From Yorkie’s infamous “not for girls” campaign to Bic’s pink pens “for her”, gendered products have been a marketing mainstay and stirred controversy for decades – but times are changing.
Kleenex has just announced it’ll be phasing out its “Mansize tissues”, renaming the product “Extra Large tissues” following “growing public demand” to ditch the gendered branding. The tissues, first launched back in 1956, remain one of the brand’s best-selling products.
Meanwhile Waitrose has conceded a name change for its Gentleman’s Smoked Chicken Caesar Roll after it was called “sexist” on Twitter.
Amy Lamé, Sadiq Khan’s London night Czar, posted a photo of the product saying “I never knew sandwiches were gender specific” and tagged campaign group Everyday Sexism.
Many on Twitter pointed out that the sandwich is named as such because it contains an anchovy mayonnaise, similar to the traditional ‘Gentleman’s Relish’ condiment, but the supermarket said it will change the name nonetheless.
“It’s never our intention to cause offence,” Waitrose said in a statement. “We’re not dictating who should eat this sandwich. We hope anyone who tries it will love the distinctive flavours. However, we are planning to change the name soon.”
Similarly Kimberly-Clark, the company behind Kleenex, told The Telegraph it had received “a consistent increase of complaints on gender concern”.
“Kimberly-Clark in no way suggests that being both soft and strong is an exclusively masculine trait, nor do we believe that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality,” a spokesperson added.
“Nevertheless, as we remain committed to developing the best possible products for our consumers and take any feedback extremely seriously, we decided to renovate our current product and update the product subbrand as Kleenex Extra Large.”
That’s not to say all gendered products have been removed from supermarket shelves. Walk down any toiletries aisle and you’ll be met with a number of black, blue and navy products boldly marked “for men”. They’ll probably throw in the word “energising” for good measure, because men would never be seen to buy a woman’s “soothing” product, apparently.
Meanwhile old habits seem to die hard for Yorkie. The brand may have ditched its “not for girls” slogan on standard Yorkie bars, but Yorkie Mansize Buttons are still listed among current products on its website.
Sam Smethers, chief executive at women’s rights charity The Fawcett Society says progress has been made, but we still have a long way to go before sexist advertising is a distant memory.
“Rebranding mansized tissues is not to be sneezed at,” she said. “It matters because throughout marketing and advertising, we use lazy gender stereotypes to sell products and convey messages which reinforce those stereotypes, such as strength for men and weakness for women, or we find women’s bodies used and objectified.
“Removing sexist branding such as this is just sensible 21st-century marketing. But we still have a long way to go before using lazy stereotypes to sell products is a thing of the past.