Sunday, May 16, 2010

UN begs advertisers to use superpowers for good, not evil

Communications and Public Information Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kiyo Akasaka, has urged advertising companies to "defy" damaging and negative stereotypes of women to counter the violence, low self-esteem and abuse that poor standards and exploitation in advertising cause.

Destructive gender stereotypes are a cause of gender violence and, "one of the most pervasive and brutish challenges of our time, one that affects all people, everywhere."

Last week at the Moscow gathering for the International Advertising Association(IAA), he emphasised that the ‘Hopenhagen’ campaign, which he is primarily attributed as prompting, showed the capacity for advertisers to promote critical global issues.

Advertisers have an “immense power of persuasion” to act as a “driver of change for a better world,” he said, “imagine what you could do by combining your ideas, technology and entrepreneurship to the mission of eliminating violence against women.”

He said limited and one-dimensional gender portrayals in mass media are responsible for perpetuating negative assumptions about the roles of men and women and that gender discrimination is exacerbated by negative stereotyping, including the depiction of women as sex objects.

"For women and girls, this is a struggle not to be assaulted, raped, molested or forced into the commercial sex trade." He said up to 70% of women experience violence in their lifetime, however, given that most violence is unreported, that figure would be a gross underestimate.

“Violence against women is the most common, most shameful and least punished crime in the world,” and eliminating it would promote sustainable development, economic growth and peace.

The UN currently have a campaign called UNiTE, to End Violence against Women, which seeks to raise public awareness and generate political will. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has also established a 'network of men leaders' - eg. former politicians, activists, religious and community figures – including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to combat gender-based violence which he has said is a "global pandemic."



The message comes at a time when governments are attempting to restrict the adult  content being placed on existing but outdated legitimate sites, mostly by pornography companies in Eastern block countries.

Offensive overseas internet content that falls outside of acceptable advertising and content standards in Australia, is unrestricted due to current laws not dealing with the global nature of the internet.

The federal and state governments also need to apply a whole-of-government approach to "people smuggling" that includes raising awareness among small state government agencies and private sector proprietors about how to identify vulnerable young people who may have been subject to sex trafficking.

In some regions of Australia, illegal brothels are a boom industry as a result of systemic police corruption, that renders current laws nothing but lip service and the promise of stricter laws, just a red herring.

A blind eye by newspapers to the exploitative and expansive sex industry advertising in these regions of Australia, would suggest that media conglomerates also need to heed Under-Secretary's message and begin taking responsibility for the blatant exploitation they profit from.

One needs to go no further than the evening free-to-air tv in the sanctity of one's own loungeroom, before encountering advertisements luring Average Joe in for a sexual encounter with groups of young Russian women in sexually provocative poses and situations.

That particular television advertisement is aired in the 12-2am time slot, in addition to those featuring a myriad of other young women(only women), and it would appear Australian commercial television stations have no ethical or legal obligation to provide advertising that is not sexually exploitative, discriminatory or demeaning.  If they do, then scrutiny of such content is not a priority for Australian media watchdogs.

Without the grand gestures by the federal government to pour funds into high-level federal operations, better scrutiny of the sex trade at a mere local level, would reveal many of the victims of "advertising" that Mr Akasaka is campaigning for.

Last year's Senate Inquiry into the Sexualization of Children in the Contemporary Media Environment brought into focus the impact of advertising on young people and really noted the opposition to advertising portraying images not only about children, but also images that might influence impressionable children and youth.

Recommendation 12 specifically acknowledged the reach of advertising beyond set time slots and programing blocks, to things like billboards and other means of advertising that are impossible for a parent to prevent a child coming into contact with.

It's clear that children and young people are an absorbent audience to online networking with its ever-present pop-ups and sponsored links. Trends in marketing are also encouraging popular music videos featuring porn stars, and glamorous advertising that is aimed at adults will inevitably appeal to adolescents as they begin to move into young adulthood.

If the Australian government are so keen on internet censorship for the reasons Senator Conroy has stated, why then is there so little scrutiny of the pervasive 24/7 "sex sells" marketing mindset that fuels our own advertising and media industries, and manipulates all of the community young and old via newspapers, sports, free-to-air tv and talkback and broadcast radio, from the moment we wake up to when we go to sleep?  ?