Portrayal Of Women In Commercials

When people say sex sells, most of the time what they really mean is that sexy women sell.

For decades, advertisers have been finding different ways to feature women in ads in order to entice buyers. And, it would seem, the strategy works.

But the way women have been portrayed in advertising has changed over the decades, and changed the way society views women because of it. From housebound drudge to sexpot to business leader, ads are constantly arguing with us about women’s role in society.

The following lists illustrate how women are seen

Let’s take a look at the two commercials for the Fastrack band, one for clothing and one for bags. The clothing ad depicts two creatively dressed women “coming out of the closet.” Here, Fastrack is encouraging young women to be themselves and not be confined to a certain type, and to “move on” (the slogan). The bag advertisement has a lot of overlap with the sexual category. A woman is shown waking up from a night with a man while the man sleeps. Startled, she grabs her Fastrack bag (while wearing only a bedsheet) and runs from the apartment. Over the course of her flight she manages to slip into a loose top and short shorts, passing one surprised man and a group of surprised boys. Now fully dressed she smirks as she walks off, with the slogan “Wanna Move On?” displayed. While the woman is obviously sexualized, she is also very independent. A relationship with a man (presumably a one night stand) does nothing to slow her down. She is on the move and goes/does what she wants.

Its not only that women are depicted in certain ways in the modern era but this has been happening since ages.

1890s: Led by Susan B. Anthony, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was formed in May 1890. At the same time, this ad from 1893 clearly says that a woman’s place was in the kitchen, far from polling sites.

1943: This ad, created by J. Howard Miller for Westinghouse Electric, was designed to boost morale during wartime as women took over jobs vacated by men who joined the military. As one of the first depictions of an empowered woman in an ad, the poster was revived by the feminist movement in the 1980s.

2004: A backlash (of sorts) begins.

 Ogilvy & Mather created this ad for Dove featuring “real” women with “real” shapes. (According to Business Week, Dove still used Photoshop to erase imperfections from their intentionally imperfect forms.)

The state of Indian women in advertising today is a mixed bag of progress and challenge. Progressive advertisements exist but only target a relatively small segment of the population (young, unmarried, without a family, middle to upper class). Despite their limited scope, the progressive message of independence and empowerment is still strong. The huge increase in sexualized advertisements over the past half century or so has in some ways increased the options women have but overall has the extremely detrimental effect of objectifying women as something to be lusted after and acquired. While probably not the cause per se, advertisements like these reflect and condone Indian notions of women which lead to such the shocking prevalence of rapes, harassment, and other forms of abuse against women. Traditional advertisements continue to target middle aged women from a variety of backgrounds and serve to reinforce age old notions of the woman’s place in the home and family. At times the lines between these broad characterizations blur and there is crossover, signifying a change in the way society divides its various age and class based segments. There is no doubt that India has changed dramatically in terms of economics, government, and certain aspects of culture since partition, and the trend of a growing middle class and slowly growing liberal values among such a class is still alive. It awaits to be seen whether liberalization becomes a more widespread phenomenon, or whether the strong tug of tradition and the reality of a huge population of poor and often rural citizens leads to the upholding of traditional gender roles.

BY AISHWARYA IYER