Gender and stereotypes in advertising : A critical discourse analysis of Gillette's commercials on YouTube

Gender and stereotypes in advertising is a critical discourse analysis aimed at studying how femininity and masculinity is portrayed in Gillette and Gillette Venus marketing on YouTube. Both brands have, after the #metoo campaign, opted to approach their marketing from different point of view since their previous advertising has been heavily criticized for endorsing negative gender stereotypes. The theoretical framework consists of commodity feminism, the male gaze, stereotyping and hegemonic masculinity. The material studied were three commercials taken from each brand’s YouTube channel since the change in marketing direction. The videos were posted in 2018-2019. The results show that although both brands have made a change in how they portray femininity and masculinity there are still sizeable differences in how women and men are approached as target groups