Indian Talent, Global Content
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Indian Talent, Global Content |
January 2009: What's in the breeze |
Ads Targeting Women: How Real are They?
Advertisements are by far the most powerful means of social communication one can ever come across. From dawn till dusk, people are constantly bombarded with ad messages. They are ubiquitous, proactive, and of course, play a crucial role in consumer behavior - precisely why gender in mass media is the operating factor in effectively reaching the target audience. As S. Jhally observes in The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society, ‘In modern advertising, gender is probably the social resource that is used most by advertisers. Thousands of images surround us every day of our lives that address us along gender lines. Advertising seems to be obsessed with gender and sexuality.’ The commercial for ‘Jaipan Mixer Grinder’ shows a bunch of women thumping their fists on a table and crying together, “We want revolution” - this is probably the first time a nonconformist approach has been used to advertise a household utility. Of late, there has been a meticulous effort from ad makers to glorify the ‘Novel Indian women’- novel in terms of having liberated from the traditional roles that women have been playing; ‘Indian’ in the sense of being selective of representing women and not portraying a total Westernized image to keep the appeal intact. With the urban-rural divide expanding, consumerism is booming. Women play an increasingly significant role in purchase decisions. However, while executing a campaign women with a high purchasing power are in the minds of advertisers. Although a lot of these ad campaigns are put into action after exhaustive market research, the sad truth is that the stereotypical and the conventional form of portraying women in advertisements still hasn’t been broken completely. Advertisers have previously exploited maternal angst over children and family. Advertisements that show wives worried over their husbands’ health or children’s’ eating disorder is quite common. A very popular oil campaign lined up a chain of ads where the wife was petrified by her husband’s eating habits. All Kellogg’s breakfast cereal ads primarily have women models. Such ads locate the woman within dominant ideology as someone who bears the primary burden of responsibility of nurturing and caring for others. In short, mothers are shown as worry warts. The good news now is that now a mother is more than just a mother, but also a friend to her children. The tone slightly shifted from a heavy-handed one to a more light-hearted approach. While the picture of the caring mother is structurally maintained, at the same time it is being re-presented with, beneath the essential selflessness, hints of playfulness, good-humor, and assertiveness. This kicked off during the early 90’s. The Maggi Noodles mom happily feeds her hungry kids instant noodles when they come home from play. A famous Whisper ad commercial showed the mother as being supportive and comforting instead of upset over her daughter’s situation. Though there are umpteen ads that depict mothers as being solely responsible, maternal responsibilities have become unchained from their traditional narrative moorings. The Onida washing machine ad is probably the most appropriate example for this trend. While the brainy engineer alerts his wife that appearances can be deceptive, and one should look into the technical details as well, she still goes ahead buying it, after being compelled by her children. It was a ‘finished business’ when the husband returned home and the daughter pronounces feminist ideologies by wittily connoting women’s emancipation. The mother impresses her husband by explaining how the machine functions through performing Bharathanatyam. While the husband is tongue-tied, the line reads that this heroic behavior is only an effort, albeit a small one, towards independence but not an act of disrespectfulness. The Surf Ultra detergent commercials are known for embracing the concept of a young, positive wife who tenderly reprimands her husband. Consider the popular ad where the husband asks whether his wife really believes that “stain digesters stuff.” The young, good-humored wife smilingly replies, ‘I don’t just think, I know . . . daag dhoondte reh jaoge.’ (You will keep hunting for the stains). The constant worry of the feminists about the women’s representation in mass media has done something, if not all. The ‘Anne French’ hair remover cream punch line has transcended from “Don’t you want his approval” to “I feel soft and silky and woman”. The Keokarpin hair oil ad showed the wife using the same oil as her husband did. Consequently she used it because she found it effective. The Archies commercial shows the angry wife locking her husband out, since he forgot her birthday. There are plenty of health drinks ads that portray women having an upper hand over her husband when it comes to family and health. There are still two sides to this emancipated coin. How can we ignore all those advertisements where women are showed as painted rosy portraits, standing just for beauty? The series of cosmetic cream ads, which shows a young girl being rejected at an interview for being dusky not only show women as being only judged for their physical appearance but are also the epitome of racism. Hygiene and cleanliness is something of an individual concern in reality. Advertisements completely rule out the possibility of men being responsible towards household maintenance et al. Of course, there are some exceptions. In the recent times there has been an obvious role reversal in a few well positioned advertisements. Sample the ICICI prudential ad where the wife says ‘Jeethe Raho” to her husband, blatantly breaks the clichéd of only men being the financial watch dogs of a family. Another area which deserves attention is how every model that plays the role of a mother or working women are in good shape. Agreed, fitness and being thin are a sign of good health, but rounded mothers and teenage girls aren’t necessarily unhealthy. Fortune cooking oil for the first time proscribed the tradition of young, diet conscious girls being constantly worried about their body. The ad shows a rather rounded girl who is an absolute connoisseur of food. Women needn’t be worshipping feminism to be more perceptive about ad messages that are thrown to them. What they should really do is ‘empathize’ and fill the gaps by relating the advertisements to their life experiences. Half the battle is won by doing so. We are supposedly living in an egalitarian society. Rights and responsibilities are meant to be equal. Although there are ads that throw light on women as being responsible for more than household maintenance, they are still in the minority. There is no role a woman hasn’t played in these ads except for the role of reality. It is high time ad makers make a fundamental shift from what people like to look at, to what women really are. Perhaps, they may then attain the unattainable… what people really want! Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.
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