, the transition from popular culture to sub-cultures and multiculturalism.[14] According to literary critic Fredric Jameson, "Our advertising ... is fed by postmodernism in all the arts, and is inconceivable without it."[14]

1920 German advertisement for Hacavon shampoo

Throughout history, mothers have been portrayed as the primary physical caregivers of children. Physical caregiving includes tasks such as breastfeeding and changing diapers.[15] Some theorize that women have a natural instinct to provide care.[15] Fathers have been more likely to be portrayed as playing with their children, more with sons than daughters.[15] Similar to the decline in wives being portrayed solely as housekeepers, the portrayal of mothers as the primary physical caretakers of children has also declined; mothers are portrayed more in recreational activities with their offspring.[15]

Like fathers, other male family members (including sons and grandsons) are primarily portrayed in play activities with children.[16] Young female family members are more likely depicted in activities related to household chores and child care.[16] Grandparents are largely absent from advertising.[16]

Family images depend on their source and the audience the source intends to reach.[17] In a women's magazine, such as Good Housekeeping, women are portrayed primarily as housewives.[18]

As wives in advertising have reflected the general view of their appropriate role, husbands also reflect the cultural values surrounding their role;[19] images of the husband working outside the home and handling the family finances are common.[19] These roles were especially prevalent in 1920, 1936, and 1970.[19] Husbands have generally not been depicted in advertising doing household chores, except when they humorously perform them badly.[20] The portrayal of husbands and wives in an intimate, romantic relationship has increased.[19]

Advertising generally reflects popular contemporary attitudes toward gender roles. During the 1920s, when relatively few wives worked outside the home,[21] working wives were rarely portrayed in advertising. This changed during the Great Depression, when more wives entered the workforce.[22] Since then, as housekeeping becomes a less-important family role,[23] the number of advertisements depicting women performing household tasks has declined.