Bibliography

Bibliography

Books and Journals

Ambrose, G. and Harris, P. (2017) Packaging the Brand: The Relationship Between Packaging. Worthing: AVA Publishing.

Andreasen, A. (2001) Ethics in social marketing. Washington: Georgetown University Press.

Arnold, C. (2009) Ethical and the new consumer. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Coltrane, S. and Adams, M. (2008) Gender and Families. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Dines, G. and Humez, J. (2003) Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. 

California: SAGE.

Dyer, G. (2008) Advertising as Communication. Abingdon: Routledge.

Helgeson, V.S. (2016) Psychology of Gender: Fifth Edition. Abingdon: Routledge.

Kirkham, P. (1996) The Gendered Object. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Klein, N. (2001) No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs. New York: HarperCollins.

Murphy, M. & Ribarsky, E. (2013) Activities for Teaching Gender and Sexuality in the University Classroom. Maryland: R&L Education.

Shaughnessy, A. & Bierut, M. (2009) Graphic Design: A User’s Manual. London: Laurence King.

Slachmuijlder, L. (2000) Gender Representations in Advertising: No Time for Change?, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity. (Volume 44) [Online] Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4066440 [Date accessed October 26th 2017].

Websites

Aesop. (2017) Aesop website. Available at: https://www.aesop.com/uk [Date accessed January 11th 2018].

Brand Packaging. (2014) Consumer Insight - March 2014. Available at: https://www.brandpackaging.com/Consumer-Insight-March-2014 [Date accessed September 23^rd 2017]

Brown, S. (2017) [Twitter] 7, October. Available at: https://twitter.com/SelinaNBrown/status/916804739014197253?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F [Date accessed 15^th November 2017]

SAMFARMER. (2012) SAMFARMER website. Available at: http://www.samfarmer.co/ [Date accessed November 25th 2017]

Fury, A. (2016) Men’s Grooming is now a Multi-billion Pound Worldwide Industry. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/mens-grooming-is-now-a-multi-billion-pound-worldwide-industry-a6813196.html. [Date accessed November 22nd 2017]

Gargini, G. (2017) A Q&A WITH THE ORDINARY FOUNDER BRANDON TRUAXE. Available at: https://www.fenwick.co.uk/daily-muse/articles/a-q-and-a-with-the-ordinary-founder-brandon-truaxe. [Date accessed November 27th 2017]

Hosie, R. (2017) Why Millennials are rejecting patronising packaging and opting for gender neutral toiletries. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/millennials-rejecting-patronising-packaging-gender-neutral-toiletries-discrimination-razors-hair-a7802836.html [Date accessed October 17th 2017].

Imafidon, K. (2017) If we young people vote, British politics can be transformed. Available at:  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/22/young-people-vote-british-politics-parties [Date accessed November 15th 2017].

Kang, B. (2017) Dove’s apology for its Facebook advert is insulting to people of colour – ‘sorry you’re offended’ really isn’t enough. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/dove-racist-advert-facebook-apology-racism-colourism-makeup-beauty-products-a7988961.html [Date accessed November 15th 2017].

Krause, R. (2017) The Coolest New Skin-Care Brands You Haven't Heard Of Yet. Available at: http://www.refinery29.com/2017/06/159512/new-skin-care-products-june-2017 [Date accessed October 17th 2017].

Ranscombe, S. (2016) 30% of British people share skincare with their partners - so which products work for both sexes? Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/skin/30-of-british-people-share-skincare-with-their-partners---so-whi/ [Date accessed November 28th 2017].

The Ordinary. (2017) The Ordinary website. Available at: http://theordinary.com/ [Date accessed January 11th 2018].

Thompson, G. (2017) Gender-less or Gender-more? Addressing gender in product branding. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/gender-in-design-130917 [Date accessed October 17th 2017].

Tsjeng, Z. (2014) WHY WE'RE GIVING THREE GENDER-NEUTRAL CHEERS FOR UNISEX COSMETICS. Available at: http://www.thedebrief.co.uk/style/fashion/why-we-re-giving-three-gender-neutral-cheers-for-unisex-cosmetics-20141227679 [Date accessed October 17th 2017].

Case Study: Aēsop

Aēsop was founded in Melbourne in 1987 and is now a worldwide brand. They offer luxury products for beauty, haircare and toiletries. They use the finest ingredients to make sure that their consumer gets the best experience and result from their skincare.

They design their products with a modernist approach and all their stores are unique where they make sure that their consumers have an exclusive and one-of-a-kind experience.

Case study: SAMFARMER

Sam Farmer created his own brand that is targeted at teenagers of all genders. He said that after trying to find products (deodorant) for his children to use, he was appalled by the heavily gendered products and the connotation behind the use/ideals of the product. He didn't think it was right that young teenagers have to buy a product that would have sexual/stereotypical messages.

SAMFARMER's skincare range is very basic and offers a standard product for everyone to use.

Case Study: The Ordinary Skincare

The Ordinary is owned by a larger company, DECIEM, which also specialises in health and beauty. They have their own in-house lab which allows them to test and develop products for their other brands and range. The brand was created to help ordinary people develop their skincare routine by using ingredients to target skin concerns at a low cost. They usually use ingredients that are non-harmful and do not use potentially harmful ingredients that may be found in other skincare brands.

They do not test on animals and try to be as ethical as possible in their brand and in their products.

The Ordinary have become a brand to watch out for as they have affordable and good quality ingredients. They have been mentioned numerous time by bloggers, in magazine and articles. They have also accumulated 12 awards so far for their products.

Triangulation

The changing society (in the UK) has allowed non-binary genders to live freely and openly where they are more accepted. There is still a long way to go in terms of getting rid/blurring the stereotypes but it is an issue that younger people in society are trying to eradicate. Especially now, there are a lot of movements, protests, people speaking out about gender stereotyping as we fight to be seen as equals in society.

Triangulation

The younger generation have been born into a more accepting society and therefore they hold different values and ethics than the generation before them. This means they are less impacted by traditional gender stereotypes. Non-binary designer Kate Moross said in an interview with ‘It’s Nice That’; 

‘“There’s so many different types of expression that those things aren’t necessarily grouped into subcultures or countercultures anymore”’ (Moross cited Thompson, 2017);

Moross continues to say that people’s views are changing and are moving towards a more diverse outlook on ethical issues. The younger generation are more aware and involved with politics that outline the key issues of society and ethics and raises issues such as discrimination and prejudice. Moross also says that designers and brands are in a key position where they have the power to lead the changing ethics of society. An article published by The Guardian supports Moross’ viewpoints on the political stance of younger generation which says;

‘Whether you realise it or not, young people are not disengaged from politics…We have opinions about the country and the world we live in, and we know what we’d like to see done about it. We are getting involved in campaigns, whether they’re for gender equality, affordable housing or criminal justice reform. We are creating social enterprises to tackle the issues facing our communities and wider society. Youth activism over the past two years has shown that there is an appetite for social change among our generation.’ (Imafidon, 2017);

Like many, more and more people want a change to happen and are ready for everyone to be and feel accepted in society and not be categorised by a certain aspect of themselves. Slachmuijlder, agreeing with Moross and Irmafidon says that we should; 

‘Value gender-sensitivity and include gender sensitisation within the curriculum of the education and training.’  (Slachmuijlder, 2000, p.g. 100) By educating, acknowledging and accepting that the world is changing and new beliefs are expanding, it would teach people that we need to be unbiased and willing to embrace new ways of thinking. 

Case Study: Lush

Lush is a brand that is known predominantly for their good ethical concerns and practice in their products. Their practice is to be honest, supports fair trade, cruelty-free, gender-neutral, sustainable and use fresh products.

Lush actively campaign and protest against ethical issues, sometimes controversially. One campaign against animal testing involved displaying naked volunteers in an existing popular Lush shop window and showed what happens to animals during testing.

As my Critical Writing piece focuses on gender-neutral packaging, I had emailed to ask more about their ethics concerning their packaging. The simplicity and monotone of their packaging appears to be and/or support gender-neutrality as it does not conform to gender stereotypes.

Their response was:

'At Lush our packaging is gender neutral as all of our products are gender neutral, none of them are targeted specifically to men or women or certain demographics. Certain products may be slightly more useful for people of one gender than another but they are there for everyone to use. So no this is not to conform with social issues (although we are glad to see that other companies are finally starting to recognise this as a current social issue). This is something that has been one of our policies since the company was founded. So they are a result of the ethics behind the brand yes, as we believe everyone (no matter of gender, race, culture etc.) should be able to use our products.

So every year at Lush we partner with/run various campaigns to tackle ethical issues across the globe. So currently we have partnered with Humane Society International to tackle the use of real fur in the clothing industry that is incorrectly labelled as fake fur. As this is quite a topical issue that we want to clamp down on. We also link some of our products with fighting ethical issues, for example with our Charity Pot body lotion, all of the proceeds from this go to small grassroot organisations across the world. Then our 'New' shampoo bar has a set of hashtags on that we use to in online petitions to get involved with the conversation of being 'Cruelty Free'. See more about some of our campaigns below: 

https://uk.lush.com/tag/campaigns.'

In-store research

Apart from Lush's limited Christmas collection packaging, all of their in-store labels, packaging and 

products are gender-neutral. They use simplistic, monochrome, standard packaging to promote and display their products.