tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/sainsbury-22854/articlesSainsbury – The Conversation2018-05-03T10:53:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/959822018-05-03T10:53:26Z2018-05-03T10:53:26ZKarl Marx wouldn’t agree that worker power has been killed by the 21st century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217345/original/file-20180502-153895-1lo8if4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/germany-circa-1975-karl-marx-18181883-99218681?src=GA0u-MxgZ2P4Bpfanb4bfw-1-11">Georgios Kolidas</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is remarkable for an economic thinker and political activist that 200 years after their birth, millions are still avidly discussing their work. Yet Karl Marx’s <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/">Capital</a> continues to influence every new generation.</p>
<p>In an era of anti-globalisation protests and the <a href="http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine">movement</a> against the 1%, Marx’s analysis continues to be relevant – he explains how the capitalist system goes hand in hand with aggressive competition and innovation, and why this leads to poverty, crisis and eventually revolution. He brilliantly describes growing wealth, the worsening conditions of labour and the necessity for a different society. </p>
<p>These insights apply as much to the 21st century as the 19th. We see the same capitalist landscape of old incumbents constantly under pressure from new challengers – and also the same destructiveness. </p>
<p>Some political scientists <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674006713&content=reviews">argue that</a> the internet and particularly the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-idea-of-good-work-in-a-gig-economy-remains-a-distant-ideal-92117">gig economy</a> have fundamentally changed the nature of work. Capitalism has become so dominant over labour, they argue, that old bonds between workers such as class and solidarity are increasingly meaningless. </p>
<p>On this analysis, worker action and revolution are off the agenda. And jobs likely to get automated in future – that’s 80% of posts in transport, warehousing and retail logistics <a href="https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/view/2581">according to one prediction</a> – are seen as part of the same trend. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217482/original/file-20180503-153873-pth62v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217482/original/file-20180503-153873-pth62v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217482/original/file-20180503-153873-pth62v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217482/original/file-20180503-153873-pth62v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217482/original/file-20180503-153873-pth62v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217482/original/file-20180503-153873-pth62v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217482/original/file-20180503-153873-pth62v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217482/original/file-20180503-153873-pth62v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Master and servant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/human-business-robotic-hand-concept-robot-635324807?src=7xTDDwvhyU-WUninJoEOig-1-34">zenzen</a></span>
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<p>But Marx had a different perspective. Instead of thinking class solidarity would be destroyed in this way, he <a href="https://bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/view/38500/Deciphering+Capital%3A+Marx%27s+Capital+and+its+destiny">thought</a> capitalism recreated the relationship between labour and capital in ever deeper forms. <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/">Commenting on</a> how machinery being introduced in his era led to skilled jobs being replaced by unskilled ones, he said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The working class gains recruits from the higher strata of society: a mass of petty industrialists and small rentiers are hurled down into its ranks and have nothing better to do than urgently stretch out their arms alongside those of the workers. Thus a forest of uplifted arms demanding work becomes ever thicker, while the arms themselves become ever thinner.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Inherent instability</h2>
<p>For Marx, the very dynamism that saw capitalism expand also caused its downfall. Companies have no choice, he believed, but to compete with one another in a war for survival. They seek to defeat their rivals by lowering the prices of their goods – thus, for example, a computer today is far cheaper than it was yesterday. </p>
<p>But this means that there is a tendency towards a falling rate of profit for each player. To offset this and to make their goods even cheaper, the capitalists either become more concentrated through mergers and acquisitions, or by driving down wages through deskilling jobs and making people redundant. As Marx <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/">wrote</a>, it becomes a competition between “the generalists, the capitalists … as to who can discharge most soldiers of industry”. </p>
<p>And this, he thought, was the inherent problem. <a href="https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft367nb2h4;query=;brand=ucpress">Like</a> the classic economists of his time, Marx believed in a labour theory of value – the idea that the value of a product should be based on the amount of labour that has gone into it. The more the capitalists sought to protect their profitability, the more they undermined the value of the products they were creating with labour power. </p>
<p>The Sainsbury/ASDA merger is the perfect example. These two supermarkets’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/sainsburys-and-asda-merger-its-all-about-market-share-95822">motivation</a> is not the high levels of profits of both companies but the opposite – the squeeze on profits both companies face from Amazon on the one hand and low-cost retailers like Lidl and Aldi on the other. </p>
<p>As the battle for thinner and thinner profits wears on, Marx argued that the capitalists become ever more estranged from a burgeoning working class. The workers are both increasingly frustrated as jobs became more and more stultifying, and facing rising levels of unemployment. In time, competition to accumulate more wealth creates systemic crisis. </p>
<p>Companies like Deliveroo and Uber are not really a means of thwarting worker power at all – they <a href="https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/43275/Strikes+deliver+victory+and+show+speedy+action+works">just lead</a> to collective action by workers seeking to address the imbalance between capital and labour. </p>
<p>Marx therefore helps us make sense of modern power relations after all. Then, as now, there is no contradiction between capitalism and crisis: it is a process of historical development and economic transition within the system. </p>
<p>I would argue that the lasting legacy of Marx 200 years after his birth comes from the conclusion he and Friedrich Engels drew in their 1848 publication <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch04.htm">The Communist Manfesto</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of all countries unite.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Morelli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some say the gig economy is capitalism’s final victory, but maybe it’s not.Carlo Morelli, Senior Lecturer in Business and Economic History, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/727592017-02-10T12:16:41Z2017-02-10T12:16:41ZWaitrose banks on its middle-class base as supermarkets brace for tough times<p>You would probably expect a middle-aged, middle-class academic to do their shopping at Waitrose, and yes, I do. So there was disquiet in our household at the news that Waitrose is planning to close six stores potentially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/08/hundreds-of-waitrose-jobs-may-go-as-retailer-plans-six-store-closures">putting 600 jobs at risk</a>. Britain’s favourite upmarket supermarket is apparently reining in expansion, but why? By all accounts Waitrose had a reasonable Christmas with <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2819256/waitrose-to-axe-nearly-700-staff-and-close-at-least-five-stores-in-huge-shake-up/">sales up almost 5%</a>. </p>
<p>So what prompted this change of heart after considerable expansion over the last few years? There seem to be a lot of factors in the mix, including a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/20/waitrose-boss-rob-collins-affable-john-lewis-graduate-trainee">relatively new boss</a> – perhaps wanting to make his mark – and the introduction of the new minimum wage for over-25s. The company has denied that the latter had prompted it to <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/waitrose-cuts-overtime-and-sunday-pay-10248437">stop paying Sunday and overtime rates</a> to new shop workers. The company is also now operating in a deeply competitive environment – by which I mean there is just so much more choice of where to shop that perhaps we have reached saturation point in terms of how many supermarkets we actually need?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156222/original/image-20170209-28716-ig1uj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156222/original/image-20170209-28716-ig1uj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156222/original/image-20170209-28716-ig1uj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156222/original/image-20170209-28716-ig1uj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156222/original/image-20170209-28716-ig1uj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156222/original/image-20170209-28716-ig1uj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156222/original/image-20170209-28716-ig1uj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156222/original/image-20170209-28716-ig1uj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Harsh climate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/derpunk/3225388191/in/photolist-6VX622-F3aPQ-KYXfi-r7Ufmr-a88bZi-6kc5iS-3L1HVY-iyBXWe-hLPkcs-6apVnY-5V1Xxe-6akMo4-8iBQUt-rDAaSY-e2AXzq-8iF5ZN-5hWPj4-8iBQNM-DTVfp-5hWJQH-7GDqwE-sUxLe-WhY2e-8jzyCZ-adohJ-2woMTQ-nFuJB-e2AWKw-nFuCe-7B215-5Y7BkF-adof9-K9EPx8-nLHWms">Bruno Casonato/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<h2>German challengers</h2>
<p>Indeed Waitrose is not the first major retailer to reconsider store expansion. A couple of years ago <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/business/revealed-20-49-planned-tesco-4943747">Tesco started to rethink</a> its expansion plans and bailed out on some new stores. Sainsbury’s also announced that a large number of planned developments <a href="http://www.kentonline.co.uk/herne-bay/news/supermarket-pulls-plug-on-megastore-92199/">will not go ahead</a>; in both cases after prolonged planning battles. </p>
<p>Back in 2014 the previous <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2837110/Supermarkets-facing-closure-says-Waitrose-chief-Executive-predicts-bigger-stores-shut-doors-changes-way-customers-shop.html">chief executive of Waitrose had predicted</a> that there would be more large store closures. He argued that a rise in smaller stores and a move away from the single weekly shop revealed a change “as fundamental as supermarkets coming into the UK in the 1950s and reinventing what food shopping was all about”. </p>
<p>But this change is more than a cultural shift in how Britons shop. A more important factor is the acceptance of the German budget supermarkets Aldi and Lidl by all kinds of shopper. In the 12 weeks to January 29, 2017, Aldi had 6.2% <a href="http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/aldi-uks-5th-biggest-supermarket-lidls-not-far-behind/future-business/article/1386497">of the UK grocery market</a>. Lidl wasn’t far behind. Aldi is now Britain’s fifth biggest supermarket by market share, having overtaken the Co-op.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156223/original/image-20170209-8649-tt2bo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156223/original/image-20170209-8649-tt2bo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156223/original/image-20170209-8649-tt2bo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156223/original/image-20170209-8649-tt2bo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156223/original/image-20170209-8649-tt2bo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156223/original/image-20170209-8649-tt2bo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156223/original/image-20170209-8649-tt2bo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156223/original/image-20170209-8649-tt2bo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Treading on toes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/5234809392/in/photolist-mVGa84-8YzLsm-8YzH5o-nRtSSS-8YzJPW-nB381b-8YwFsk-8YzKBQ-9m8pUV-4qFAtK-9m8pCn-8YwW4t-e3ixSS-8YzMcf-nTrFML-nB2SWs-nTehf6-CWny8-6Xf6f1-BbTzbd">Elliott Brown/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>So-called portfolio shopping has become much more popular. Shoppers may prefer Tesco or Waitrose, but are not averse to ad hoc visits to the “discounters”. Many food shoppers have also found that doing the whole of the weekly shop is pounds cheaper at Lidl or Aldi – and in many cases their stores are located close to one of the big four. That means if you simply must have an item only available at the major players, then it’s not too inconvenient to pop in to grab it. </p>
<h2>Saturation point?</h2>
<p>The importance of these discount stores cannot be underestimated. Economic pressures on the average consumer have led to a shift from offering wide ranges to value. This is now exacerbated <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-sterling-manufacturing-ins-idUKKCN0ZO0FB?type=GCA-ForeignExchange">by the weak pound</a> and the subsequent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38908652">threatened food price rises</a>. </p>
<p>While the German retailers’ growth has slowed recently, that is not really surprising given the inroads they have already made. And they have not stepped back from their own expansion plans. Financially, the discounters attack existing supermarkets on their balance sheets through forcing down margins. This inevitably means that competitors such as Waitrose will consider closing less-profitable stores to keep the balance sheet looking good, for shareholders and partners. </p>
<p>So while the experience and atmosphere of shopping in Waitrose may be more enjoyable than that of its discounting competitors, price will always be important for food. We may vary the brands we buy, but our demand is fundamentally inelastic. There is a limit to the market. After all we can only eat so much and, with a greater emphasis <a href="http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/global-food-waste/">on reducing food waste</a>, a declining pound and uncertain economic future, many shoppers look to reduce outgoings where they can. Food is an easy target for such savings.</p>
<p>Waitrose can try to expand to other markets abroad, although history and the current political climate in obvious markets such as the US <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/dec/05/tesco-american-dream-retreat-us-fresh-easy">don’t bode well for that strategy</a>. I am a great believer in the importance of market share through gaining physical and mental availability – advertising your brand and making sure that your brand is constantly <a href="https://byronsharp.wordpress.com/">in front of potential customers</a>. However, you also need to be distinctive and I think it probably is the right time for Waitrose to be building on its already considerable distinctive assets in terms of quality and service while letting others fight out the space and price wars. </p>
<p>Of course, one strategy Waitrose can adopt is to upscale the products its existing customers buy. That means fewer essential Waitrose products and more exotic, indulgent or healthy products to pander to the tastes of its core middle-class clientele. While other supermarkets have moved into non-food items, Waitrose is increasingly including deli and cafe options such as wine and tapas bars, eat-in bakeries and, in its latest initiative, high-quality, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3313628/Yo-Waitrose-High-end-supermarket-open-SUSHI-bars-stores-feed-health-conscious-customers.html#ixzz4YCARJ2LB">freshly-made sushi</a>. </p>
<p>Whether these offerings provide the best financial margins is open to question but they can promote Waitrose increasingly as a “<a href="http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/destination-store">destination shop</a>” – the kind of place where time-pressed, affluent customers go, primarily for the sushi or half-an-hour’s relaxation over coffee, but come out with the baked beans and cereal too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Isabelle Szmigin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The upmarket store is reining in expansion but doubling down on value-added for its core clients.Isabelle Szmigin, Professor of Marketing, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/705732016-12-22T13:36:38Z2016-12-22T13:36:38ZTV Christmas ads come with the gift of gender stereotyping<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151373/original/image-20161222-17301-rqwhya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=204%2C111%2C3989%2C2547&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/pic-528456847/stock-photo-ordinary-young-parents-with-two-little-siblings-choosing-x-mas-decorations-in-market-focus-on-woman.html?src=vlFmKGzqX9STyzXGrI39jA-1-96">Iakov Filimonov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the pantomime season unfolds, we are all subjected to the “wondrous” festive tales told by advertisers. <a href="http://www.johnlewis.com/christmas-advert">John Lewis</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtKYdG9r0Pk">Waitrose</a> have given us adverts full of animal characters; different species coexisting in tentative harmony or enduring stormy times. While they seem to subtly address ethnic diversity, to an extent and in between the lines, gender issues arguably are still lurking – out of focus and in the background.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtKYdG9r0Pk">Waitrose ad</a> offers us a caring child who leaves a festive minced pie for an exhausted robin. The child at first seems androgynous, but a dress later betrays her gender. Notably, however, the robin is saved on its precarious journey to the pie by a rugged man working on a fishing boat. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/morrisons">Morrison’s advert</a>, meanwhile, the main character is an all-knowing, slightly geeky boy – while the women do the shopping and serve the dinner (although the father does make an appearance at the supermarket, seemingly to select the wine). It all fits in rather nicely with the <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1021020920715">gender stereotypes</a> of caring, rather passive women and assertive, knowledgeable men.</p>
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<h2>Heroes</h2>
<p>The family in the <a href="http://www.johnlewis.com/christmas-advert">John Lewis ad</a>, while “progressively” black, follows very traditional gender roles, too. The mum looks after the children at home while the dad makes a heroic effort of putting up the trampoline – fighting the frost and accidental injury in the dark.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5SGSCZe4E">Sainsbury’s ad</a> portrays a touching story of an overworked dad whose only dream is to find time for his family over Christmas. This he achieves through a eureka moment when he decides to solve the problem in a technological way: by cloning himself. Everyone is happy: the wife and children waiting at home and the male (and twerking!) boss. Again, the characters embody gender stereotypes.</p>
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<p>Perhaps the trophy for the least gender conservative ad should go to Mrs Claus in this year’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5QPXhStb5I">Marks & Spencer’s advert</a>. She is a confident, classy, attractive older woman who uses high-tech solutions to respond to a late present request. In true James Bond style, she resorts to hidden electronic maps and holographic monitors (forget touch-screens) and jets off on a snowmobile followed by a helicopter. </p>
<p>She simply enters the destination address through the main door dismissing chimneys altogether. The family in the background seems rather egalitarian, too – a rare example of a father figure looking after children as naturally as the mother does. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MediaMattersARU/">Some are quick to point out</a> that Mrs Claus has to keep her missions secret to protect Mr Claus’ ego. Still, the story is very heartwarming and full of love.</p>
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<h2>So what?</h2>
<p>But why should we care about how men and women are portrayed in advertising? Well, research shows that exposure to gender stereotypes in advertising has numerous negative effects and mainly, but not exclusively, on women. For example, it decreases women’s <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00287260">achievement, motives and ambition</a> as well as attitudes to the <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00287738">involvement in politics and self-esteem</a>. </p>
<p>It also reduces performance in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247747022_Consuming_Images_How_Television_Commercials_That_Elicit_Stereotype_Threat_Can_Restrain_Women_Academically_and_Professionally">maths tests</a>, interest in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23401480">quantitative domains</a>, such as numeracy skills, and preference for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Crystal_Hoyt/publication/256486332_Exploring_the_effect_of_media_images_on_women's_leadership_self-perceptions_and_aspirations/links/02e7e5230ba25d047f000000.pdf">leadership roles</a> or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21381851">non-traditional jobs</a>. As a consequence, women tend to avoid domains which are inconsistent with their gender stereotype and this <a href="https://socialidentitylab.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/social-psychological-and-personality-science-2015-hall.pdf">prevents them from acquiring the experience and skills</a> needed for the best paid jobs, such as those in management, banking and engineering. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151372/original/image-20161222-17296-fabt06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151372/original/image-20161222-17296-fabt06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151372/original/image-20161222-17296-fabt06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151372/original/image-20161222-17296-fabt06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151372/original/image-20161222-17296-fabt06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151372/original/image-20161222-17296-fabt06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151372/original/image-20161222-17296-fabt06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151372/original/image-20161222-17296-fabt06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ads can act as a disincentive for career aspiration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/pic-423598627/stock-photo-unposed-group-of-creative-business-people-in-an-open-concept-office-brainstorming-their-next-project.html?src=1KW0QDZC5OGzFRKXrDLVoA-1-10">ESB Essentials/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12366/pdf">Men are discouraged</a> from entering into stereotypically female domains, too. Moreover, they are not immune to the negative effects of such media either. After exposure to attractive, wealthy and high-status male media images, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228626956_What_About_Men_Social_Comparison_and_the_Effects_of_Media_Images_on_Body_and_Self-Esteem">male viewers report lower levels of body esteem</a>. Thus gender stereotypes are perpetuated on both sides. </p>
<p>One explanation of the negative effects of gender stereotypes refers to <a href="http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/definition.html">stereotype threat</a>. This describes a fear experienced by stigmatised groups (whether they are women, elderly or ethnic minorities) of confirming the negative stereotype pertaining to their group. This in turn takes away the cognitive resources (or mental powers) needed to perform well. Thus the vicious circle closes.</p>
<h2>Breaking stereotypes</h2>
<p>Should advertisers resort to <a href="http://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-the-pantomime-and-why-its-about-so-much-more-than-blokes-in-dresses-69683">cross-dressing in true British pantomime style</a> to break away from the gender tradition? Not necessarily. Ironically, and despite the <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-016-0617-y">omnipresence of gender stereotypical advertising</a>, non-traditional advertising can be very effective. </p>
<p>We have seen it with the Dove “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/dove-real-beauty-campaign-turns-10_n_4575940.html">Real women</a>” campaign – and others are following suit. Just look at Sanitary towel maker Always’ “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs">Like a Girl</a>” campaign, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eJYW4ew5eg">Girls do Science</a>” by Microsoft, or “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toH4GcPQXpc">The Girl Can</a>” by Sport England. They all focus on breaking female gender roles. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/toH4GcPQXpc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This girl can.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, sticking to female gender stereotypes in advertising may result in a backlash – such as the response to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/thank-you-bikini-terrorists-for-moving-us-on-from-throwback-diet-ads-now-eachbodysready-40973">“beach body ready”</a> campaign. What of breaking male roles though? My recent research shows that a non-traditional, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09589236.2016.1234369">warm house husband portrayal</a> can indeed be more effective than the traditional businessman type – for both men and women and in countries as diverse as the UK, Poland and South Africa.</p>
<p>There is a positive message in this festive story. When advertisers do challenge gender issues it can be effective, and of course appropriate, at a time when we should all be spreading a Christmas message of peace and equality far and wide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magdalena Zawisza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From women in the kitchen to Santa’s huge ego, Christmas ads are still ridden with conservative gender messaging.Magdalena Zawisza, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/511532015-11-26T15:42:23Z2015-11-26T15:42:23ZWhatever happened to ‘bans’ on GM produce in British supermarkets?<p>Once upon a time, UK retailers welcomed genetically modified (GM) foods. In the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/5/newsid_4647000/4647390.stm">late 1990s</a>, Sainsbury’s and Safeway (since <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3542291.stm">purchased by</a> Morrisons) both offered GM tomato purée, which so far as I recall was the first such product made available in the UK. GM and non-GM cans of purée stood side by side on their shelves, the former <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.4161/gmcr.18041#.VlWJHryoKu4">some 18% cheaper</a> per unit weight. The cans were conspicuously labelled and pamphlets explaining what GM was all about were to hand nearby. But when the stock ran out and it was time to re-order, the anti-GM food balloon had gone up and the product was discontinued.</p>
<p>The late 1990s and early 2000s in Britain was a period of intense back-and forth argument about GM. In 1999 Marks & Spencer <a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/M%26S+BANS+GM+FOODS.-a060402770">announced that</a> it was removing all GM foods from its shelves. (In a House of Lords inquiry at that time, M&S said their customers demanded it. When asked by their lordships how many customers that meant, it turned out to have been rather a small percentage. But those who positively wanted GM were, it seems, even fewer in number). </p>
<p>Sainsbury’s, then the second-largest chain in the UK after Tesco, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/298229.stm">responded</a> only weeks later by saying it would guarantee that all of its own-brand products were GM-free. All the other retailers followed suit: the UK’s retail industry was to be GM-free – or was it?</p>
<p>In fact some GM products, though not many, were always to be found. Until 2004, when GM labelling became mandatory under <a href="http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/regulation/labelling/93.new_labelling_laws_gm_products_eu.html">EU regulations</a>, it was difficult to identify them. With a label prescribed by law it obviously became easier, and every now and again, a variety of minor products turned up in this or that supermarket chain but did not last very long. </p>
<p>Yet one product which was always on sale, unlabelled before 2004 but properly indicating its GM source thereafter, was soya cooking oil. It can still be found – I spotted it in one of my local Sainsbury’s stores just a few weeks ago. The distributors told me some years ago that the advent of labelling had had no effect on sales. When I questioned a small shopkeeper selling the product, he had no idea that what he was selling was GM (“What’s that?”). Nor, it seems, had his customers.</p>
<h2>Feed fad</h2>
<p>Then there is the question of GM fodder for animals. Around the time of their own-brand GM-free commitments, retailers said that they would not sell any products from pigs or poultry that had been exposed to GM feeds. </p>
<p>This ban became a distinct red line that remained in place for a decade or so. Until, that is, when Asda became the first of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7852762/Supermarkets-selling-meat-from-animals-fed-GM-crops.html">the leading</a> UK supermarkets <a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Science/article329472.ece">to abandon</a> its commitment to eggs and poultry fed with GM in 2010. This greatly upset anti-GM campaigning groups, <a href="http://www.gmfreeze.org/news-releases/33/">who demanded</a> that Asda and other supermarkets “respond to public opinion” (as the anti-GM brigade saw it) by pledging to keep GM out of the nation’s meat and dairy. </p>
<p>But by then public opinion on the issue had become almost completely mute so far as I could see. So in 2012, Morrison’s <a href="http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/channels/supermarkets/morrisons/morrisons-gambles-on-gm-chicken-feed-shift/227510.article">did the same</a>: in neither case, as far as I am aware, was there any perceptible consumer reaction. By 2013, all the remaining UK supermarket chains, except Waitrose, <a href="http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-and-supplying/categories/fresh/sainsburys-ms-and-the-co-op-follow-tescos-lead-on-gm-feed/238400.article">had followed suit</a>: GM-feed for pigs and poultry was no longer to be excluded. One or two newspapers noted this at the time but, once more, there appears to have been no noticeable consumer rejection of products from animals fed GM.</p>
<h2>Where we go from here</h2>
<p>And that is (almost) it. In 2014 it was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2826108/Frankenstein-foods-slip-M-S-Anger-store-puts-GM-food-shelves-despite-opposed-engineered-products.html">reported that</a>, while Marks & Spencer still doesn’t use GM ingredients in its own-label products, it sold products from other brands which did contain GM soya or corn – these included teriyaki, ginger and hibachi sauces from the US brand TonTon and three flavours of Moravian Cookie. I checked at the time and found all of them were indeed on sale. Apart from own-brand, of course, GM ingredients can be found across the board in food products and should indeed be labelled as such. </p>
<p>That just leaves cotton – in clothing not in food. Some people have estimated that more than half the world’s cotton <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a5A1ygCQjxeY">is GM</a>, so this is likely to be the case with products on sale in the UK. There is no obligation to label GM cotton so one cannot be sure, but nobody seems to ask and few seem to care. Every now and again, up pops an ad for some cotton product or other which is said to be made with organic cotton (and so <em>ipso facto</em> non-GM) but such examples are rare.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102841/original/image-20151123-18233-2frjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102841/original/image-20151123-18233-2frjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102841/original/image-20151123-18233-2frjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102841/original/image-20151123-18233-2frjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102841/original/image-20151123-18233-2frjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102841/original/image-20151123-18233-2frjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102841/original/image-20151123-18233-2frjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102841/original/image-20151123-18233-2frjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spot the difference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&searchterm=cotton%20clothing&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=263492549">Eyes Wide</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though a few stalwarts keep up their anti-GM rhetoric, public interest in this subject has largely waned in my view. UK government policy is now <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/13/gm-crops-to-be-fast-tracked-in-uk-following-eu-vote">openly pro-GM</a>. The devolved governments in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34316778">Northern Ireland</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/09/scotland-to-issue-formal-ban-on-genetically-modified-crops">Scotland</a> and <a href="http://sustainablepulse.com/2015/10/02/wales-joins-total-ban-on-gm-crops/">Wales</a> take a different view (as does <a href="https://theconversation.com/gm-crops-an-uneasy-truce-hangs-over-europe-48835">much of Europe</a>), but England has 87% of the UK’s total population. </p>
<p>Though one can never be quite sure, it does begin to look as though the GM issue will fade away in the fullness of time, in England at least, even if it takes a while. I suspect GM food and crops will become commonplace and the protesting community will veer off in another direction, chasing new demons. </p>
<p><em>Postscript</em>:</p>
<p>Having read this article, a colleague told me that he had in May 2015 undertaken a web search for GM-labelled products on sale in UK supermarkets. His list has been rechecked and updated to find that the five major UK supermarket chains are currently describing on their websites about 60 products labelled as containing GM-ingredients. Nine of them are pet foods manufactured in the UK. All the others are human food products apparently imported from North America or Israel. Several are to be found on the websites of more than one supermarket chain.</p>
<p><em>For more coverage of the debate around GM crops, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/gm-food">click here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prof Moses is Chairman of CropGen, a public information organisation in the UK originally supported by the agricultural biotechnology industry. He consults to the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, and has received funding from the EU as coordinator of three projects to explore the public understanding of and consumer attitudes to agricultural biotechnology in a number of countries in the EU and elsewhere.</span></em></p>Since the heyday of retail bans on products containing genetically modified ingredients 15 years ago, the tide has been heading in the other direction.Vivian Moses, Visiting Professor of Biotechnology, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.