Ever wondered why brands prefer a particular gender to endorse their products? Most advertisements of yogurt and other health-conscious food products show a fit female relaxingly eating. On the other hand, fast food advertisements show a hunky male devouring a burger or nachos without a care in the world. In a study conducted, it was actually found out that socio-cultural influences can affect food choices between men and women and manufacturers deliberately package their products in a sexist way.
In a report published by Time, a study entitled "MACHO NACHOS: The implicit effects of gendered food packaging on preferences for healthy and unhealthy food" and published in the journal Social Psychology, suggests that the gendered way a product is packaged may affect how people think and taste. Lead researcher Luke Zhu and assistant professor of Business Administration at the University of Manitoba in Canada, said "There's a cultural stereotype that women tend to eat more healthfully than men." Eating a salad is "what society thinks women should do," Zhu says, whilecraving for a cheeseburger is masculine.
Zhu and his team asked 93 adults which food they considered masculine and feminine: baked chicken versus fried chicken, baked potatoes versus French fries, light potato chips versus regular potato chips and baked fish versus fried fish. The results show that the unhealthier options were masculine and healthier options more feminine. Ultimately, there is a link to food and gender perception.
The next part of the study showed the participants mini blueberry muffins packaged in different ways. There's one packaged in feminine way with an image of a ballerina and word "healthy" emblazoned on the package. The other one is packaged in a masculine way with pictures of men playing football and word "mega" used. The researchers mixed the images and words to confuse the participants but they also prepared gender-neutral packaged muffins.
The team found out that participants do not respond positively on mixed-up signals. Food with mixed-gender marketing was reported tasting bad even though the muffins were all the same.
"With packaging, we expect healthy eating to be associated with femininity," Zhu says. "But what if healthy food is packaged in masculine packaging? That's an expectation violation." It is similar with the idea on how organic food is packaged compared to junk food. Often, organic products are packaged in green with plants and soothing graphics while junk foods are packaged in loud crinkly colourful stuff.
This simply means that advertisers and food manufacturers have conditioned our minds successfully in labelling food products. "For marketers, there's a pretty clear implication that you want to frame the product consistently with the cultural, primed gender stereotype," Zhu says. This packaging may even have public health implications: "We should try to cue femininity in packaging for healthy food," he says.
