For some years, various children's product companies, such as clothing or toys, have launched advertising campaigns that seek to eliminate gender stereotypes. In the case of toys, it has become more than clear on multiple occasions that they are neither boys nor girls: they are only toys.
However, it seems that Carrefour was not aware of this, because has placed sexist advertising in some of its stores, an error that they had to rectify after the avalanche of criticism received on social networks.
This event has occurred in Argentina, where Children's Day is celebrated on August 19, which is why they launched a campaign promoting the toy area. But something has failed them, and in large: its advertising is sexist and shows clear gender stereotypes.
"With 'C' of Cook", puts one of the images that promotes the toys that Carrefour points out are for girls, while in the children's we read"With Champion 'C'"And as if that is not enough, under that publicity we see the toys that Carrefour says correspond to boys (cars) and those that correspond to girls (dolls).
The people of @carrefourarg behind. For them the boys are champions and the girls cook. pic.twitter.com/iqT1ccyMQW
- JORGE RIAL (@rialjorge) July 31, 2018
Other phrases of the same campaign are "With Coquette C" Y "With C of Constructor", and we can see them in the photographs of this advertisement, which is found in some of the Carrefour Argentina branches and that they started circulating on Twitter, where users criticized the company's big mistake.
Carrefour stayed in the middle ages. pic.twitter.com/Le2T5QXL3I
- Gabriel Gonzalo (@Gabycasla) July 31, 2018
With phrases like "machismo at its best" Y "With V shame for sexist advertising", thousands of users on Twitter they demanded that the company rectify their mistake, apologize and immediately remove the publicity, which reinforces gender stereotypes.
And after receiving that avalanche of criticism and requests for the company to eliminate these images, from the Carrefour Argentina Twitter account they began to respond to some of the users:
We apologize for the campaign that is in some of our branches. It has been a mistake and in no way represents what our company thinks and does in terms of diversity. We are already removing the images from our stores.
- Carrefour Argentina (@carrefourarg) July 31, 2018
But the apology has not been enough, since as many point out, advertising has not come out "by mistake", it is well known that any campaign goes through several filters and requires various approvals, so It is even more unacceptable that during the process nobody would notice how bad it was before publishing it.
The intention of the campaign was to match the initial Carrefour, hence the advertising indicated "With 'C' of ...", but come on, Can girls not be champions and boys can't be chefs or cooks? In addition, there is a huge list of professions or qualities that also start with 'C' and that they could use.
And why has so much scandal been generated by this? Why It is a campaign that clearly strengthens and keeps gender stereotypes in force, same that are conditioning and limiting children from small on what they can or cannot do. And society is increasingly aware of this and therefore reproves that there is still this type of advertising that falls into machismo and sexism.
Let us remember something: children see and hear everything we tell them, and the way in which we give them a message can condition their thinking and the abilities he will believe he has about himself. Girls can be accountants, boys can be chefs, girls can be soccer players, boys can be dancers. Actually, Any of them can be whatever you want to be. No conditions, no stereotypes, no prejudices.
Thanks to the speed with which people have denounced advertising, Carrefour has done well to rectify and eliminate this sexist advertising of its stores in Argentina. Hopefully this experience serves other companies and it is clear to you the following: we no longer want stereotypes for our children.
