A father washing the shirt of his daughter who plays football. Another dad cradling his newborn son. Yet another who prepares breakfast, lunch, dinner. The world of advertising has always represented society, sometimes lagging behind some trends, other times anticipating them. In a panorama, such as the contemporary one, where women and men are becoming more and more equal in most sectors, it is the home one, perhaps, that is the most difficult to level.
Deeply linked to personal feelings, to the way of life of each individual, as well as to the way in which one decides to set up a relationship with a partner, a roommate, a child or even with one’s pet, the “homemade” sphere it is the one closest to the perception one has of cultural change in a society.
Women at the stove, ready to wash, tidy up, clean, tidy up, look after children and prepare dishes to serve at the table, today they are replaced in the collective imagination by men, or, at least, the work of caring for the domestic sphere tends to be increasingly equally divided between the parties. Not only in advertisements, but also in reality.
A new visual model
Everyone will have seen the well-known Esselunga commercial at least once. A peach as a symbol of hoped-for reconciliation, given by a daughter of separated parents to her father as a “fake” gift, is offered by the little girl. The advertisement has created a debate about whether or not this type of family should be represented in advertisements. Representation that reflects an existing reality: the decline in the number of marriages and the increase in the number of separations and divorces.
According to the most recent Istat data on unions, in 2021, there were a total of 97,913 separations (+22.5% compared to 2020). In the same year, divorces were 83,192, 24.8% more than in 2019 and 16.0% less, compared to 2016, the year of relative maximum (99,071 divorces), linked to the entry into force (in May 2015) of the law on “short-term divorce”. In 2021, the separation rate per 10 thousand inhabitants (16.6 at national level) reaches the maximum value in Campania (20.0), followed by Sicily (19.3) and Lazio (18.5), and the minimum in Autonomous Province of Bolzano (10.8).
And while we were discussing the type of representation that could best showcase the “modern family”, the commercials took a further step forward. Increasingly sensitive to genderfluid issues, gender equality, inclusiveness in sports, there are several examples that in recent months have put aside the controversies and encapsulated existing realities in a few minutes. Let’s look at some of them together.
Inclusion and sport
One of the sectors that has always tended to encourage inclusiveness is that of sport. In support of a type of inclusion that still focuses on gender equality, there is the latest Amazon advert for Uefa Women’s Football 2024. Packed with action, the advert has the song Sweet Old Fashioned Girl by Teresa as its soundtrack Brewer. Female athletes always take center stage, supported by a selection of products available on Amazon such as shin guards, muscle patches, training tank tops and cryotherapy tanks.
Or Tim, who after launching an advertising spot against gender inequality, used the coach Luciano Spalletti as the official promoter of the latest marketing campaign and a female fan base with “Anna, big fan of the Azzurri”, as co -protagonist (to underline that women also occupy spaces in the stands of stadiums).
New dads
A dad cradling his son, while with a friend he watches the game of the heart, forced to move to the cellar, where there is the washing machine, whose movement is the only tool capable of putting your newborn to sleep. The scene is the new Vodafone commercial which promotes the wi-fi network that reaches the most remote corners of the house. The one represented could be any father, left alone. The possible reference in reality is that of single-parent families (2.9 million in 2021, 17% of the total families; in 20% of cases made up of single fathers).
Another example is that of Vanish, with a father who turns to specialists to remove stains from his daughter’s shirt, got dirty playing football. Apart from the female representation of a little girl who plays a sport considered mostly male with her father, the scenario inaugurated for some time now is that of stay-at-home dads. An analysis conducted in 2023 by the Pew Research Center on data from the US Census Bureau found that stay-at-home dads rose from 4% of the total in 1989 to 7% in 2021. According to the data of the report, updated to 2021, stay-at-home parents are men in only 18% of cases. In practice, almost one in five.
And again, remaining in line with the protagonist fathers, Mulino Bianco also places the focus of its commercial a father preparing breakfast and a snack for his daughter, in the absence of the mother-wife. According to the latest data from Eige (The European Institute for Gender Equality) taken from a 2022 survey, 91% of women and 86% of men provide care or care for their children under the age of 25 at least four times a week. The data improves when compared to the 2019 survey where unpaid care work was carried out by 92% women compared to 68% of men. But in Italy, specifically, only 35% of families share the care of their children between both parents, while in the rest of the cases, this task falls mainly on women.
Screen of the Ace advertisement with Borghese and Casa Surace
And finally, one of the most emblematic is the one that repositions women in the kitchen after a round of men in TV programs dedicated to cooking. The face of the Ace universal degreaser advert is Chef Alessandro Borghese, to whom a woman entrusts the task of cleaning: Antonella Morea of the comedy group Casa Surace who with “But I cook, you clean”, raises a smile on the theme of sharing household tasks and gender stereotypes.
