#Spotlight: SA adland & representation of women

Is marketing locally still sexist? We speak to female creatives to see where SA is when it comes to gender and advertising.

By Charles Lee Mathews (they/them) . Is marketing in South Africa still sexist? Essentially, that’s the big question that hangs in the air when you talk to female creatives in advertising, as MarkLives did, to see where our country is when it comes to gender and advertising. Yet what is?gender?

According to Judith Butler, Research University of California Berkeley professor, in a Big Think interview , everybody has a theory about what gender is or should be: “At this stage, I am less concerned with whose theory is right and whose theory is wrong, because the assault on gender is also an assault on democracy.” She champions a shift to a more democratic societal discourse on gender — one that’s more reflective of everyone in a?society.

In South Africa, where democracy is under threat because of state capture and the collapse of basic civic service delivery, how is the female identity being represented in?communications?

“My name is Nkgabiseng Motau . I’m the co-founder and chief creative director at Think Creative Africa . I identify as a woman — definitely as a black woman,” Motau tells MarkLives. “It feels incomplete to me, usually, if I just say ‘a woman’. This is because the experience of race is impactful in how I see?myself.

“When I looked at the black women around me [who] raised me, I strongly identified with who they are, and how they do life. And I felt like that picture is me, too. That’s my understanding of why my gender identity is what it is,” she?continues.

Then vs now

“When I first entered the industry, a lot of the work [I saw] was not very representative,” says Matau, who studied marketing with a BA in creative brand communications at Vega 2007–2009, then cut her teeth at Draftfcb (now FCB Africa ) and Ogilvy South Africa before co-founding Think Creative?Africa .

In talking about her early exposure to advertising, she mentions that she “watched ads for big brands, from the early 2000s,” adding that you didn’t even get a sense of national identity back then. However, in recent times, “things have changed quite a bit. You see brands actively trying to represent different consumers, and trying to speak the way people speak — even celebrating who we are as a country in our?diversity.”

When it comes to representing what it means to be a woman in SA today, though, she says the sector has a long way to go. “If you look at the advertising that’s meant to talk to the broadest market of South Africans, in my view, it’s still very traditional. I use that word to mean ‘old school’. It’s still sort of nuclear-ish families, maybe with a gogo thrown in,” she?says.

Transformative buying power of women

In a world where research reveals that the buying power of women is transformative, there’s still a long way to go. While brave pioneering brands in Mzansi are doing the hard work of understanding what gender is, and how this construct is married to diversity and inclusion, what we need is for everyone else to catch?up.

“We all are many more things than just our gender,” says Pippa Misplon , MD of Retroviral , an agency that positions itself as a challenger?brand , “and one of the most powerful things that we’ve seen with brands is where they are more inclusive in their advertising and they do feature various types of women’s bodies and types of?women.”

When asked how she identifies, she responds, “That’s an incredibly valuable question to ask and I think it makes [you] think about how you identify and not merely in terms of gender norms or as a professional or?non-professional.”

“All of them make me who I?am”

“I’m a mum,” says Misplon. “That for me is the priority in my life. I’m a mum and a wife, as much as I’m extremely proud of my job and my career. I’m a mum, and I’m a wife, and I am a businesswoman. I am [none] of those things in isolation. All of them make me who I?am.”

And how does she feel her identity is represented in local communications? “I do feel like, as an industry, we’ve evolved,” she answers, adding that the alcohol sector is doing great work, with brands such as Carling Black Label and Castle Lite actively showcasing diversity. “The alcohol brands are actively taking a role in change. Soccer tended to be a very male-dominated sport and Castle has disrupted this. Then there’s the Carling Songs of Change campaign , which is a powerful example of how advertising can be an agent for change,” she?notes.

Matau agrees that, while the industry has come a long way in its representation of women through brand commercials and marketing campaigns, much work still needs to be done. “People love to see an authentic picture. And I’m not anti-storytelling, or anti-creative-licence but I think there’s definitely room to be more inclusive, more?authentic.”

Must come from agencies & clients

“This has to come from both agencies and clients who need to be willing to admit who people are, and not just want to show a ‘perfect picture’,” continues Matau. “If I had to score our sector out of 10, I’d say we’re definitely below five. I would rate us at 3–5. Some brands are doing amazingly well but there are many more [which] are so far?behind.”

Adds Misplon, “There are a number of brands that are behind but I would say we’ve made good progress and are above average, when I compare the communications I see to other markets on a personal?level.”

For her, the sector needs a stronger forward movement for better gender representation and more inclusive sustainability on this score. “I don’t think that every brand in this country is as far as it could be,” she concludes. “There is the beautiful work that wins awards but this is a?journey.”

Also in this MarkLives series

• #Spotlight: How brands fail women in SA — what to do?about?it
• #Spotlight: Female ownership & management diversity at SA’s?largest?agencies

Charles Lee Mathews is a contributing writer to MarkLives, as well as the publisher and CEO of Inc.Africa . Previously, they were the founder and CEO of HumanInsight .?

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