From money to muscles, the media teaches men at a young age that success looks a certain way. While Unstereotype Alliance seeks to combat harmful stereotypes in all people in media, the objective of this print is to spotlight how successful men are portrayed. Research shows that 66% of millennial men feel that advertising negatively affects their perception of success. There’s a dissonance between what the media says men want to achieve (fame, fortune, female attention), versus what they actually want to achieve (personal satisfaction, mental health, positive relationships). What’s worse is that this gap is making men anxious and depressed. Our task is not only to show where the media is falling short and failing men, but also to suggest a new perspective.

This print shows a stereotypical portrayal of a muscular “alpha male” outlined in a box. It’s familiar; an image we see in men's magazines regularly. This box is situated in a larger context, telling a greater story about the man in question.

The box serves as a motif holding multiple meanings. A highly graphical visual device, boxes restrict us, hold us back, and outline impermeable boundaries and rules we can’t break. Boxes also represent literal media: the shape of all print ads, billboards and TV commercials. Men have been trapped in how they’re portrayed in the media since the dawn of time. This print creatively dimensionalizes all parts of men, inviting a more complex conversation about what it means to be successful.

How could we ensure that the future of advertising thinks outside the box when it comes to the portrayal of men? Up till today, this portrayal has been trite, expected and harmful. This print exposes that, but it doesn’t stop there. It goes on to show what happens outside the box, showing Gen Z that success can look different than they imagined.

Gen Z-ers are rebels and rule breakers. More than any other generation, they’ve made it clear that being boxed in is the enemy. They want to color outside the lines, live out loud, and define life by their terms. This print, and its accompanying activation, invites Gen Z to zoom out and see a bigger story in which men have been contained. To see possibility, to consider options, to unlock a new future of representation. To untrap and unbox men from the shackles of the past. In other words, to open the aperture of manhood.