Representation Analysis

    Representation in media depends on the product that is being sold, as the representation reflects the audience, which in turn affects the product sales. Because brands aim to have the largest audience possible, their representation usually focuses on the audience of said product. This is often seen when products appeal to stereotypes that encompass their products, such as beauty products having mostly female representation, and power tools having mostly male representation. While it can be said that products play into stereotypes to keep their audience, it is obvious there is some input from management to keep it this way. However, some brands and companies have slowly started to move away from these stereotypes to become more "inclusive", but there still remains much work to be done. 

    This ad from Tide is a good example of brands playing into stereotypes, while also trying to be inclusive. The ad only has female representation, as the product is mostly bought and consumed by the same audience, female mothers with messy children. However, a tomboy daughter is included, both to appeal to mothers with tomboy daughters, while also appealing to mothers with messy sons. While the ad tries to be inclusive by including a smaller group, it still lacks in representation from other groups, such as people of color, or cleaner children. This limited representation leads to those outside of the target demographic to believe the product is not for them, leading to only a specific group of people buying or relating to the product.

    Every so often we may see an ad that includes much more representation, such as this ad for H&M. The diversity in this ad was much greater than in the previous, due to its message. The ad was to get people to recycle their clothes, so instead of appealing to a much more specific audience, it aimed to include as many people as possible. This type of tactic is also seen in other types of media, such as PSAs, which aim to address the largest group of people possible. When the focus of an ad is not to promote a product, but rather a cause or idea (which is not limited to a certain gender, race, age, sexual orientation, or social class), we end up with much more diversity.

    We can take many more examples from many different sources, but most will show the same thing. If there are specific products with specific audiences, then ads for said product will most likely reflect the audience, and maybe work on increasing the audience for the product. But if there is a much broader idea, such as a message that does not reflect one specific audience, then the representation will most likely be larger as well. 

    Ads can be very confusing as they all try different tactics at spreading products or ideas. However, it's the 21st century, and we need to start pushing for inclusivity. While some brands have started to work on including more and more people, they need to realize that appealing to these hyper-specific groups will only hurt their products by offending the ever growing minorities.