Advertising, marketing and video-games: Inclusiviness, diversity and stereotypes

Abstract

Over the last years, several social and legal policies have been developed with the aim of promoting equality and diversity. Despite the positive achievements, there are areas in which these regulations are not fully applied. Conversely, they are usually influenced by financial principles seeking for the greatest benefit. Two examples of this issue are marketing and the movie industry. With the aim of increasing sales, publicists generate idealised worlds based on stereotypes that do not accurately represent the reality of most of the users. On the contrary, they create an alternative reality we should aim for as an example of success. In this context, the representation of females in publicity and in media is one of the most frequent decoys. The distortion on the representation of women in publicity and in the media entails perceptive biases, transferring stereotypes and prejudices that transposes from publicity to reality. Similarly, certain groups (v. gr., Elder people, racial and ethnicity, LGBTI, functional diversity) are underrepresented in the media, which restricts the cognitive schemes of the general population and distorts the self-perception of the people conforming these groups due to the lack of referents. This study analyses the representation of reality in the cognitive schemes of consumers from the psychological perspective, as well as the necessity of advocating for good practices focused on the social responsibility underlying publicity and media.