Our family through the eyes of advertising

Somewhere adorable kids, like Christmas angels, have disappeared from TV commercials. Now literally the whole world satisfies the needs of demanding children (all the best for them), and they themselves have become the leaders of their parents and direct the life of the family. What about their mothers? These are no longer cute caring fairies, but emancipated business women who manage to do everything. The fathers switched roles with them: they are infantile, like teenagers, and the teenagers themselves give the impression of aliens who do not know how to express their desires, but are ready for a lot for the company. Their grandparents are by no means gray-haired patriarchal heads of the clan – athletic and active, they communicate with their grandchildren on an equal footing.

Sociologists calculated that 14,5% of commercials* use scenes from family life on Russian television. These stories are remembered for a long time – everyone remembers the serial story of the family reunion “Aunt Asya has arrived!” or the enrichment of Leni Golubkov and his relatives. What does TV advertising say about our families? The cult of the child-king, the confusion of roles, the crisis of paternal power… The language of advertising is deciphered for us by experts – a specialist in psychodiagnostics and personality psychology Sergei Pantileev and psychoanalyst Svetlana Fedorova.

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* According to a survey by the Institute for Demographic Research (demographia.ru), February 2010.

parent child

In advertising, children speak like adults. They know everything about everything and become the main controllers of the quality of products. A 5–6-year-old blond kid instructively explains to parents that it is time to drink the probiotic fermented milk product Actimel, which strengthens the immune system. And the advertising campaign of Rosneft (as a sponsor of the 2014 Olympics) has become a symbol of the children’s cult. In it, very young children demand only “gold” for themselves – that is, all the best, high-quality, prestigious. “The master child is the most universal image of the modern consumer society,” states Svetlana Fedorova. – He is insatiable, demanding, and all his needs are immediately satisfied. Such relationships correspond to the earliest stage of personality development: the baby cries, as soon as he wants something, and the mother immediately hurries to fulfill his desire. It is at this time that the child has the illusion that he rules the world – and he is the whole world. As adults, we often yearn for this lost paradise and dream of returning to it, trying on the image of a baby. But still we understand that this return is impossible, therefore, overly demanding and stubborn kids from commercials sometimes annoy us.

In addition, children in advertising are increasingly changing roles with their parents. They advise what is better to choose, take care of adults. And it is no longer the mother who treats her daughter with Rossiya chocolate, but she is ready to share something tasty and uplifting with her. “Advertising notices everything new in our life, including changes in relations between people,” Sergei Pantileev reflects. – By repeating these life stories, advertisements shown hundreds of times on TV turn them into stereotypes of behavior. And we involuntarily begin to look at life through them.” In a certain sense, it is thanks to advertising that a family begins to seem the norm of life, in which the child is both the ruler, and the controller, and its head.

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Teenage Father

Increasingly, in television advertising, the image of the dad is a klutz. His children compete with him as a peer and often win. In the My Family juice advertisement, the girl Diana frankly commands her father. What is her famous appeal: “And you pour it and move away!” The same mood in the popular Ostankino sausage video (“Daddy can, daddy can”), where the father is not even in the frame, but both the teacher and the audience understand that the author of the giant sandwich has a remote idea not only about school breakfasts, but also about what his daughter needs. How does this compare with reality?

“Traditionally, in most families, shopping decisions are made by women,” Sergey Pantileev explains. – Therefore, many men can afford to behave like teenagers and not be responsible for many things in their family. This blurring of family and gender roles occurs in advertising and in real life.” But to keep the energy of a teenager in yourself – is it really that bad? “In each of us lives a childish “I”, capable of fantasizing, playing and creating,” says Svetlana Fedorova. “This is no longer an insatiable infant, but a child who enjoys interacting with other people, but can afford not to be fully responsible for what he does.” However, the character who takes away Anna Semenovich on a motorcycle in the TV commercial of the Tongkat Ali Platinum drug does not give the impression of being undersized. Where a man acts outside the family, he turns into an adult. What is this if not a reflection of socio-cultural needs: a man at home is an infant; in society – macho, leader and careerist!

Mother father

She performs her duties equally well at the stove and at work, maintains her beauty with Biotherm, Dior or Guerlain, drives confidently and, no matter how hurricane winds she finds herself, never comes to the board of directors with disheveled hair. “This image is now popular all over the world,” notes Svetlana Fedorova. – And especially in Russia, which foreign psychologists call the “country of nesting dolls” – for the widespread family structure in which there are no adult men (grandmother, mother, child). Yes, there are women who seek to wield male power. For other women, this is a forced role, because the more male babies and adolescent males, the more responsibility they have to take on next to them. Paradoxically, but true: the same women from TV commercials can be weak. They seem to be tired of entering a burning hut, stopping horses, building the Dneproges and conquering space. They need help. This image is actively exploited, for example, in advertisements for cleaning products. Finally, the eldest son of Masha Shukshina is appointed “chief on the plates” and washes dishes with the help of AOS, and Mr. Proper, who appears by magic, is just the embodiment of any woman’s dream of a strong male shoulder. Although in life it is still a woman who has to wash the floor and bring the kitchen to a shine.

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Teen Alien

The image of a teenager is exploited by advertisers where mass character is needed and goods are not too expensive (you can ask your parents for money). But these are necessarily technical innovations and, in general, everything that was released just yesterday and attracts with novelty – mobile phones, tablets, gadgets. In the commercials of Beeline and MTS, teenagers rush about in a crowd, fly on a skateboard, skillfully roller skate – in general, they demonstrate their readiness to join the proposed novelties together with their friends. “For the company”, “do not fight back from the pack” – these are the main motivations for the behavior of adolescents. If everyone buys a phone of a certain brand, then a teenager will demand the same for himself, – Sergey Pantileev explains. “The advertisers reproduce this feature of their behavior and, again (as in the situation with young children), they make it a stereotype.”

Teenagers in commercials almost never say what exactly they need, the announcer does it for them behind the scenes, as, for example, in the Beeline mobile Internet ad: “Let others live by the rules and save every megabyte. Get online freedom with the Beeline GO tariff! It seems that teenagers do not have their own desires. Or are there too many to briefly describe them?

Grandma and Grandpa are comrades

The times of gray-haired grandmothers, “discharged” from the village to look after their grandchildren, have irrevocably passed – only an understanding look and a caring smile remain. “Advertising is trying to play on the desire of modern women and men not to age,” Sergei Pantileev captures the trend. “Grandparents are no longer nannies to their grandchildren, but their comrades, they actively spend time together while their parents are busy with work.” If the grandfather in the Fastum Gel commercial needs painkillers, it’s because he’s overdoing his roller skating.

An exception to the rule is the image of a patriarchal grandmother in the advertising of dairy products “House in the Village”, but she also talks quite modernly about the benefits of organic food. “The older generation of the family is traditionally called upon to unite it,” says Svetlana Fedorova. – Having experienced a lot, grandparents had the opportunity to overcome their conflicts. And if they succeed, they can really become senior comrades to their grandchildren – in this sense, the advertising message is not at odds with life.