<div>A feeling of outrage at the gruesome Nirbhaya rape and assault has united people from all walks of life. After the usual blame-game, we have moved into mass introspection: what kind of society are we? And are we ashamed of it? Should we continue to blame the administration, or start changing parts of our societal value system that are causing this retrograde, deviant behaviour?<br /><br />Our social system is responsible for rape and violence. Is it our perception of sexuality or something else? Sexuality is a natural drive that keeps our species growing. It lays the foundation for love and romance — beautiful constructs that bring people together. Sexuality, by itself, is not destructive.<br /> <br />The core social concern is gender inequality. Over centuries, and across cultures, men have had the upper hand. Women’s roles and behaviour have been strictly defined in the garb of protecting them from external aggression. Although this is changing, the rate is far too slow.<br /><br /> </div><table width="200" cellspacing="8" cellpadding="8" border="0" align="right"><tbody><tr><td><img width="150" vspace="5" hspace="5" height="224" align="left" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=bdd0a690-140f-4aef-8049-8dd0da891492&groupId=222852&t=1361461237880" alt="" /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><strong>Ad visuals are courtesy www.businesspundit.com</strong></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div>Today, in Saudi Arabia, women are expected to cover all parts of their bodies before stepping out of their homes. Flashback 60 or 70 years, and it was the same in India. Women’s education was frowned upon. A woman’s sole purpose in life was to be a good wife and to bring up children. During consumer interviews in late 1980s in India’s metros and Tier-1 cities, we discovered that many young people believed that women who wore jeans were “fast girls”!<br /><br />We may have made some progress in the past decades, but some of these beliefs persist. For example, boys can wear whatever they like, but girls have to fit into norms. Boys can go wherever they want, but girls have to be chaperoned. If an unmarried girl goes out with a boy, she is “fast” — an easy target for aggression.<br /><br />The other social reality is deprivation in the migrant population in big cities. While being away from family causes sexual deprivation, a widening rich-poor divide causes a sense of economic deprivation. These two forces are a fertile ground for violence, and violence is usually directed at those considered weaker: the women. <br /><br />Is the real culprit sexuality or gender inequality? Sexuality is as natural as eating or breathing, while gender inequality is an artificial construct. By questioning the use of sex in advertising, are we barking up the wrong tree?<br /><br />Shaina at Alcove Advertising is introspecting. Her heightened level of sensitivity moves her to question the increasing use of sex in advertising; she even rejects the mildest touch of intimacy in the TV script being developed by the agency for Jeymini Diamond. Advertising, being a form of mass communication, should be socially responsible. One should also expect the same sense of responsibility from all other forms of mass communication — cinema, TV serials, social media and news channels.<br /><br />Advertising draws insights from the society around it. Its goal usually is to sell a product, and not change the society. When the society changes, advertising changes with it. <br /><br />For example, in a Chase & Sanborn Coffee ad that ran in the US in the 1950s, a wife is being spanked by her husband for choosing the wrong coffee. Though treated in a tongue-in-cheek manner, the ad would be totally unacceptable today. But the 1950s’ Americans saw nothing wrong with it!<br /><br />Similarly, Mornidine’s “Now she can cook breakfast again” ad reinforced a wife’s role as the cook prevalent in the West at that time. The setting is a pregnant wife suffering morning sickness, and Mornidine gives her relief so that she can cook breakfast! Insensitive, but it was perfectly acceptable then.<br /> </div><div>break-page-break</div><div><br />These ads might appear too in-your-face to be palatable today. But ads reflecting a wife’s role in the stereotype of a housekeeper are not uncommon in India; they are just a little more subtle these days. Detergent ads keep reinforcing her role as the in-house dhobi, while some soap and toothpaste ads keep building her up as the caretaker of her family’s health. Instant food ads show the mother in the role of a cook, while the biggest consumers might be male students living away from home. Rarely does an ad show a father doing these chores. Male stereotypes are usually that of indulgent daddies as in the Cadbury’s Oreo commercials. We don’t find this strange, because these stereotypes exist in our society. So, we unwittingly let advertising reinforce gender imbalance.<br /><br /> </div><table width="600" cellspacing="8" cellpadding="8" border="0" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><img width="556" vspace="6" hspace="6" height="344" align="left" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=f927e40d-eb57-41ed-8c77-fee5a55abdbb&groupId=222852&t=1361461439180" alt="" /></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"><strong>Ad visuals are courtesy www.businesspundit.com</strong></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br />Gender discrimination also extends to the way children are depicted in our ads. “Ravi beta” is always a smart, witty and intelligent child, while the daughter is usually depicted as the cute one worried about her looks. In this way we are programming our next generation also to think that there is nothing wrong with gender differentiation.<br /><br />Back at Alcove Advertising, would Shaina find Playboy ads (“pleasure in your hands”) offensive? Since it is selling a magazine like Playboy, contextually it may be acceptable. And what about Durex ads that show two young adults? Since it is selling a product like condoms, it may be acceptable in that context. But then would you like young adolescents to see this ad? <br /><br />Both ads, like the products they sell, do stoke male voyeuristic fantasy about sex and could increase sexual desire. <br />Sexuality, however, is at the core of some categories like inner wear, lipsticks, perfumes, condoms, indulgent snacks and drinks, jewellery, and so on. Advertisers have the difficult task of deciding on what would be the level of sexuality acceptable. When Kamasutra condoms were launched in the late 1980s through a TV commercial, which suggested that the brand enhances the pleasure of having sex, there was a lot of debate. But the censors allowed it at that time. Would Shaina have liked Alcove to create this ad?<br /><br />Acceptability is a relative line — it changes with time, and varies across cultures. Nudity in ads is allowed in certain cultures, while even a little bit of skin show is taboo in others. <br /><br />Mindless, irrelevant use of women as objects of sexual innuendo is usually adopted by a lazy creative person, who falls back on the “sex sells” adage. An example of this is Bell & Howell’s ad for its colour slide projector (shown above). It is just a lazy, tasteless pun on the word “projector”. Unfortunately, we continue to see too many of these ads these days that give advertising a bad name.<br /><br />Out of context use of feminine anatomy or sexuality in advertising reinforces and feeds the masculine fantasy of women as sexual objects only. These ads increase the perception of power distance between genders, and can be harmful to society. <br /><br />Our society is moving forward. Long-term health of our society is dependent on how quickly we banish gender discrimination. Advertising, as a mass communication medium, has the power to take control and lead this change. The industry has so far been catching up with societal change — the real opportunity for advertising is to accelerate a positive change in our society’s value systems. But is advertising ready to take on this responsibility?<br /><br /><em>Pranesh Misra is the chairman of Brandscapes Worldwide</em><br /><br />(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 11-03-2013)</div>
