<div>A good, basic selling idea, involvement and relevancy, of course, are as important as ever, but in the advertising din of today, unless you make yourself noticed and believed, you ain’t got nothin’.” ­— Leo Burnett<br /><br />So, how did this need to be noticeable translate into sexual overtones in brand messaging using women? <br /><br />Some brand owners would say it is to attract eyeballs. Yes, advertising is meant to be memorable, even disruptive. But are we so short of ideas that a sanitary ware brand can’t do without a picture of a woman in a deep-neck dress with accessories seductively draped over her legs? <br /><br />A recent campaign by an international deodorant brand (in some markets), was primarily targeted at 15-25-year -old males. Their website once featured a naughty-to-nice fake news report that showed nice girls becoming nasty and if you wished, you could also report a naughty girl. The company created a skirt-shaped mouse pad, which could be used by putting your hand under the ‘skirt’! <br /><br />We know that advertising is a multilayered form of communication. It combines visual imagery, written or spoken words, music, et al. It speaks to a wide range of demographic, ethnic, socio-economic and lifestyle groups. It’s the one thing that all brand owners want to leverage for their brands. And somehow, having a seductive woman in the campaign has become an easy choice.<br /><br />The famous Calvin Klein ad (1992) had a half-naked Kate Moss and Mark Wahlberg. And the copy implied that nothing comes between her and her CK jeans. In 2009, a PETA vegetarianism ad during Super Bowl showed models licking eggplants and pumpkins, among other things. <br /><br />Shaina’s point on the spotlight being on the female anatomy underscores how women are used to advertise everything, even wall switches and men’s underwear. Clearly, we have translated being noticeable into a sometimes blatant and subjugative manipulation of senses, often biased unfavourably towards the woman. But we can change that. Some brand campaigns have shown that we can readjust our emotional and intellectual attitude — re-examine the optimal context and construct within which a brand can operate. It is also about being relevant — knowing when there is a need for sexiness around the product, and when not. <br /><br />There are brands that recognise the contemporary narrative of today’s woman. To that extent, there has been a shift from showing women as just passive homemakers neatly dressed in traditional wear to multi-taskers and go-getters who make their own choices.<br /> <br />Ponds, when launching a top-end skincare range, chose to go with the familiar sounding storyline (in its TV commercial) of a husband-turned-chef trying to bring romance back into his married life. The tone was chosen to put forward the brand’s proposition that women were not mere props. <br /><br />The relaunched Femina was positioned as a magazine that was “for all the women you are”. The campaign was about the changing roles and equations that a woman now faces in her personal and work lives. The women models used were more ‘real’ than the superficial version that are omnipresent in most ads these days.<br /> <br />Marketers want their brands to stand out, but treading the right side of the line can be tricky. The practice of relying on women to attract attention towards the product or service has to be addressed by brand marketers themselves. Some of us (including women) accept the storyboard without giving a thought to how women are portrayed in it. <br /><br />Sexuality is the very basis of life. However, we have to understand it intelligently. After all, it is not about the woman being used as a prop to capture men’s attention. It is more about creating adaptive and perceptive communication pieces that are relevant to portrayals and marketing strategies.<br /><em><br />The author was marketing director, World Gold Council; business & marketing head, Femina; senior brand manager, Ponds; and brand manager, Kaya and Barista</em><br /><br />(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 11-03-2013)</div>
