Raghav Jaikar burst into his tiny two-room home and did a small jig for his children who were eating lunch. They burst into peals of laughter, as he said, miming Rajesh Khanna and waving a packet at wife Raksha, “Hum gaadi wale ho gaye, Pushpa, hum gaadiwale ho gaye!’” Raksha, joining in the laughter, inquired, “Everything is fine na? Kuchh problem to nahi hoga?”In a country of such abundance, where financial scams ran in lakhs of crores, a small tailor had taken a small loan for a small car costing a small sum of Rs 3 lakh.“Arre!,” said Raghav, “kya problem hoga? We are earning well; by bappa’s grace, we will pay Rs 10,260 every month as EMI.” He gave her Rs 1,001, and said, “Go, give this to your Bappa. Today, I will also go with you to Siddhivinayak temple.” And he looked at her with eyes that had aged with toil, eyes that dealt with time on a moment-to -moment basis, uncomplainingly. Raghav was a man who spoke little. His audience was made up of coloured fabric, threads, buttons, laces, trimmings, pipings, patchworks and his Lucky sewing machine. They had both actually been working so hard that they did not notice time’s signature on their skins. Raksha, too, had begun to sprout tiny grey hair around her temples... Okay, okay, he thought, warding off the emotions, they would go today to Siddhivinayak.The Jaikars were tailors who began nine years ago, making blouses and petticoats, and chemises for little girls. With leftover fabric they made innerwear for children, which always got sold, helping create a small elbow space in their household budget.And so they plodded over the years, surrendering to their tailoring acumen and allowing it to tailor what it wished through them. Soon, Raksha and Raghav began collecting more customers. Some came to get saris hemmed with the fall, or some fancy blouse worn by Madhuri Dixit copied from covers of torn magazines that found their way to the little town of Kalpasha, on Mumbai’s outskirts.Soon, traders and shopowners noticed their skills. The clothes the businessmen bought from the city were terrible. To get the better ones, they would have to go deep into the city, which was fraught with higher costs, which would have to be passed on to the consumer, making clothes expensive. So they touched only the outskirts and bought the glitzy stuff, which did not last; the colours ran, buttons broke, tinsels crushed...Raghav and Raksha began to make clothes, taking styles from the photographs of star children, models, and so forth... and these clothes were much liked by the people. Before long, they were tailoring clothes that the shops bought and sold as readymade garments. The shops began to provide them with fabric and related material, along with the orders. Once the Jaikars relocated to distant suburban Mumbai, the number of customers increased, and Raghav began to find it tedious to transport the fabric or the readymades back to the shops. Usually, the traders themselves bought cut pieces from fairs and sales in a cost-efficiency bid; these never came in any packing, but as loose bits. The traders did not number them but invoiced him for, say, ‘215 pieces of cloth’, stating a value against them, but that was neither here nor there. And Raksha feared they would lose pieces in transit.Raghav contemplated buying a car. After all, business was growing. He and Raksha met Vinayak, who was a caterer for weddings. He had bought a car last year. Was he able to manage the EMIs? Was the system easy?Vinayak Talpade had bought a car from Peacock Ltd, a car dealer in Mumbai. “There is too much running around in this if you go to a car dealer who is not attached to a finance company. Oh yes, financing works best for people like us. How else do we take our businesses forward?” he said.Vinayak told the Jaikars this was the simplest way to do it; since Peacock had a tie-up with Ambara Ltd, the financing would be simple. “They are decent people; no nonsense, no bribes, no jhanjhat,” he said. That the entire transaction would be carried out “under the same roof” without having to run around, made both Raghav and Raksha feel special. How much the country had changed, they exclaimed. And no chai-paani (bribes) on top of that! break-page-break Raghav was probably the first in his family to take a loan. He was excited about buying a car, and he believed the system would be as excited about guiding him as it had been goading him to take a loan. He felt he was moving up professionally; now he too could seriously be called a ‘businessman’, because in his mind, a businessman was one who had a car, a set of keys hanging by the loop on his thumb, and a mobile phone tucked in between. Raghav was the new Indian in new India where, they say, the sky is the limit for success. And Raghav and Raksha worked so hard; everyone in the neighbourhood knew that.Raghav also felt at peace that now he would not have to run around in autos and taxis carrying chindis (fabric bits) with him. And how many trips they made, oh God! His back hurt a lot with all those bumpy rides.Now, Raksha was asking, “Did the finance officer ask you about how much money you would put on the table? Or if you can make ends meet after paying the EMI? The other day, I felt he was unsure... He must have been so happy for you!”Raghav: Arre nahin re! It was a plain business discussion without any emotion or dramatics.Raksha: Next year-end our fists will be tight as Mauli (Raghav’ sister) is getting married. If our EMIs get delayed, what happens?Raghav: I asked him. And he said, Don’t worry, but EMIs will have to be paid with the penalty...[Raghav belonged to a new India which, like America before its recession, had begun to live out of its current income and working capital, and depended more on plastic money and future earning ability. He was a target for the new-world moneylenders, in an economy where money could be bought just like you could Bedekar’s lonche.Raghav came from a family that was conservative and careful with money. Luxuries were unheard of. So, he was pleased that he would be able to take his parents out in a gaadi. He recalled the Maruti ads; yes, he would ask his mother to break a coconut in front of the car and thank the goddess of wealth and the god of machines.At his meeting with the finance company man, there was not a hitch. Raghav was happy that he could simply sign and return to work. The car would be a capital asset for their livelihoods. They had a motorcycle, but that didn’t help in their business. So, they had taken the decision to purchase a new car with financial aid.When Raghav went to the home of Ramakant Joshi — in the neighbourhood high-rise where Raksha had a number of women clients, including Joshi’s daughters-in law — with pedhas from the Siddhivinayak temple, the good gent had asked if he had done financial planning. “Mhanje?” Raghav had asked. Joshi had laughed through his phlegm, “Aaata kaay boloo mee? There is no Marathi translation for that.”But later Joshi told his anxious wife that the Jaikars probably thought that their income would suffice. “They do not realise how finance companies load the interest and penalties for delays in payment.” Mrs Joshi pursed her lips and kept Rs 11 in a betel leaf at the feet of her Vithoba with a warning not to trouble poor Raghav. As for Raghav, yes, he and Raksha had done a back-of-the-envelope calculation, which is even today on their window pane, stuck with a bit of cooked rice.Joshi’s audience that evening at the Walker’s Park were intent as they heard the degeneration of India from him: “This is the crux of the pain, of their (Jaikars’) situation. This is the curse of being illiterate in India, because it hinges on ignorance and being made a scapegoat. Loans are sold with glee, but thereafter the environment will not provide honest information and systems that are engineered to protect. The Jaikars see the acquisition or the plan to acquire a car as a solution and an ability to improve their business logistics. Because they do not know that solution engineers come mired in greed and an agenda to destroy!” break-page-breakThis morning’s jig for the kids was after three hours at Peacock Dealers. Three days ago, when he and Raksha had visited Peacock, within 15 minutes of their dialogue with the dealer, Aseem Tolani, another man had joined in. It transpired that the man, Hiren Dholakia, was a representative of the finance company Ambara Ltd, and operated from the showroom’s premises.Tolani, the dealer, had realised that the Jaikars were going to make their decision right there, and that they had no plans of seeing another dealer or other brands of cars. Sure enough, within minutes, they had selected the car and the colour. Now, Dholakia spread out a whole bunch of documents on his table, all in English, naturally, and flashing his business smile asked them to sit down. Spealing in simple Hindi woven in sing-a-song Indianese, he explained how the vehicle would be financed and the amount and tenure of the EMIs — which would be slightly over Rs 10,000 per month.The only question the Jaikars asked was what would happen in case of a delay. Dholakia replied, “Then the EMI would have to be paid along with a fine (possibly, he meant penal interest and delayed payment charges.) ”Dholakia was a sweet talker and the Jaikars felt overwhelmed at first. Tea was served to them in upper-class bone china. Sitting in Tolani’s airy, glitzy showroom with numerous shiny cars, and seeing Dholakia and Tolani ‘suited-booted’, the Jaikars felt underdressed and inhibited. Presently, they did not consider it necessary to ask any more questions.As for Dholakia, he didn’t need to do any hardsell — if Raghav was buying from Peacock, he had no choice but to take his loan from Ambara as it had a “monopolistic” tie-up with Peacock. So Dholakia was in no hurry either. While anybody else in a competitive situation would have hastened to sign up the Jaikars, Dholakia was laid back.This morning, Raghav had gone and presented his bank statement, etc., to Dholakia and returned home with a ‘Yes’ from Ambara. Dholakia had said he would visit their home after a week to verify the residential address, and then they would complete the finance formalities. Raghav felt at peace. And peace had caused him to do that jig this morning for his kids.Happiness spread around the small Jaikar home.Four days later, as they sat down for lunch with the kids who had just returned from school, Dholakia materialised at their iron grill door, wearing a blue shirt. He rang the doorbell even after seeing that they were eating. Nandita, Raghav’s 10-year-old daughter, ran and opened the door to let him in. Dholakia did not apologise for showing up without informing. He had brought the loan agreement papers to get their signatures. Raghav rushed about to find place for Dholakia to sit, and said, “Please leave the agreement with me. I will have my nephew explain it to me. He speaks English, he studies at SIES College in Nerul... hum ko to angrezi ka ABCD bhi nahi maloom.” Dholakia’s tone changed: “Nahin nahin, I cannot leave the agreement. Abhi itna time kiske paas hai!” He insisted that the agreement be signed immediately if they wanted the loan. An air of unhappiness spread around the Jaikar home. All eyes went to Raghav. They saw his pallor change. Nandita disliked this man who could speak down to her father. On cue, she went and stood close to Raghav and hugged his arm. And the temerity of the man to walk into their home with his shoes on! Nandita was sure she did not like him.The Jaikars signed the agreement under pressure. They had to quickly get their cheque book out of the trunk upon which sat a large papier-mache Saraswati idol. Nandita had won it at a Geeta chanting competition. So many things had to be moved, and it took a long time to write out 36 cheques and sign them. Dholakia sat there talking loudly on his phone.As Raghav was signing the agreement, the children watched, a trifle unhappy, sensing that this man had put their father to grief. He and Raksha were already surprised at Dholakia suddenly turning up without intimation. Then, his refusal to wait till they had someone translate the English into Marathi; now they were reluctantly signing the agreement without reading it. And on top of that, they had to relocate Saraswati ji hastily. Raghav would have usually rolled out a dhurrie and then placed the idol on it. Dholakia’s “take it, or leave it” attitude had caused their hearts to lurch in anxiety and despair. Their joy had been coloured.Before long, Dholakia took the papers and left. He did not give them a copy of the agreement. At the door he stopped and peering through the bars told the Jaikars, in a happy tone, “I will now go to the registrar and complete the formalities. The cheque for the loan amount will be given to the dealer within a couple of days after the agreement has been executed.”But the simple folk that they were, as soon as the blue-shirted man had gone into the street, Raghav did a small jig for his children, copying Shahrukh Khan, not wanting them to be sad. To Raksha, he said, “Punha jaaoya amhi Bappa kade, kaay bolteys?” (Let us go to Ganpati Bappa again, what do you say?), allowing himself to be overcome with happiness that at least the car would now come shortly as soon as finance was released. So what if some people treated them badly!But Raksha felt bad. Her husband was a good man. They had been badly treated, she felt. To be continuedcasestudymeera (at) gmail (dot) comRead Businessworld case studies on Facebook(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 08-04-2013)
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The flirtatious flight attendants were grounded years ago and the stereotypical ‘Hawkins’ housewife ads put out with the trash, but women in many ads are still portrayed as trashy, making the provocative Fair & Lovely spots seem downright progressive.A recent Amrutanjan campaign depicts a full-bodied apsara applying balm to a stranger whose moaning ecstasy knows no bounds. Brand management argues that Amrutanjan saw a 25 per cent growth in six months, proving sex sells. Besides, if Zandu can sizzle the market with Malaika’s item number, so can they.Why only India? A Superbowl 2012 ad from Teleflora claimed that men who give flowers get laid. Calling foul, Ad Age said it was as “subtle as a bag of hammers”. After Dove’s 2004 global “Campaign for Real Beauty”and Nike’s 2005 “My butt is big and that’s just fine”, why go backwards? Why can’t we maintain the fine line between reality and fantasy? Between understated sensuality and in-your-face primetime titillation?Wake up feminists! M&M’s second female character, ‘naked’ Miss Brown, is doing more damage to the existing gender bias, and not just in the candy-mascot field. Dare I add, condom commercials, by contrast, are far less risqué.What is the mindset that enables men to cast themselves in an expert, patriarch or demonstrator’s role, yet cast women as air-headed customers, needing convincing before buying toilet cleaners, that too by using pseudo-scientific terms and voice-over repetition should they have missed it, poor things? Or is it just convenient for advertisers to portray women as socially desired or perceived (by men, I’d imagine), seldom questioning the fairness or reality of it?Ads with women can be placed in three buckets: one, incompetent housewives; two, not involved in major decisions; three, decorative, leisurely or sex objects. Her usefulness is somewhere between a superwoman caretaker and a sex plaything. Anything that doesn’t fit comes from an agency that doesn’t yet exist. From household drudge to sexy office lady, reality never makes an appearance. Heck, even those Dove ads I praised earlier, were airbrushed for ‘real’ beauty! Sadly, most women internalise these stereotypes and learn their “limitations” thus establishing a self-fulfilling prophecy.Offro deodorant ads, with women rushing to the nearest sprayed male, add to the insult. May well be a funny, but it is clear who is being laughed at. So when Shaina, our ‘humourless femanzi’, poses uncomfortable questions, she echoes a larger sentiment — are we abusing our limits of ‘tolerance’ and, in questioning a lopsided ad, are women still allowed to be a part of this progressive/liberal India without being told to “chill yaar”?Since the case touches upon cars, take Volvo, for instance. Volvo equals safety and ‘Volvo moms’ famously agreed for years. Why does their brand logo have the male gender symbol? Agency claims it’s a symbol also used for Mars (men are from?) and Iron. Here’s a thought: try the female gender symbol, which stands for Venus and Copper. It represents balance, grace and aesthetics besides making a 21st century statement.People argue that the solution lies within social or political evolution, and not a change in media consumption. But this assumes that media is just another commodity, feeding basal instincts. That is untrue. For, does it not facilitate democratic exchanges, powerful images, meaningful conversations thereby creating culture? And if producers and consumers of media (men included) don’t do anything about it, they are complicit in it. Shaina is not over-reacting, she’s just outnumbered. The ad industry is notoriously male dominant; barely 3 per cent women make it to the top creative echelons. Never mind women’s rights, it’s just bad business practice. We need to hire more Shainas; not threaten to fire the handful we have. Else, who will argue with Volvo? The author was brand director, Hewlett-Packard, EMEA, at Publicis London. Now based in Chicago, USA, she is guest faculty at ICSC European Retail School, and an examiner at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), UK(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 25-03-2013)
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What is the cause of repeated incidence of sexual violence against women in India? Is it socio-economic disparity, lack of education, lack of opportunity, or patriarchy? In the male psyche, is rape the natural consequence of enforcing a right, privilege or entitlement? Is the label of crime attached to rape appropriate or an aberration of populist urban sentiment? Did nature give a womsn a right to decline a male’s amorous overtures? Should customs and norms be brought in to contain the raging hormones of a sexually active Indian male? What visual image should an Indian male have while masturbating? Should he be punished for seeking this image in the real world when his mother made him believe he can have all he desires? The recent gangrape in Delhi draws our attention to safety and women’s rights, such as a right to decline an offer of sex. Justice J.S. Verma, in his report, beseeches the government to improve governance and ensure the safety of women in India. But does the onus only lie with the government? Is not there also an onus on influencers of male fantasy? India is too diverse to be categorised as a uniform jurisdiction. Yet, every resident unapologetically seeks the glitz and glamour that its media brings forth. Be it Bollywood (or its regional avatars) or TV, or now the Internet, media is all-pervasive, and influences the human mind.The role of advertising is apparent to all of us. Since there is competition, use of unfair and improper means to attract consumption is common, including women being used as sexual objects to sell a product. It is irrelevant whether displaying a woman, or a part of her, in the advertisement is germane to the product or not. While there are laws governing all trades, can these laws, rules and regulations take away the advertiser’s right to practice his profession, trade and calling, all guaranteed by the Constitution? Is it a crime for an advertiser to aim for profits?. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has formulated a code for self-regulation in advertising. One of the fundamental principles of advertising, according to the code, is to be truthful and honest, the other being to adhere to generally accepted standards of public decency. So should a storyboard for a male deodorant — as Shaina says — depicting an unconditional surrender of the female to the male fantasy be considered violative of these fundamental principles? Who audits a depiction for violation? Who is the custodian of morality? Next, the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’) punishes ‘obscenity’. Wonder of wonders, India also has a specific statute called the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 (‘IRW Act’), which prohibits the ‘indecent representation of women’ in advertisements. ‘Indecent representation of women’ is defined as ‘the depiction in any manner, of the figure of a woman, her form or body or any part thereof, in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent, or derogatory to, or denigrating women, or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals.’ But seemingly, ads such as the girl-leaving-hostel-in-bedsheet, or so many others, have not been classified as inappropriate, since referrals to the IRW Act are too few to be even counted. Once again, who defines ‘indecent’? Or has ‘indecent’ been negotiated?Then, are the Justice Verma report, truth in advertising, IPC and the IRW Act doomed for failure? They are pitted against formidable enemies: the primitive and easily excitable male desire; governance skewed in favour of profit making; the Indian mother’s indoctrination of her son to make him believe that he is invincible and capable of subjugating anyone; the woman who mindlessly allows her body to be used in the name of ‘professional requirements’. The author is a Bangalore-based corporate lawyer and a senior partner at the law firm J. Sagar Associates. He also teaches at law schools and executive education programmes(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 25-03-2013)
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Aseem Wadhwa heard out his account executive, Rupen Raina. They had just finished meeting the diamond client, along with Jaggi Dasan and the CEO. Jaggi had presented the draft storyboard, which showed a man placing a diamond necklace on his lady’s neck, and his subsequent moves — which, as we saw earlier in the story, had annoyed Shaina Kamat, the senior creative manager.Rupen: How do we know if she is the right kind of woman for this ad? Why does Shaina think it is the man’s wife? Shaina did not create this ad; so, if she sees the wife in that lady, so will a consumer. Why cannot she be his mistress? Girlfriend? And should not she look sexier? It’s diamonds... we should glamorise it, nahin? There should be a mystery around the woman...[They were reassembling after the diamond client meeting and now Rupen wanted to pick Shaina’s brains.] Shaina: You have made a deep point generally, but your particulars are disturbing. Yes, she will appeal to men in the traditional sense, but who is your target audience? Who are you wishing to be the buyer of the diamonds? Men or women? Rupen: Women naturally, but the covet value is high if that lady is portrayed as the non-wife.Shaina (wincing sharply): Not anymore, Rupen. The world just changed while you blinked. Ever since the assault on Nirbhaya, we must be careful how we portray women... this is what we were talking about this morning.Aseem: Shaina, you may want to change the tone of your ads. But reality is not changing, you see? The other four creative directors at Alcove may not think like that. This has to be an agency stance... not individual.Masooma: Then we will err on the side of respect for women. That youth fashion brand’s campaigns, especially the one about the girl leaving the boys’ hostel in a bed sheet: Do you think the girls on the ad team resonated with the idea? All their ads cause the stomach to turn and, in my opinion, do not reflect the world according to women.Jaggi: So Shaina, can creative object or should they work to the brief? Shaina: Rupen? Would you be upset if I was on your diamond ad team and objected to your profiling the lady as a mistress? [Rupen grinned and looked at Aseem and said, “I guess the boss decides!”]Shaina: Aah... So, Jaggi, my feeling is that the girls on the girl-in-bedsheet team had no choice. Either they were frightened or unsure of expressing it, or like me, they expressed displeasure and were ridiculed. ‘There is a brief; you do as you are told. Period.’[Recently, Shaina had to take over the Offro deodorant ad from another creative lead. The draft storyboard played upon unmitigated attraction unleashed by the deodorant so that women were mesmerised, and dropping everything, they slid in the direction of the deo’s perfume, collapsing in surrender to the men. The marketing word was that the deodorants were packed with irresistible scents that attracted women to the men — hence the seductive appeal of the product justifying the creative.Two team members had found this absurd, as had Shaina. When she sought to change the storyline, CEO Gufi had lightly rebuked Shaina and told her the original idea had to be kept.]Gufi: We are in the business of giving the client what the client wants.Shaina: Why did I think we are in the business of creating good advertising? (Followed by) If you are pitching for their social media advertising, please know it contains 50 per cent women. Only 50 per cent are men. You are making the girls look stupid, woolly headed. Fantasy should at the least make sense. But this is not just nonsense, it is also demeaning women and their essential intelligence.Gufi: Shaina, now, let’s not get all uptight and haughty. That’s life, sex appeal sells. Let’s not re-invent the wheel. We have a job to do. Sadly, we work according to brief. The brief has defined the target audience as ‘teens and 18-25, rebellious youth, western values... blah’. The brief says, appeal to them! So that’s what we do! break-page-breakShaina: (To Jaggi) I guess he could not see what I was seeing. Our standpoints were so different, so distinct and stark... I began to wonder why I was seeing what I was seeing, and why he was unable to see that.Jaggi: What were you seeing?Shaina: I could see why in 1980, my grandmother was not taken seriously by doctors and family when she told them she feared the hysterectomy surgery. But her sons told the doctor to go ahead. Ba went into mental trauma, never to recover from it. The men in her life had decided that she need not be heard. I could see why my mother was not taken seriously when she had protested and told them to give Ba time, space... but they told her ‘you don’t know anything’! The same attitude was lurking in Gufi. We got bristly over this point; he moved me out of the team... all very absurd and stupid, if you ask me.Taran Alur: The CEO has deliverables, Shaina. The creative resource cannot tweak that.Shaina: Okay, but he was seeing my words as a woman’s viewpoint, not as a worldview that needed to change. Any communication we put out there has to be politically correct by every gender. Why, today we challenge the use of words like ‘black’ or ‘gay’ or ‘disabled’. We demand inclusivity, right? Then how about including women in that worldview? And this is why I feel that finally ads are masculine, and represent a male worldview.Alur: I differ. It may be a ‘male-ness’ dominance, but not male dominance.Shaina: I wonder about that. Maybe you have not seen this commercial for M&M’s, the chocolate candy.. [M&M’s is a bag of coloured candy like Cadbury’s Gems. In the commercial, the green M&M is presented as the femme fatale; she walks down the street to many catcalls from guys she passes — a construction worker, a guy in a convertible, etc. Even women comment on her covetously.]Shaina: Add to that the rumour mongering that the green candy had aphrodisiac effects! How this myth came to be is difficult to tell, but each colour bears a myth, like if the last candy in the bag is red, your wish will come true. M&M’s didn’t admit or deny Green’s imagery. But in 1997, the green candy became female, Ms Green: eyelashes and all. In a bag full of candy, she is the only lady; the red, blue, orange and yellow are all male. Says anything? Closer home, take that cricketer-pataoing-girl ad. Whose brainchild is it, male or female? The girl in a boys’ hostel bedroom, is that male or female gaze? The alcohol company calendar ad...Jaggi: When has it not been male? The cricketer patao-ing ad — It is a tech product and technology is subconsciously seen as a male domain!Alur: Shaina, you are reading way too much into every ad. Today, more men ‘patao’ women, as arranged marriages have given way to love marriages, and people in other SECs need something to add to their style value, that’s what it is! Like a rich fellow uses his Merc to do the same!Masooma: But then Mercedes still doesn’t talk to the women… ha! Shaina: But even so, they also don’t give sleazy pick-up lines! See, I am not protesting about portraying the essential nature of the genders. But the storyline was dangerous and the patao-ing ad seemed to endorse a certain guile, cunning behaviour. Isn’t that what we are fighting in the case of Nirbhaya, the dangerous intrusion into a woman’s life, unasked? break-page-breakAlur: You are super sensitive now, we always have been like this... how can you link this with the Nirbhaya case?Aseem: Shaina, have you thought that maybe you are guilty of judging all girls by your moral platform?Alur: Then again, the Virat Kohli ad is working, so it must be connecting with the audience. Else, people march on everything these days; this would not have got away, ha ha ha! Shaina: Then it stands to reason that all advertising is driven to cater to the male worldview... that is clear!Masooma: Shaina, please complete the M&M’s angle for me. Who are the other colours in the bag?Shaina: All men... their website profiles them. Red is 30, brains and brawn — genius IQ; Yellow likes pretty ladies, is best friends with Red, essential nice guy. Blue likes ladies too, is confident, and so on. Orange is stressed out, over anxious...Masooma: And that one green woman is presented as they see her!Alur: So what does that prove?Shaina: That the world we see and live in is a world from the standpoint of the male....Jaggi: To be fair, there can be either a male worldview or a female worldview at any point in time. There cannot be a third! Shaina: No! The third view is a balanced view. Everything else is a skewed worldview; and that is what we are saying needs correction in advertising. It must include the female 50 per cent! Look, M&M’s approach is fun, but when you see the male-ness dominance, it is worrisome.[Much discussion followed... It was funny as it was pathetic.]Shaina: So coming to the point, it is a man’s perspective that dictates copy lines, visuals, etc., like ‘happy periods’!, which is not the same thing as ‘it’s a man’s world’, which is not what I am saying. But it means that many things in life are representative of a world as a man sees it. For example, you can have a male view of mobile phones and a female view. But what is disturbing is that whenever a woman is presented in an ad, she is as the men see her!That is the mindset that produced the M&M’s commercial, in my opinion. It is startling!Aseem: But what’s the official line on the aphrodisiac M&M’s?Shaina: Well, they neither affirmed nor denied the rumours. They were always treated as consumer imagery and rumours. But in 1997, the company produced a teaser ad that asked, “Is it true what they say about the green M&M?” and then turned their green M&M into a girl, gave her eyelashes, swagger and spunk... Too much coincidence? Tanaz Shapoorji (market research): Do you know that in 2012 they introduced a second lady in the bag: Ms Brown? Predictably, the profiling is a male worldview — she is bespectacled, annoyingly intelligent, very stuffy when she talks; a predictable male viewpoint of intelligent women. And guess who is looking at Ms Brown? It’s the actor William Levy. In the new commercial, he is clearly the opinion leader. He begins by saying, ‘You look delicious today’! Ms Brown gets annoyed and says, ‘I thought you liked me for my brains.’ (Don’t miss — intelligent is not feminine, by interpretation!)So we are already being subtly told that the first take on a new addition is a man’s take. And his first take is the looks, and the first takeaway of looks is ‘delicious’.Alur (laughing): Yeah, you are proving the point very forcefully, have to grant you that! Yet I am not ready to concede. M&M’s is one example. The ‘ladki patao’ the other, the girl-in-a-bedsheet another, the diamond ads another... hmm... okay, that’s a lot.Shaina: Add to that the fact that all the cuss words in most languages, English included, are all about women — mothers and sisters — and related to sex and female genitalia, yeah? Bothersome, no? This is about a male worldview of control and women, is it not? It struck me as so poignant. [There is general discomfort all around...]The girl-in-bedsheet youth fashion brand likewise is all about dictating a worldview of women: ‘Let me show you how today’s woman is/should be.’ Taran, the deeper you go, the darker it gets. When I log into my mailbox, what do I see? Ads for pick-up girls on my screen’s side bar. ‘Want to meet Anna?’ And Anna is a lady oozing out of small clothing... Is that a woman’s standpoint or a man’s?Aseem: She’s right! Yes, the world has a serious male definition! Shaina is saying ‘change the way we do things’. It does need a change, Taran!Shaina: It needs equalising. It needs respect. Today I protest, because today there is an abrupt call to wake up. Until now, I too have been mindless. We need to become mindful. What we do in the future must be fair. When the context changes, or develops a nuance, our content must change in deference to that nuance.Jaggi: I may add that Bollywood’s choli ke peeche opened the floodgates to indecent lyrics, including new ‘talent’. Choli stayed only because the ones who ensured it stayed were those who enjoyed it. Taran: So what you are saying is, where we are clearly divided by gender on the morality of a thing, we must resist doing it?Shaina: No; go one step back and examine if the idea respects women. Make that a check point in the ad strategy. When we were ideating on Zak, the car, Tarapore told me, ‘Give me a body like Bips; that is what really exemplifies my car, truly sexy.’ See what I mean?But globally, see what sells – Hyundai’s ‘fluidic design’, Chrysler’s ‘wind sculpted’ models, Fiat’s ‘Italian 60s fashion’ — not a woman’s body! Partly because it is boring as body parts don’t deliver in high investment purchases beyond eye balls, and partly because more women are buying these cars or have a say in the decision. So, desirable or sexy is primitive, and Indian audiences are being dumbed down by that! Jaggi, if sex is what sold, we’d see men and women equally sexually objectified in popular culture. Instead, we sell men’s sexual subjectivity and women as a sex object. That is, men’s desires are centrally important and consequently pivotal.Tanaz: Which is why in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2009, M&M’s put Ms Green ‘baring all’ on the back cover and it was appalling that people liked it! It’s just me I think who reads too much into it! And this year, they have Ms Brown hiding in the bushes, seemingly stripped.Who stripped her, and who is she stripping for, hanh? casestudymeera(at)gmail(dot)com Read Businessworld case studies on Facebook(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 25-03-2013)
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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 BurnettSo, how did this need to be noticeable translate into sexual overtones in brand messaging using women? 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? 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’! 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.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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.The author was marketing director, World Gold Council; business & marketing head, Femina; senior brand manager, Ponds; and brand manager, Kaya and Barista(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 11-03-2013)
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Jaggi Dasan walked into the audio-visual room, all animated and disturbed. A few of his team were pasting frames of a story board on the pin board in sequence for a meeting. Wherever two people got together, they rued over the recent rape and assault of Nirbhaya.And so did the people in the conference room. Shaina Pandya, his colleague and associate creative director at Alcove Advertising, was bent over some artworks and text. Drawing a chair up to her Jaggi said, "Shaina, the news channels are so angry with the politicians you have to watch news to believe it. There is no more politician-loving. Anchors are calling their bluff and saying, do not use this girl's plight to get a photo-op. We wanted to see all women, all politicians united on this; instead we see women of all parties rubbishing each other, ... via this tragedy. Seriously yaar, this country is such an amazing kaleidoscope... for every moment there is a new expression! Just check Yahoo news, there is a video playing..."The home page burst into view with the announcement of a porn queen in town. Aseem Dhaval, the account manager, made a poor joke and two of the junior team fellows cackled. When Shaina did not react, Aseem's smile shrank. " Oops! Sorry, Shaina...."Shaina: No, no, please go ahead... to each his own variety of entertainment. It's okay... But in a country that has shown it can rape and throw the used woman out of a moving bus to die, this lady's show, what is it? An appreciation of fine art? The timing is all wrong, guys. And you are a sensitive bunch so I am freaking out. One side we have a lady used and killed. And on the other side is the arrival of a porn queen. It does make a mockery of it all. "Jaggi, you were aghast at the politicians' state of mind. How different are we?"The past several days had been gripping for everyone anywhere in India. The violated and outraged young lady lay in an ICU somewhere valiantly urging her demolished body to be brave and restore itself into one. And right in its midst was news of arrangements being made for the arrival of a porn actress, who was the anti-thesis of all that was going on, continued. That rankled.Aseem's attitude, felt Shaina, seemed to say that the attack on Nirbhaya was a fleeting disturbance in his life; and the announcement of the porn puppet's return marked the return of normalcy. Jaggi, sensing her revolt, wished to restore peace.Jaggi: Shaina, the grief is collectively held by all of us. Some of us are very confused, some angry, some sad, some disturbed...our individual expression may vary, but grief is what we all hold...Shaina (nodding): You did not add 'fear', Jaggi. This episode has brought the devil to our doorstep. Every thought of mine is filled with dread, with anger too, but dread predominantly. And as long as all of us are not united in denouncing what has happened, it will mean that we don't care about this enough and the devil will remain on the doorstep. Jaggi: But everyone is in the collective and denouncing what happened! Aseem is an idiot and unable to deal with his grief. People like him need to check in on normalcy to be sure their lives have not changed... that's all.Shaina: Exactly! "That's all"! That's how it is! Not many have the emotional stamina to put their lives on hold and examine what they have been ignoring all along! Life is NOT normal anymore, Jaggi. Like the twin towers that dissolved before our very eyes, the devouring of the young lady has unleashed an ugly cannibal in our midst. If we do not change the way we think, the way we speak, the way we act and the way we feel, that cannibal will live... the cannibal of indifference, the cannibal of disrespect. Shaina's mood worsened. Her face clouding with frustration, she said, "Jaggi, we continue to work via sex to sell anything from chawal ka aata to a mosquito repellent. I am beginning to feel that even we, the glorified corporate -- exalted, rich, seemingly educated humans -- exploit women... this is wrong." Silence laced with confusion spread among them. Then Masooma Shaikh, an account head, said, "Insecure is what a woman feels physically. That is why the intensity of the pain of rape is felt more by women. Like many women say, we have been enduring this since childhood because for some reason a female is unsafe from birth. Therefore, I agree with Shaina. We have been mindlessly talking about beautiful bodies, and as women, we have also been keeping quiet mindlessly. In the process, our ability to think of women other than as objects that gratify is dulled. And this could well be why the world gets bothered by the idea of women as strategic thinkers, leaders. As a race, we are unable to attribute woman with thought, decisions, and viewpoints. And that is what I mean by 'mindless', so that today, we operate on autopilot when it comes to responding to women.Take today: I just saw an ad for an online clothing shop. This lady comes on screen all clothed, then she sheds her clothes one by one, with each move embellished with coquetry and a wriggle of the bottom. That means, that is the only attribute of a woman that came to your mind as a creator of an ad for clothes, no? It struck me that if she had just dropped the clothes, the messaging would have been, 'Oh, what a variety of clothes!' But the thrusts and wriggles and coquetry lends voyeurism to the peeling off of the clothes! Of course, when I scrolled down, I saw that all comments were from men. Jaggi: But we have always advertised like that, nobody thought it was unpleasant!Masooma: Unpleasant? But when a rape that shocks our sensibilities happens, even lipstick feels ugly, Jaggi. break-page-breakShaina: Do you see what she sees, Jaggi, Aseem? And Masooma is 15 years younger than I am. Everyday there is an ad that pretends to sell soap or medicines or peanut butter but the spotlight is on the female anatomy. Who have we been kidding all along? Shaina clicked on a folder on her iPad and showed them an ad for a low-cost airline. "Clearly, very unnecessary and so eminently pointless," she said as they saw visuals that showed a woman in underwear and a certain posture that was shocking, and a copy line that said 'Red Hot Fares and crew'."By using a retro appeal in the lady's looks, the agency had sought to put the stamp of 'cute and ancient' to the ad," said Shaina. "But it was a form of sexual harassment, see? Everyone missed the point, that the management was tongue-in-cheek, offering its crew for free with the fares! Can they?"Jaggi: Oh yeah and they did get into trouble over that ad. The Advertising Standards Authority hauled them over the coals and had them withdraw the ad...Shaina: But what about the part where they created this ad, what about that part? Can that be removed? The part where the creative idea was triggered, the idea, where does it reside? Their PR head apparently threw a fit and called the ASA backward or similar. PR head being male.Masooma: Or is this unique to the airlines world? Take the Kingfisher calendar girls for one. Then Pan Am's TV serial about its airlines and using its own crew -- also retro -- where Maggie Ryan, the purser, is telling a customer whose hands are misbehaving, that she is not included in the price of the ticket. While I too know that propositioning goes on, why make it look cute and 'awww'?Shaina: It seems a very learned PR pundit said, I quote: "There are far more lust-filled men than staunch feminists so they've probably got more to gain than to lose." And that is the crux of why women continue to be despicably treated by men."So you see Jaggi, if female cabin crew are linked to sexually suggestive behaviour, surely the same could be said for underwear models, makeup models or even shoe ads. Heck even coffee, ice cream, perfume, soft drinks, … oh how the list continues, all superimpose sex upon women to sell their product. The fact that car shows use bikini clad women to lure car enthusiasts, affirms that PR pundit's observation. Because the focus of car shows is the male psyche. Masooma: Why, even that summer anti-dryness cream uses a sari clad woman's waist and the suggestive touch by the husband. Yet there is skin all over the body, then why the waist? Why suggest? Are we so badly off when it comes to great marketing ideas?Jaggi: Then we protest too much, don't we?Shaina: And rightly so, no? Why does the dentist on a toothpaste ad talk with urgency, care, gentleness and authority and not yell like a frustrated parent of a child who will not brush his teeth? So that the mind picks up the right message, right? So we could use appropriate messaging to get appropriate behaviours. That is all. Masooma: The message in the advert has to be precise, to the point we are making and not use garnishing. Every aspect of an ad, I was taught in b-school, should convey the brand message. So now take this hoarding for a medical center that shows a young mother and her 5-year-old son lying on their stomachs and looking into the camera. It's a close up… and the mother reveals a hint of a cleavage… and it is clearly deliberate. Necessary? Aspect of brand? Germane to product? Aseem: Yaaaar... aren't you girls getting touchy? Ads with women only show women with legs and skin... it has always been there, unless you are selling insurance to old people.Shaina: Jaggi, I am not saying any of this to defend or offend any ad. You got the drift. Unfortunately, Aseem is handicapped by his attitude so he is never going to get it, but our advertising has to lift itself up and present women as people we respect and go beyond body to her essence as a human. We as advertising people have changed many attitudes. We created the shy male, men who care for their headmasters, men who save animals, we created the participative father... then why not the respectful male?Jaggi: I agree that despite increasing sophistication in advertising, sex is still one of the main and primary enhancement tools in the generation of strong brands. But to think women are exploited (in the process) by and in such ads might be a myth! A counter-argument suggests that men are exploited to a greater degree than women because they are the main people who are targeted by the ad. Shaina: But we are talking about the use of women as sexual props, not any exploitation. A survey in UK's Adweek sometime back (2005) looked at responses to advertisements with sexual content. While 48 per cent of men like ads with sexual content, only 8 per cent of women do. Similarly, 63 per cent of men said that ads with sexual themes make them look, while only 28 per cent of women said they react in the same way.Aseem: There, you said it! It is clear that men are targeted directly by these advertisements and that, when it comes to the bottom line, men are being exploited for their proclivity to parting with money when shown a picture of a beautiful woman. The degradation of women in advertising is incidental to its primary aim of urging purchase, and to suggest that purely women are exploited does not make logical sense. The real object of degradation is the consumer him- or herself, whose needs and desires are exploited by an all-pervading atmosphere of complex consumption.Shaina: It is well possible that you are lost between your own words. Aseem. The point is the context. The context has now demanded that we relook at how we portray women, in the light of all that we have been forced to call to mind in the past several weeks, Jaggi. Till then, we did not complain seriously even when the cheerleader girls shook their posteriors for every six runs at Wankhede. Who put those girls in tiny underwear on the cricket fringes? And to encourage whom, pray? "Aseem, Jaggi, drag your eyes to the point I make and which you hesitate to see. Does an ad for medication need cleavage? It seems to me that we as a country are very excited by all that we can do. So we are now pushing the limits." break-page-breakJust then Taran Alur, the senior director of Alcove, walked in apologising for being late. He then said, "So let us look at Jeymini Diamonds' story board quickly, I believe Goldy (another creative head) has given it the right touch! The client is coming in at 2, so we need to broadly narrate to him what the story in the commercial could be."Aseem took him through the storyboard -- a well dressed man was gently placing a string of diamonds around a pretty lady's neck... and in frame 3 and 4 his hands lingered, making suggestive movements on her neck.... Alur: Shaina? You okay with the drift? Any observations? Shaina: Yeah, okay to a point, but we must remove the two frames - the 3rd and the 4th -- lingering hand, finger drawing circles... bad creative.Alur: It's okay, just 2-3 frames… Sorry? No? Why, what's wrong? It adds the right touch of intimacy.Shaina (wryly): What intimacy are you looking for in a diamond ad, Taran? He is the husband, he is buying her diamonds, she is delighted... case complete. Just throw in the models and the diamonds and hand the docket to the films department to produce...Jaggi (trying hard to suppress a growing smile): Then how will this ad be any different from one for Adidas' cross trainer shoes?Alur: All-rright! So I have missed something, eh? What's the issue?Shaina: Well, the issue is that we are sexing it up. For a purchase of diamonds, why go cult it like Debeers to sell only to the romantic, or those seeking payback? Extremely backward. The woman of today does not need a man to 'give' her diamonds. She goes and buys it... ufff!Alur (alarmed): I still don't get it. When you make a present to someone, a thanks, a hug, a smile is natural I thought. A flirting glance is common among couples. And they are a couple! Why are you so over-sensitive about it? What's with her, please? Jaggi: Taran, she has a point. We took a long time to get to it, so let me help you cut to the chase. Shaina: I am sensitive because the whole country today seems to think not only nothing is wrong with a touch, but they are entitled to go far beyond and treat the woman like a public touch screen! Somewhere it has begun to seem as if the advertiser is selling the lady model, while the product -- coffee, medicines, cycles, agarbattis, shower gel -- all come free.Alur: What is it? Why are you smarting so much? Did you not create the ad for Zak, the car? Yes, Jaggi? Recall, where the guy opens this car in a show room and faints on seeing a body beautiful inside, with the words 'breathtaking'?Shaina: Not any 'body' but a body in underwear. The herd mentality. I ran with the crowd that believed a car needs expression of a beautiful body to sell. How stupid I was to present the male idea of body when I should have used Cuisinart's Die-Cast Food Processor's body... good looks and fabulous performance, both!Alur: You seem to miss the point that this ad in fact targets the male, and is exploiting him with the use of a pretty woman to part with his credit card! Shaina: Touche! That diamond storyboard drives home the last point you made, albeit obtusely. That men part with money for diamonds in the face of a pretty lass. Which is not how we want to sell, right? It does not even stand for who we are! Don't you see a product needs to sell for what it is! I mean how desperate are we?Alur: Shaina, it is an ad, for heaven's sake!Masooma: And ads are expected to be persuasive…. If the messaging is warped, the persuasion could be dangerous. Like the jeweler store ad where you are cajoled to save for your daughter's marriage! Very bad!Shaina: Taran, today we have a context and this context begs us to be alert to what we say and why we say it. India just voted to end rapes. We cannot anymore continue being blasé. Have you seen this ad for sports accessories? Let me show you some… They write only the first and last alphabets of their brand name - F and K, dotting the distance between the two; and they use visuals that stun the head and tell you it is a young brand... but is young equal to promiscuous, provocative and pornographic? Damn, I have a 13-year-old at home!Shaina opened a folder that unravelled a series of 9-10 print ads. "These ads seem to hint at knowing the pulse of the youth. Like this, Taran? Is your son like this, Jaggi? Their latest ad is one where a girl leaves a boys' hostel in just a bed sheet! The agency defended it in these words: 'This is our newest range for the summer. It had to be different... the bag had to show interesting ways in which women use it. The girl leaving the boy's hostel was a totally different kind of idea. Men do it all the time, but this film was from a woman's perspective...' "Really? Is that how women think or men?"Alur was uncomfortable. "I haven't seen these before. Jaggi... you seen them?"Jaggi: They have been around for some time. On YouTube, etc. They seem to present a forced personality of the youth, an image they are forcing, I feel. Alur: Sure sexuality in advertising does have the potential to affect human values, but need not always... For example, if you look at the Heinz ads in the US market, for both beans and ketchup, they have tried models and 'saucy copy lines' including woman-whipping-man videos -- downright desperate and dumb. They never worked and were withdrawn faster than they were put up. So, now it is back to product and good taste. So if Heinz uses saucy copy lines, our value system won't be affected because we buy Heinz for its taste, let's say. Ditto for products from Swiss watches to desi ghee. Aseem: On the flip side, as new things like technology come in, we power ourselves to venture into areas that our ancestors never did, such as paragliding, windsurfing... open heart surgeries.... We all do what we all do!Alur: Yet, I see your point, Shaina. And if you mean we must curb the desire to use sex, sexuality, sensuality and their ilk to sell products, then I am fine with it, as long as we don't get too severe as a result. Advertising should be fun, not severe. I do not want you to nurse the feeling that there is an undercurrent of gender superiority in advertising where the male viewpoint somehow prevails....Shaina: But it does prevail, Taran, it does! Males decide who looks hot and ads convey the same, don't they? Consider the following: By the age of 10, most girls are afraid of becoming fat. Many more adolescent school girls than boys, diet.Among college students, a larger percentage of women than men report feeling unhappy about their looks. Women in the general population report more negative attitudes about their physical appearance than do men. Sadly, negative body image often begins when girls are young and extends far into adulthood. For some women, it lasts their entire lives, thanks to skinny models with hourglass figures used by products from toothpastes to airliners.Alur: But women do want to look good, so a body consciousness is natural. Men are conscious too!Jaggi: And maybe that is what advertisers use to justify the need for women in their ads Shaina: I think it is many lifetimes of conditioning that has led advertising to be gender insensitive. The men who say the stuff they do for that sports accessories F........k ad come from parents and grandparents and so forth who have seriously engendered a male-oriented world. This is why today some men like Aseem are of the view that an ad with women's bodies revealed will help sell products, because they are catering to other men. Alur: I don't think so Shaina. It would then mean that the world has a predominant male perspective and interpretation.Shaina: Now you are challenging me, Taran. We will meet you after your diamond man leaves at 2.30....To be continuedcasestudymeera (at)gmail(dot)com Read Businessworld case studies on Facebook(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 11-03-2013)
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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?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. 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. Ad visuals are courtesy www.businesspundit.comToday, 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”!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.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. 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?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.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. 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!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. break-page-breakThese 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. Ad visuals are courtesy www.businesspundit.comGender 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.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? Both ads, like the products they sell, do stoke male voyeuristic fantasy about sex and could increase sexual desire. 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?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. 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.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. 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?Pranesh Misra is the chairman of Brandscapes Worldwide(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 11-03-2013)
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It is not the man who has too little but the man who craves more, who is poor” — Roman court philosopher Seneca The case reminds me of Ichak Kalderon Adizes’ work, “Responsibility, Authority, Power and Influence” (1992), which emphasises that those who have the authority to decide can be undermined by those with power.For me personally, power can be felt instinctively in an interaction with people who have an uncompromising sense of purpose. Hence, leaving aside the power from authority, genuine power that endures, arises from conviction to go the last mile in executing an ideal, come what may. This power becomes person-neutral, infectious and self-propelling. Embedded somewhere is a sense of doing right, and correcting what is wrong or inadequate.A singular quality of power seen in the work of Bunker Roy and Anaama is the absence of arrogance, pride or self-attention. Hence, we need to seek the source in those parts of our souls that seek outlets veering towards the extraordinary, the challenge, the unstoppable, which, unless expressed in concrete actions, curls into frustration and poisons the innards. Hence the compulsion to give. There is no other choice.In institutions, power is a function of authority, which often calls for an architecture under which authority is constructed and power executed. The source of power is the capability to punish or reward. A person meeting the needs (or denying them) of another has power over that person. Such power is tied to a sense of justice, discipline, process and orientation.Sources of power can be numerous, and in various avatars. The most obnoxious is the one that is self-serving, and is an obstacle to the people over whom it is exercised. This is the power that is repressive, and the most difficult to overthrow. But it also breeds the power of courage, which, in turn, ignites collective power that needs no authority to be exercised.At the other end is the power of love, which leads to the power of sacrifice and unselfishness. The case hints at this when discussing Anthony Giddens, the sociologist. The power of love is “transformative”. And this can be observed even more deeply in the fine arts and music. I wish the case also covered the aspect of art and its capacity to generate power — the power to move emotions, however mundane, into cataclysmic joy.The case talks of “various connotations to power”. And then mingles it with “motivation”. I would view the two separately, if the worth and richness of each is to be discovered. Nobody is powerless. Everyone has “power over their own selves’. Leadership uncovers, and then discovers, this self-power and converts it to expanding energy.These days, the concept of thought leadership is engaging the talents and minds of management gurus. The CEO has to be a ‘thought leader’, in addition to being an efficient user of resources. So is ‘thought leadership’ a power — the power to foresee, not just forecast? Bunker Roy and Anaama’s is a case of thought leadership, as their work is inspirational and offers concrete options to deliver at least cost what others have aspired but failed to do. Roy’s Barefoot College has conception and execution embedded in its DNA. It is a powerhouse that can be duplicated with the same value base.So is power then about value addition? An MBA talent has the power to create value in Tier-2, -3 and -4 markets by, say, using knowledge to improve hygiene. We have seen this in every initiative to penetrate rural markets and create value. There can be many ideals without idealism which an MBA can espouse.Power is a consequence, unless it is a mere attachment to authority. Power earned through “good thoughts, good words and good deeds” is a glow that defies power-cuts, as its source of generation is the turbine of giving. And, what is the prime mover of this turbine is a mystery with a tacit dimension.Roy and the likes of him never feel the power to control as they expand their mission and purpose. On the contrary, people derive their own strengths by ceding to him the power of direction and enactment.Reading the case reminds me of film director Satyajit Ray and his works on screen. Ray enjoyed a unique power of the visual, through which he transmitted emotions resting in the souls of all of us. The power to conceive, perceive and construct films of great natural beauty and relevance gave Ray a magnetic appeal over several continents.The sources of power are many and complex. Sadly, the abuse of power is more common than the joy that flows once power becomes the fuel of synergy. Finally, the well-known quote “Power corrupts” needs to be confronted and not absorbed. Because power is a neutral energy coloured only by the purpose to which it is put.The author is former managing director of Voltas(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 04-02-2013)
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