Families are a common theme in advertisements. Commercials use families as a topic because it can closely relate to almost everyone’s own life experiences and it is typically non-gender oriented. By relating to consumers’ emotions and real-life experiences, commercials easily create a demand for their product but at the same time, they can reinforce an existing social norm of how gender should behave, especially when family-themed commercials usually consist of both genders. It can also reinforce heteronormality because topics in families often are related to sexual relationships.
In this KFC advertisement, we initially see a boy being adopted by a heterosexual couple, and they had KFC together in their kitchen. The video then portrayed his life by showing the boy growing up, getting into a relationship with a girl, graduating from college, and forming a family of his own. This commercial depicted an “ideal family” where it consists of a mother and a father. Where the mother is a caring and supportive role, where shows up to every important event, and she is also taking more responsibility in the boy’s academic life by picking him up at school. She is also depicted as being more emotional because she stands and clapped at the graduation ceremony. The father, on the other hand, is assigned to the masculine role. He initiates the handshakes; he asks the main character to join their dinner, and he is also the one who’s driving the car. By showing families that practice the traditional norm of how gender behaves, consumers might be better related to the product being advertised. However, it can also lead the audience to think this is what “normal” families look like, and they can feel oppressed when their family is different from the one being portrayed in this advertisement. Gender stereotypes are also depicted by showing him on video games and living in a room that has a soccer pillowcase and robot model.
With a similar approach, this advertisement for iPad also depicted a “perfect family”. A family is portrayed as supportive and caring as the parents’ flight to the grandparents’ home when the grandmother passed away. Gender is performed by the two daughters when they are putting jewelry on the dogs. The advertisement might have also chosen daughters instead of sons for this role because existing social norms believe that girls are more sensitive.
Although selling products different products, we can see a pattern in how both advertisements portray families. Middle-class families, heterosexual parents, and supportive family members are the common theme. When a similar theme shows up in multiple commercials that form a pattern, it can enhance gender stereotypes and influence one’s way of behaving gender. Especially when the advertisements only show small parts of family life that are full of happiness and lack conflicts. That is why it is important to keep in mind that stories in advertisements are created and they are different from real life.