For decades, an individual’s generation has acted as a relatively strong predictor of their social and political views. If a well-known quote, often misattributed to Winston Churchill, is to be believed, people are expected to be more liberal in their younger days, before gradually turning more conservative as they get older.
Recent years have seen a substantial challenge to this conventional wisdom. While young women express strongly progressive views, the gap to their male counterparts is widening. According to analysis from the FT, a wide ideology gap is emerging between Gen Z men and women globally. This shift in beliefs among younger men is evident in more than just exit polls.
According to Kantar TGI data, the proportion of men aged 15-24 who take regressive viewpoints towards women is growing year-on-year. While over 80% of adults and 70% of men in Britain believe that ‘women are just as capable as men at being leaders’, the proportion of 15-24-year-old men who share this sentiment has fallen by over 30 % points in just five years.
There is no single cause behind this trend, nor is there an easy solution. Nonetheless, media has a vital role to play in instilling positive attitudes in young men. Here are three ways brands can do their bit.
Relatable Role Models:
As the media landscape has grown increasingly fragmented, young men have turned to influencers including Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan to fill the void left by traditional media.
These creators have amassed audiences that are overwhelmingly male, with over 80% of listeners to – and 90% of guests on – the Joe Rogan Experience estimated to be male. This lack of diverse viewpoints creates the perfect conditions for ‘callous, manipulative and toxic influencers’ to prosper, according to the former England Men’s manager, Gareth Southgate. Advertising wields enormous power to spotlight emerging content creators to a wider audience. By collaborating with influencers to whom young men can relate, brands can facilitate authentic, open discussion about the role of young men and women in society.
Making Representation Seamless:
In a world in which terms including ‘woke’ have become commonplace in young men’s online discourse, media has a major role to play in making representation the norm once more. Indeed, many of the campaigns most successful at driving attitudinal shifts were those which made inclusion feel seamless – such as Dove’s iconic Campaign for Real Beauty, or Always changing the colour of period blood in its ads from blue to red.
For brands to be successful in reinforcing positive attitudes among Gen Z men towards women, themes ranging from stay-at-home male parents to women in senior leadership roles should feel ubiquitous – not as a gimmicky campaign designed to drive sales.
Redefining Brand Safety:
Due to the perceived proliferation of negative content on platforms, many high-profile brands have pulled advertising from the very places most appealing to Gen Z men. While brands are right to be wary about appearing next to hateful content, sweeping block lists mean that impactful, inclusive campaigns risk missing the very demographic most in need of influence.
Adam Foley, CEO of Bountiful Cow, warns against the ‘utterly ruinous’ potential for keyword lists to block ads from otherwise harmless content. If media is to do its bit in reversing regressive attitudes among young men, brands need to engage with audiences in the spaces they call home – or risk their messaging missing an entire generation.
