IPSOS and Effies Report Says It’s Time for Marketers to Tackle the Rise of Toxic Masculinity

It’s time for marketers to tackle the rise of toxic masculinity by ensuring more positive and progressive male portrayals in marketing, according to ‘Duty of Care’ – a new report from Effie UK and Ipsos which highlights the positive impact this would have both on society and brand owners’ bottom line.

Published amid the debate about toxic attitudes and behaviours stereotypically associated with or expected of men, the report highlights three principles that should shape marketers’ gender portrayal: do no harm, glamourise empathy, and be true to your brand.

‘Duty of Care’ takes as its starting point the role marketing has had over many years in reinforcing gendered codes – 'empathy', 'kindness' and 'collaboration' being feminine qualities, for example, while 'strength', 'drive' and 'ambition' are masculine.

It explores the power of progressive male portrayal to drive advertising effectiveness, drawing on Ipsos’ on-going study of people’s responses to gender portrayal in ads. 'Empathy' and 'fit' with the brand have previously been proven by Ipsos to be key success factors alongside creativity for maximising ad effectiveness.

Ads that score high vs. low on Ipsos’ Gender Equality Measure (GEMTM) Index when it comes to positive masculine gender portrayal – demonstrating 'empathy' and 'fit', for example – were +37% stronger on measures of sales lift and were also more believable, informative and relevant, Ipsos found.

Ads scoring poorly on the GEMTMIndex, meanwhile, tended to portray expressionless or unengaged males, creating a sense of 'empty coolness'.

The report also unpacks what “positive and progressive male portrayal” looks like, analysing and extracting lessons from winning cases from 2024’s Effie Awards UK that powerfully illustrate the variety of shapes different representations of progressive masculinity can take.

Depictions of 'care' and 'joy', for example, were common themes among the positive portrayals of masculinity analysed.

The ‘Duty of Care’ report ends by detailing three important principles all marketers should consider moving forward to ensure more positive and progressive male portrayals in their marketing.

The report’s author, Samira Brophy, senior creative excellence director at Ipsos, said, “There is a vacuum in the marketing industry’s duty of care to young men and boys.

“However, this is also an opportunity for marketers and the ad industry – to create benefit through positive male role models and to prevent bad actors from occupying the advertising landscape.

“The time has come to de-gender positive attributes such as empathy, kindness and collaboration and hero them to men as well as women as aspirational. If kindness isn’t cool, no-one wins.”

Rachel Emms, managing director at Effie UK, said, “Marketing reflects and helps shape social attitudes – it always has – and its potential to help counter stereotypes is a logical extension of this.

“Current concerns about toxic masculinity and the demonstrably positive impact authentic gender representation has on sales means it’s never been more important for brands to address masculine representation.”

View the report here.