Is the Advertisement Sorority Sensitive
to Feminist Concerns?
Gender perception in communication has truly
evolved by introspection of the roles of men and women in Society.
Advertisers are more than willing to manipulate and exploit our anxieties
regarding our identities to sell products. And henceforth advertisements in
both television and print provide an especially intriguing field of study
for gender bias in advertising.
Media is definitely about catching the attention of the viewer or the
target audience. Thousands of Rupees are spent on this purpose.
Advertisements are no exception. The advertisers want the maximum output
for their endorsements timed in few seconds and costing in several
thousands. So when we look around, what do we see as the most common
glamorized element in the endorsements of most of the products? Females,
from ideal mothers and wives to sensuous girlfriends, portray a significant
array of roles, but in this contemporary state of affairs where the very
definition of feminism has changed drastically and will continue to do
so…the very question in concern would be whether the images portrayed by
females in endorsements are close to reality? And if they are not real,
then what are the forces that govern that difference? And how much are the
audiences, especially in a developing country like India, accepting this
difference?
The argument also involves imperative analysis on how popular myths and
mechanisms are employed by the advertisers to influence masses in order to
promote their product. Myths and mechanisms that specifically operate in
echelon of gender pigeonholing. The depiction of females in advertisements
is not only divergent to their reality but also indifferent to their needs
and true position in the society.
For example, as the study pointed out, Advertisers seem to be oblivious of
the fact that customer is no more the “king” because now customer is a
“queen”. We all know that the purchase decisions in most of the family
units are taken by the female members of the household. They are the ones
who manage the inflow and the outflow of financial resources in the family.
It has to be kept in mind by the endorsement designers that advertisements
have to be created in order to persuade and please women instead of men
because ultimately the former are the ones who take the purchase decision.
But sadly only those females are seen as virtuous homemakers who care about
their husband’s shirts, trousers, cholesterols and take great pleasure in
running after kids, play excellent hosts, washing clothes in the endorsed
washing machine and detergent or storing great provisions in the
“favourite” refrigerator.
Clearly such themes corroborate and reinforce the unreal notions of women
in the male centric social order that we are a part of. Attractive,
giggling and submissive females are clearly canvassing a culture, which is
hyped as euphoric but is again not based on fact. In fact, this culture is
seen as a great peril to the socially developing status of women by many
feminists and thinkers. For example, says Piyush Pandey (a prominent name
in advertising industry):
“Since advertising agencies in India are predominantly run by men,
portrayal of women in either indecent or superhuman roles has been inherent
in the content of Indian Advertising. Accurate portrayals of women in
commercials wherein they are realistically depicted as useful contributors
to the world of politics, business, economics and development are sadly
lacking”.
The examples are too many to count. The guiltiest are the endorsements
which promote toiletries, cosmetics and undergarments used not by females
but men. For example, in the Gillette Mac 3 advertisement, a skimpily clad
female, who is sensuously clad, gets swayed by the male model who uses the
product. She even ventures forth to shave him. Or let us even consider the
Brylcream hair cream advertisement featuring noted cricketer Mahendra Dhoni
who recommends the product to a youngster who is made a butt of joke by his
female friends because of his hairstyle. Later they seem to be changing
their opinions about him because he now has used the hair cream. Why, even
Actor Abhishek Bachchan imagines that he can woo any woman because of his
Motorola razr mobile phone. Thankfully he is disappointed. Clearly, the
portrayal of females in all these advertisements is obscene, irrational,
passive and debased.
Several popular advertisements were carefully assessed for bringing out the
answers for various moot questions raised by the case study. It was pointed
out by the team that the themes of many of the ads were incoherent and
inarticulate but they caught attention only when they glamorised a female
icon there, say, a nubile young teenager or a popular actress. Amongst the
ads that were assessed, the ones presented were to the likes of 7-up, Close
up, Fair and Lovely, Motorbike ads, Safi Skin Tonic, Minto Fresh, The Pepsi
“TV” commercial etc.
In 7-up commercial, for example, the female is an idle specimen who wishes
to be the most “coolest” creature in the planet in spite of not being so
ugly. The spirit then converts her into the 7up bottle and all that we can
hear is her giggle. Clearly her character does not even faintly resemble to
any of the females in real world when we look around.
Or Lets take the example of Fair and lovely endorsements or those of Safi
skin tonic which portray women as a genus that get an inferior treatment by
the society due to their unattractive looks. The message from the
endorsements clearly interprets to the biased opinion that success is only
for those faces, which are attractive and pretty. Finer notions like hard
work, determination and focus are conveniently marginalized. Such ads that
encourage portrayal of gender stereotypes in the society are hazardous to
the perception of feminism by the social order.
Worse, even the products used by men, say, motorbikes or shaving creams
debase the role of females in the most unreal manner because in these
endorsements women are glamorously glorified as objects of sexual magnetism
who get attracted to men only if the latter use the specified products.
Such depiction of Womanhood has been thankfully known for inciting strong
and vociferous objection from various groups of the society.
There are hardly any examples in the society, which find a sense of
belonging or identification or even respect from such portrayals.
Jayasri Viswanathan
MA in Journalism and Mass Communication,
Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication
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