• by Todd Wasserman , March 17, 2022

In 2024, large stores in California that have boys’ and girls’ toys and childcare sections will also need to offer a gender-neutral section as well. And Apple has just offered a “gender-neutral” Siri and a pregnant man emoji for iOS 15.4.

Meanwhile, in the grooming category, one of the hottest trends is “gender-neutral” brands. “Gone are the days of the bubblegum pink “girl” creams scented like migraine-inducing candy gardens, or military-esque ‘boy’ soaps that come in ugly bottles and smell like dirt,” according to The Huffington Post .

Gender neutrality is becoming a concept that marketers should at least be aware of, particularly if they’re marketing to millennials. BigEye, an Orlando, Florida, ad agency, recently conducted a survey of 2,000 millennials, most of whom said they found traditional gender roles and binary labels outdated, according to The Advocate.

Some brands have already plunged into non-binary marketing, like Levi’s, which introduced its Unlabeled label in 2020, and U.K. supermarket brand Co-op, which launched a gender-neutral “gingerbread person” in 2019. New Balance debuted a gender-neutral clothing line called “Uni-ssentials” in February. PacSun, meanwhile, launched a gender-neutral clothing line, Colour Range, in 2021. Hasbro began selling a gender-neutral Mr. Potato Head doll in 2021.

Gen Z-ers are also aligned with gender neutrality. In a 2018 survey of 1,000 teens by J. Walter Thompson Intelligence, 82% said that gender doesn’t define a person as it used to.

That presents a dilemma for traditional brands that have skewed either masculine or feminine.

Still, perhaps marketers can learn a thing or two from Old Spice, which took a male-centered brand that seemed stuck in the 1950s visions of manhood and updated it in 2010 with “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign. That push updated the brand with humor and self-awareness.

And years ago, Georgia Pacific updated its Brawny symbol from what looked like a ‘70s-era porn star to a clean-shaven, masculine man -- one who would be flexible enough to check out the gender-neutral section.

For a look at the trans aspect of this issue, turn to Sarah Mahoney's post on the GenderCool campaign.