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It is high time that the stereotypical portrayal of the Indian woman as the keeper of the kitchen and the minder of children is changed. I have seen a surfeit of commercials where the woman is busy packing off the kids to school, or washing clothes or being praised by the husband for being smart – guess what for … using a certain toilet cleaner!
The Indian woman has moved on. And so has the Indian man. Sadly, some of our creative thinkers have not. An ad for a popular air conditioner has a woman carrying food to her husband’s office everyday.
A toilet cleaner has commercials where the husband and the mother-in-law praise the woman of the house for using a certain toilet cleaner. Or a popular wheat/ atta commercial where the wife makes rotis for the husband’s boss who is visiting home.
I have also seen a conscious attempt by several brands that have broken stereotype – like a recent home appliances ad where the girl just hands a prospective groom a coffee maker instead of offering herself for marriage.
It is about time that men in our advertising do their own dishes, make their own coffee and clean their own toilets.
While on the topic of gender sensitivity, a lot of our copywriters and brands have still not reconciled to the fact that a child can also be a girl. Often the default reference to a child is a ‘him’. Sadly, I have seen this in the instruction manuals of a popular brand of child food. Not so good in a country that is fighting hard to save the girl child! Here too, I have seen a conscious attempt by a probiotic drink to break the stereotype. The drink is targeted at pregnant women, referring to the child as a ‘girl’.
I would be happier if more brands followed suit, or in the least, made a gender-neutral reference. All the non-verbal cues that we put forth in our advertising needs to be carefully thought through. In one of the most popular commercials for a soap in recent times, where the doting father ‘walks’ on his two hands to thank god for his child’s completion of five years, if the child were a girl, the ad would not have lost its appeal or efficacy. In fact, I would have applauded ever so louder.
Agencies, are you listening?
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