Like it or not, if your brand hasn’t actively engaged with its non-male prospects, then it’s male by default. How can you reverse this to create more inclusive campaigns that are bold and authentic? 

Interesting times for Walkers, after the announcement that they are replacing Gary Lineker as the face of their campaigns. Senior marketing director Fernando Kahane said Walkers “....need to represent everyone and make sure that our ads make people see themselves in it.” But deleting years of being a default white male brand is not easy. Walkers take a softly-softly approach, with lots of new faces and an innocuous tagline “When life gives you potatoes, make crisps”. There are now a couple of women in the mix. But if these adverts had a flavour, it would be Ready Salted. 

For centuries, history, science, writing, music, everything was by men, for men and about men. And to some extent, this continues. Some brands still don’t connect to women at all, but we’re subconsciously conditioned not to notice. That is, until someone clumsily tries to reverse it.

BrewDog generally offends no-one at all with their blue label and (like most beers) male identity. But look what happened when they launched an “ironic” pink beer label on International Women’s Day in 2018. Women didn’t get it. The problem wasn’t the pink on the IWD label, it was the fact that the brand was blue - male. You can’t make an in-joke if you aren’t in with the people you’re telling it to. Selling empowerment and female solidarity is too strong a flavour for an audience that you’ve not connected with. 

Aviva have launched their latest campaign with a gentle advert, about a woman’s perilous life journey and her rewards. Like Walkers and their new campaign, it’s a Ready Salted approach. It’s also a move away from their more emboldened attempt two years earlier to “do” the Gender Savings Gap on Twitter. Women responded to this campaign by calling out Aviva’s own significant gender pay gap (26.7% in 2019). Perhaps there was a residual feeling that the brand was predominantly male-focussed - old campaigns featured Paul Whitehoue and Roy Keane and Aviva sponsor Norwich City FC. But as a company, they also employ more men in senior positions than women. Women don’t trust them.

When Oatly launched their recent Superbowl advert featuring male CEO Toni Peterson front and centre, they bewildered and annoyed people in equal measure because the advert was weird. As a seemingly gender-neutral brand, I doubt they meant the overriding message to be “men are in charge here”. Whether that’s how women perceive it, remains to be seen. 

How can you “reverse” the male in your brand and create tangier messaging for women and gender-neutral prospects? You need to keep an eye on your brand’s gender identity in the long-term by putting more women in charge. Make sure your house is tidy, before you invite people in for the first time. Otherwise you’re just the creepy stranger with the dirty windows and the oversized manly furniture. We already know that women-led companies out-perform businesses run by men. They get less funding as start-ups, but generate more revenue. Having more women at senior level won’t just shrink that painful gender pay gap, it will encourage women to trust your brand. 

Amber Lee is a copywriter helping brands reach women