One of the problems of the modern world is the effect consumerism and marketing has on people. This is particularly noticeable when you look at gender roles. There seems to be a standardised set of guidelines dictating who appears in what advertisements. These are often set to either be attractive to the intended market, or for the intended market to identify with the person in the advertisement. This has larger societal issues. If you look at any cleaning products being advertised you are sure to see talk of “Mums” and women. Men are seemingly incompetent at cleaning and general household tasks, implying they are dirty and live in squalor or at the very least need a “good woman” to take care of them.
The advertising gap can also be seen with beauty and healthcare products. Rarely do healthcare products advertisements feature men. There are even less beauty orientated advertisements aimed at men: razors, shaving gel and spraying after shave seems to be the limit of what men do for themselves. If you look at prime time television slots you will see never ending stream of advertisements targeting the beauty and attractiveness of women. Seemingly men don’t or shouldn’t care about their appearance and women do or should. This has had serious effects on women’s confidence and men’s idea of healthcare. And one area this can be seen with is in dental healthcare.
Quite a lot of advertising of dental healthcare products are created with beauty in mind. Of course everyone featured has perfect teeth, a smiling mother who has probably never drank a coffee in her life, and smiling children who wouldn’t be allowed a glass of Coca Cola. (And heavy use of Photoshop.)
Advertising only plays a small part in a larger and more complex system. The general attitude is that it is unmanly to care about appearance and it is unmanly to care about health. Men are supposed to be rugged and tough, while women are supposed to be caring and pretty. While this notion seems ridiculous to anyone who thinks about it for more than a second it still holds some weight and has an influence on society.
The reality is that teeth are important. They are vital to your continuing health and of course they are important for appearance. The problem is that women seem to care more about their dental health than men and this is quite dangerous. Dental health is important for everyone, and society as a whole has failed if men think looking after their teeth is a low priority or unmanly.
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