What Framing Britney Can Teach Media Folk

If you haven’t watched Framing Britney, you should. Why? Because the subject at hand – the silencing, controlling, and containment of a vibrant woman – is a microcosm of gender issues in society. But it’s also a wakeup call for anyone working in media and advertising specifically.

The news about the star’s conservatorship rightly raises fresh questions about the media’s relentless focus on her sexuality, mothering, or mental health. When you dig down, the all-round misogyny and sexism at the heart of the matter is shocking. But what horrifies me particularly is the very precise censoring, stifling of this woman’s voice. It’s shocking how easily women can still be silenced by those who have something to gain from doing so - either intentionally or as a result of unconscious bias.

One might be tempted to look on, purely as an outside observer, and reflect on the long-gone days?when adland played a role?in ‘keeping women down’. Particularly with some of the great work coming out of our industry in recent years that’s the exact opposite – work that positively celebrates women’s voices and female power. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves.

Yes, things are most certainly better than they were – but sexism and misogyny are still around in this modern day and age and both still play out in far too many adverts. At worst you have the likes of that?jaw-dropping #BrutallyRefreshing?work from Sprite in 2017, or most recently the COVID ‘Stay Home’ howler?from the UK government. At best, yes you have your brilliant Womb Stories or This Girl Cans. But somewhere in the middle there’s a whole swathe of advertising that still often presents women simply as passive, silent objects.

It got me thinking about the?Bechdel test?that green or red-lights film based on three simple questions around female presence: 1) are there female characters in the film 2) do they actually speak to each other and 3) do they speak to each other about a subject other than men. Sounds reasonable enough – except when you see the list of films that don’t pass muster - hit after hit after contemporary hit. Wow.

Australian creative Sarah Vincenzini tweaked the Bechdel test for advertising’s shorter format a few years ago, amidst fresh analysis of ads running there that showed when?women?were?included?in them, they?were?often portrayed in stereotypical gender roles?– mothers, housewives, girlfriends -?or sexually objectified.?An all-too-common finding. Meanwhile research in 2017 from the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media found women spoke?seven times less than men?in adverts. That’s a whole lot of shushing.

A universal standard for meaningful female inclusion in advertising matters hugely because we accept now that people are influenced by?behaviour modelled in?ads they watch. Thank heavens the ridiculous idea that advertising simply reflects society, versus actively shaping cultural values and social mores, has now been largely put to bed. But if we truly understand this point, then surely it’s vital that every ad we set about creating be put through some kind of formal or informal Bechdel test. At the very least, such a process will help ensure a minimum level of female agency in an ad, and importantly, independence beyond those female characters’ value as determined by men.

Which brings me back to Britney.?A wealthy, talented and privileged star, disempowered and silenced. But far from being extraordinary, her experience is sadly a stark reminder of the everyday sexism that still characterises society, and that we in the ad industry risk sanctioning, unless we hold ourselves to account. So, here’s to the powerful female voices in adland out there, refusing to be silenced, and fighting the fight – and here’s to many more of us, including supportive men, joining them.

Helen James is Managing Director at CPB London