Advertisers think they can sell anything by putting an attractive woman next to it.
"Vishwaas hai, isme khuch khaas hai" the tagline runs as a bikiniclad woman emerges from the sea. Not in my wildest imagination would I have been able to guess the product the model is endorsing if a cement company's logo had not flashed on the TV screen. It is, by far, one of the best examples of meaningless objectification.
The advertisement had nothing to do with the product - cement in this case. And this is by no means the only example. Indian ad men appear to have lost all originality, but it's not their lack of imagination that is the problem. It's the quick- fix they resort to when faced with advertiser's block.
Despite the growing awareness of the way Indian society treats women in the aftermath of the December 16 gangrape, women's bodies continue to be used as mere marketing instruments.
Whether it is a pretty young thing getting attracted to any random shiny object or the recent entrants that see nubile lasses starting to strip if any man puts on a ' chocolate fragrance,' the ad- makers are simply adding to the devaluation of women in a society that is already patriarchal and full of sexual aggression.
These innovative film- makers, I assume, are intelligent enough to understand a constant reversion to gratuitious nudity and double entendres increases sexual callousness among viewers. Their work has become one of the major obstacles preventing a muchneeded change in the mindset of Indian society. But the advertisers exhibit no shame in placing women as the attractive bait next to any random product on sale.
Do the advertisers not realise that their commercials are also alienating half of the population - often those who literally hold the purse strings? Even if this is ignored, no matter how much profit a company might earn by virtually selling a woman's body instead of the product, the loss it has incurred to the position of women in society is irreparable.
The hit US show Mad Men, which revolves around the advertising boom in the States during the 50s and 60s
"Vishwaas hai, isme khuch khaas hai" the tagline runs as a bikiniclad woman emerges from the sea. Not in my wildest imagination would I have been able to guess the product the model is endorsing if a cement company's logo had not flashed on the TV screen. It is, by far, one of the best examples of meaningless objectification.
A woman walking out of the sea in a bikini in a cement ad.
The advertisement had nothing to do with the product - cement in this case. And this is by no means the only example. Indian ad men appear to have lost all originality, but it's not their lack of imagination that is the problem. It's the quick- fix they resort to when faced with advertiser's block.
Despite the growing awareness of the way Indian society treats women in the aftermath of the December 16 gangrape, women's bodies continue to be used as mere marketing instruments.
Whether it is a pretty young thing getting attracted to any random shiny object or the recent entrants that see nubile lasses starting to strip if any man puts on a ' chocolate fragrance,' the ad- makers are simply adding to the devaluation of women in a society that is already patriarchal and full of sexual aggression.
These innovative film- makers, I assume, are intelligent enough to understand a constant reversion to gratuitious nudity and double entendres increases sexual callousness among viewers. Their work has become one of the major obstacles preventing a muchneeded change in the mindset of Indian society. But the advertisers exhibit no shame in placing women as the attractive bait next to any random product on sale.
Do the advertisers not realise that their commercials are also alienating half of the population - often those who literally hold the purse strings? Even if this is ignored, no matter how much profit a company might earn by virtually selling a woman's body instead of the product, the loss it has incurred to the position of women in society is irreparable.
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