Male success has come to be defined via advertising: finance and power, grit in sport, and stoic silence over emotions. The brief outlines the impact that this has had on men’s mental health and wellbeing. However, the extent of this impact also shows the influence a more positive message could have on an entire generation of men.

As advertising practitioners, we also need to recognise our previous role in this as perpetrators of simplistic stereotypes, and make sure to not simply place the responsibility back on those we’ve affected. There is power in advertising - and in this instance, we intend to use it for good.

Our objective is to kickstart the conversation around the definition of success for men. Addressing that our existing representation is outdated, the goal is to land the message that success is nuanced, fluid, and entirely up to you to determine.

Getting Gen Z men's attention isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. We know that they yearn for the crossover between nostalgia, cultural relevance, absurd humour, and authenticity. They're a generation of activists, allies, and objectors to injustice - which is where our Knight comes in.

The same descriptions pop up repeatedly when we think of men in advertising: Strong. Silent. Chivalrous. Combat ready. Lance in hand. Okay, maybe not that last one. However, it’s hard not to draw similarities between masculine advertising stereotypes and medieval knights.

Representation being so stagnant is a shocker, so pairing this provocative realisation with the recognisable advertising trope of perfume and fashion models presents a uniquely funny situation. But it's not just funny for funny's sake - Gen Z are masters of using humour to process tough topics, and by doing the exact same here, we're able to speak to them in their language.

We’ve seen the impact that outdated stereotypes of men in advertising has had. If we showed how little this representation has evolved over the years, could we start the conversation of how important change is?

This led us to the insight that we don’t keep outdated things in any other walk of life. You don’t see Morris Minors running beside Teslas, telegraph machines sitting by our smartphones, or typewriters working alongside Macbooks. Life needs evolution and growth, and utilising any of these obsolete items is sure to set us back and cause frustration for all involved.

So why isn’t our advertising representation treated the same way? These stereotypes aren’t just outdated, they’re archaic and narrow, and wouldn’t be out of place in medieval times. By highlighting this in it's most extreme form, we realised that we had a real conversation starter on our hands.

The brief asks us to redefine these narratives and present a more contemporary understanding of success. The thing is, success is so diverse and nuanced that it would be an injustice to boil it down to one ideal form or visual. The true power and potential in this brief lies in addressing and tearing apart the existing structures and representations of men, allowing the space for new success narratives to be defined naturally, by the ever-outspoken and assertive Gen Z themselves.

They should lead the way and let us follow, rather than the other way around - as it has been for years.