Women in Advertising

Project Compiled by

Anju Panicker
(Tybmm.A09.36)

Introduction
Nowadays, advertising is omnipresent in our lives, and has a really strong influence on our decisions as consumers. The aim is no longer to inform us of a new product and its use, it is more to create a wish to possess a product. Therefore we are led to think that advertising reflects our way of life and of thinking. The way to represent women is a good example of it. The advertising of the twenty first century shows indeed the evolution of the womens status. For decades women have been portrayed as housewives, dependent on men & sex objects in advertisements. However from past one decade, representation of women in advertisements has been experiencing a shift from the house wife centric ads to the career women ads.

Portrayal of women in advertising has always been a topic of debate. Whether in serials or in advertisements, woman is the one that's exploited or waiting to be.
In an attempt to make the advertisement seem 'desirable', advertisers associate their product with an 'attractive' image. This attractive image always is a woman, who provides the desirable image for the ad ,irrespective of her relevance to the ad. Although the Press Council of India has clear guidelines on the way the media should report on and depict women, there is a lot of controversy regarding this and many newspapers & advertisers are not clear in their own guidelines while tackling such sensitive issues.. 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 hasnt been broken completely.

The depiction of women in Indian media is simply shoddy and at times vulgar.
In this age of opening up of our economy to global market forces which thrives on the logic of what sells best and what sells quickest, it is no wonder that women and young girls have become the most important target for media and for the advertisement industry in particular. Commodification of women as a sex object has been relentlessly portrayed in audiovisual media. The overtones of sexual equation are much more explicit these days in our media. The women in Indian media are depicted generally as scrupulous, religiously intolerant, craving only for their own family, politically nave, socially inevitable and culturally ultra-modern

Women in Advertising (Indian Context)

If we take from 1970 changes we can see it in following ways: Women in 1970s Often as dependents requiring men to solve their problem with no individuality of their own. Women in 1980s This was new beginning in advertising ads like Lalita ji (surf adv) brought women as independent individual. Women in 1980s were considered independent individuals for example Lalita ji (who can forget the surf adv )

Women Of 1990s Women in the 1990s were shown as: In place of washing clothes with their hands and brush they were shown soaking clothes. Women stepping out of the house and beyond. They were seen more bold ( This could be because of the controversy arose when super model Milind Soman posed nude with madhu Sapre, This was turning point in the history of Indian advertising. Women at Present Women now plays different role in advertising like: Decorative role Recreational Role Independent Career role. Self Involved role Carefree role Family Role

There is an alarming rise in the cases of indecent representation of women in the country.
Parliament passed the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act in 1986. It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir and is meant to prohibit indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures. Indecent representation of women means the depiction in any manner of the figure of a woman; her form or body or any part thereof in such way as to have the effect of being indecent or derogatory to or denigrating women or as is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure public morality or morals.

 In the above two ads for Blenders choice (1)liquor & Hindware sanitary ware (2), the women are just means to attract attention. The Blenders choice ad portrays the woman as a thing to be tasted and the Hindware ad strategically places the product on the womens breast. Both ads merely objectify women. The women have no relevance whatsoever to the product that is being promoted.

Women are also portrayed in ads as unthinking beings preoccupied with trivial matters. The ads for Ansal Plaza(3) & Grooms In(4) as shown , portray them as shallow ,and have mundane thoughts such as shopping and good clothes . The tag line in print ad (3) illustrates Her husband has an extramarital affair and she knows it, so as to say that she is not worried or bothered about her marriage as much as she is about her shopping in the mall.

In print ad (4), two brides are 'willing' to marry the groom, for he is wearing the salwar suits manufactured by their brand.

This ad in particular, for Wild Stone deodorant, has pushed Indian sensibilities to their limits. It shows a young, pretty woman in a sari, carrying food at a family gathering, who bumps into a young man after being distracted by his body spray. In the next shot they appear to have sex before the women leaves with her sari dishevelled and hair tousled. Similar ads for Axe, Addiction and other deodorants "brim with messages aimed at tickling the libidinous male instincts and portrayal of women as lustily hankering after men under the influence of such deodorant

 There are no direct answers to it. Vulgarity and obscenity are quite loosely associated to anything sexual and this adv potrays the same.
She makes suggestive movements. A naughty grin on her face marks the end of the ad. The tagline of the ad is 'Crafted for Fantasies' and it appears the woman is living her fantasy in front of everybody.

Quite uncomfortable for persons watching it amid family.

Fair and Lovely Adv.

In a sign of the times, the companys ads show lighter skin conferring a different advantage: helping a woman land a job normally held by men, like announcer at cricket matches. Fair and Lovely: The Power of Beauty, is the tagline on the companys newest ad. So if you are a black or brown or yellow or whatever woman of color you are, and you saw this ad, what would you think? Youll think that dark means ugly, and that you cant get a job, just because you are born with a dark tan, and youll never succeed in anything, and nobody will want to date you, until you drop your background, culture, ethnic origin and simply become white, and then poof, everything is at your feet!

This ad is beyond offensive, with a scene evoking a gang rape and reeking of violence against women. The advertisement showing a woman pinned to the ground by the wrists by a bare-chested man, with other men in the background looking on. It portrays that stylized gang rape will sell clothes to women, but what is more likely is that they think it will get them publicity by demeaning women in such a way. The ad offends the dignity of the woman, in the sense that the feminine figure is shown in a degrading manner.

 BMW has taken a new approach to the old saying "sex sells.

This ad isn't just visually disturbing. The text is also poorly thought-out. It's for USED cars...and it says, "You know you're not the first." Clearly a sexual connotation meant to depict the young girl as...already having had sex, at least once.
This, of course, makes her a sex object, for...the men looking at the ad? It's surely not for women.

In this advertisement, a young couple is seen where a wife asks husband to sign the life insurance papers. In the next frame, she cleverly and logically explains the benefits of taking insurance.

This advertisement projects a progressive change in our society where the woman is accepted as the chief catalyst in taking financial decisions

 This advertisement advocates women empowerment. Here a flock of girls are shown which epitomizes group will and freedom of movement. Today women have stepped out, realizing their potential in fulfilling their dreams and for them, driving a vehicle is one of the symbols of liberty and fun. This ad completely breaks the notion that outdoor fun is only a domain of men.

There was a short survey posted on a website http://www.representation-of-women-in-advertising) about effects of television advertising
Seven advertisements that had women representation in them were identified for the survey. The ads identified were Amul Macho , The Axe Effect , Amul Manthan Story, Virgin mobile , J.K. Super Cement, Slice, Parle Hide n Seek.

The survey was broken into two parts, Part A consisted of 8 close ended questions and Part B had a rating system of popular TVCs in order of relevance, likeness, requirement of use of women and storyline on a scale of 1 to 10 wherein 1 denoted least least likable and 10, most likable.

Survey Analysis Part A

1. Do you find the presence of skimpily clad women in commercials for products like invertors/cement etc relevant? 19% said Yes, 81% said No. 2. Have you ever bought a beauty product after watching its commercial on TV? 64% said Yes, 21% said No, 15% said Maybe. 3. Have you ever felt insecure about your body while watching a commercial on TV? 42% said Yes, 58% said No. 4. Do you think there is an influx of commercials containing sexual content in the last 5 years? 86% said Yes, 8% said No, 6% said Maybe.

5. Have you ever felt a major impact on yourself by an advertisement? 33% said Yes, 56% said No, 11% said Maybe.

Survey Analysis Part B Part B of the questionnaire was calculated by finding Arithmetic Mean i.e. more commonly known as average. The overall ratings given to each of the 7 advertisements are:

Amul Macho- 2.75 The Axe Effect- 5.15 Amul Manthan Story- 5.42 Virgin mobile- 3.87 J.K. Super Cement- 3.47 Slice- 3.59 Parle Hide n Seek- 4.40

It can be seen from the average ratings that television viewers look for content in television commercials, not blind use of women just to add oomph or glamour factor.

Conclusion
The portrayal of woman has not changed much over the years. Women in ads represent what the society holds as an ideal image of her. Women are continued to be predominantly portrayed as sexual beings, unthinking, dependent, caretakers, preoccupied with beauty. Female models used in products not related to them like mens razors, mens wear, mens deodorant etc. actually, damages and insults womens image. Advertisements should depict average Indian women instead of focusing only the upper strata of the society. The viewers should be able to identify with the product being advertised and with the model shown in the advertisements.

The content of the advertisements should be relevant to the product. There should be more emphasis on the product rather than on the female models and their figures.

Thank You!!