7 things brands can learn from Wonder Woman
I was walking down the mall when I saw a 5-year-old girl dressed as Wonder Woman. She was excited and proud, walking with an air of confidence as virtually every person looked at her with a huge smile. I looked at her mom, and we both smirked: Wonder Woman was the shit.
As a strategist, I spend a lot of time wondering about human nature. What makes people act/think/feel the way they do? What are the forces that influence these actions? And how can I relate it to brands? I began wondering why this film felt so right and why so many people around the world were raving about it on social media as a feminist triumph.
Long story short, Wonder Woman got us. This isn’t just another superhero film; this is an example of the type of content 21st Century women find exciting and inspirational. So what can message-creators learn from this film?
1- Women need to feel represented
According to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, only 29% of 2016’s on-screen protagonists were female (and that was a recent historical high. Sigh). Advertising is not doing a great job either — a recent study by Unilever showed that 40% of women don’t relate to the women they see in ads, half of those ads stereotype them, and only 3% portray females in a position of power.
How can we feel powerful if we don’t know what powerful looks like?
The images and messages we are exposed to help create our realities. Roles either get reinforced or challenged by the media we consume, and as women, we are subject to unfair representations all across the board. This is why good representation matters. In fact, 58% of women said they felt inspired by a fictional character to be more assertive or more ambitious. Media portrayals allow us to imagine ourselves in different situations and give us cues on how to navigate the world. And when these representations feel real they can empower us to take our aspirations further.
So when we see the same-old crappy stereotypes, we get pretty annoyed. Take Marvel for example: the Black Widow is the only heroine of The Avengers. It kinda sucks that she isn’t worthy of a real superpower and she is always secondary to males (she even got slut-shamed by the BroVengers. Seriously?). Even to this day, a significant portion of big-budget flicks don’t pass the Bechdel test, which requires a film to have at least two named women having a conversation that isn’t about a male. (Really, the bar is that low.)
And it’s not just Hollywood. Advertising has a long history of harmful representations of women, which is why an ad like H&M’s “She’s a Lady” feels so refreshing and exciting. These women go against all expectations on what it means to be a lady and define womanhood in their own terms, because there is not right or wrong way to be a woman.
2- Challenge gender roles
Diana (Wonder Woman) is the princess of the island of Themyscira, where Amazon women train vigorously to fulfill their duty of guarding the world. The filmmaker’s vision was to put together a group of highly trained athletes to create the female version of 300. It was brilliant and so incredibly powerful — something we have never seen before. This wasn’t about genders; this was about physical ability and teamwork.
While having hardcore female warriors could be enough, that was just the starting point. Etta, Steve Trevor’s secretary, is key to success: she’s the one making things happen in London and on top of that, she’s put in charge of running the entire “save the world” operation from afar. No big deal, huh? And let’s not forget about THE most dangerous human in the film: Dr. Poison. She’s pretty much the most brilliant chemist in the world, and while she is labeled a “witch” by a group of dissing men, her abilities are never questioned because of her gender.
So brands, don’t be afraid to show women in traditionally male arenas. We LOVE this. Take Gert Boyle for example: the heart and soul of Columbia Sportswear built her image on a traditionally-male strength, inspiring many of us with her Tested Tough philosophy (random fact: I first came across NORTH’s work by writing a paper on this campaign back in grad school). She is definitely not your traditional mom/grandma, and you could argue she inspired Brawny’s recent “Strength Has No Gender” campaign.
3- Call out inequalities
Diana was raised by women and has never seen a man in her life. She has no concept of gender roles, so when she arrives at WWI London, she has a hard time understanding the rules. How do you fight in women’s clothes? Why would you need to be constricted by your outfit? Why can’t women make decisions? She even goes as far as to equate a secretary to a slave. While all of these comments are masked in humor and lightheartedness, they make profound observations on the inequalities of gender.
Social media has created a space where people have a voice to call out different types of oppressions and inequalities, which is why people feel a strong connection to content that highlights these injustices. When Sheryl Sandberg called this detergent ad from India one of the most powerful videos she’s ever seen, 14 million people played it and over 300k shared it around the world, sparking a global conversation on gender roles that transcended cultures.
4- Equality goes both ways
The standard definition of feminism centers on the equality of genders. So while ass-kicking women are exciting AF, it is also important to note the way males were portrayed. Steve Trevor, the ultimate male feminist of the film, does not feel the need to out-do Diana and is, in fact, shown vulnerable on more than one occasion. After the “No Man’s Land” EPIC scene, Diana and the guys are trying to take control of the town. She decides to go in and tells the men to stay behind. They all agree — she is better than them, and they might be terrified of what’s ahead. Men are shown as vulnerable but not weak — they are just human. There isn’t any male-bashing, and societal problems are attributed to the human race instead of the male gender.
So don’t be afraid to explore and redefine what it means to be a man. A growing trend of single and stay-at-home dads has created a need for an updated version of fathers in ads (lousily dubbed “Dadvertisement”). Men are also looking to be represented in relatable and authentic ways, so when brands call them “dad-moms” for staying at home, they are offending both sides of the isle.
5- Be global
There’s been plenty of complaints about the character not being American enough. After all, the original Wonder Woman came out in the midst of World War II as part of the patriotic iconography of the time. However, it has been seven decades since the original comic. Wonder Woman has become a global icon since, revered by girls and boys everywhere (even I played with my sister’s Mujer Maravilla bracelets back in Argentina). While there’s been a debate over Gal Gadot’s ethnicity, and a lot of criticism over the fact that she is an Israeli Jew, the casting is fitting to the Mediterranean-like origins of the character. Filmmakers didn’t stop there — Dr. Poison is Turkish and Diana’s team of misfits is comprised by an American, a French-Moroccan, a Scot, and a Native American, bringing a few more flavors to the stew.
So even though many brands create ads for the U.S. market alone, they should consider the fact that the number of multi-racial/multi-ethnic children has nearly tripled since 1980 and one out of four of them have a foreign-born parent (hola!). The present and the future faces of America look very different from the traditional imagery we’ve seen in the 20th Century, so advertisers better catch up fast. But be careful: using people of color as tokens can make you look ignorant (I’m talking to you, Pepsi).
6- No mansplaining
Mansplaining is the curse where men lousily give a voice to women from their own perspective (I’ll let SNL illustrate this for you). So basically, Hollywood has given us a century of mansplanations. Stories about women and their struggles as seen from the perspective of men. Not only is that damaging to the representation of women, but it perpetuates stereotypes on how genders relate to each other.
It is no coincidence that this film was directed by a woman. It is no surprise that she had to fight over and over for her vision to become a reality — even when nobody in the room could see it. But she fought for it, and it happened. Which goes to show that when it comes to our stories (or our bodies), we want decisions from someone who actually knows and understands us.
Note to brands: if you are making products and ads for women, you better have them involved every step of the way. And don’t you dare “pink it and shrink it”. This is offensive to both men and women.
7- Make us proud
I cannot stress this enough. For centuries we have been told that we are weak, dumb, emotional objects — you name it. We’ve been told that our sex defines who we’ll always be and that we could never be great like men. So when Diana is told she can’t cross “No Man’s Land,” we feel her. But when she goes through with it (after all, she is no man), dodging thousands of bullets like a warrior, we can’t help but feel pretty darn proud. It was a deep, visceral pride that took many of us to tears (many, many of us). It was the same pride that made that little girl feel like she owned that mall.
You know where that feeling comes from? Our gut. Something deep inside telling us this feels right. And even though she’s a fictional demi-god, we saw ourselves in her and felt inspired by her power. So brands, take a page out of the Patty Jenkins book. Whether it is radio spot, a 30-second Hulu ad, or a billboard on the side of the highway, you have the duty to portray people in ways that will have a positive impact on society. And Wonder Woman nailed it.
