Shockingly Sexist Ads That Are Allowed Today
January 9, 2012 13 Comments
I came across this list of 48 Shockingly Sexist Ads That Would Never Be Allowed Today a few days ago on a friend’s Facebook profile. Granted it is a list of American ads but I momentarily found myself appreciating how long we have come and the accomplishments of various women’s movements. It wasn’t long before I realized how wrong I was. Sexism is very much an integral part of our entire advertising industry and is abundantly evidenced in any random sample of ads.
I will elaborate but first a little hate for my colleagues and cohorts from IBA, CBM, LUMS and business schools elsewhere.
Getting hired by a corporation as Brand Manager or Marketing Executive, whether a local or foreign one, is pretty impressive and supposedly a Pretty Big Deal. Most companies that have big budgets for marketing have fancy hiring policy whereby candidates with an impeccable academic record go through a few rounds of interviews and standardized tests. The work is exciting and advertising agencies attract a lot of fun, creative type of people. Apparently.
What I fail to understand then is why all of these erudite MBA types combined with cultural artsy types continue to perpetuate the worst manifestations of sexism on Pakistani television. The lazy stereotypes and vapid conclusions are so glaringly obvious that a deeper analysis isn’t even necessary. There seems to be some sort of a checklist that all these marketing whiz kids adhere to which goes something like this:
1. Cooking, cleaning, looking after children is a woman’s job.
2. Men are the sole providers of income.
3. All women spend most of their time at home doing the aforementioned tasks.
4. What bothers women the most is how clean their husbands shirts are, how quickly the dishes can be done and how to impress/avoid mother-in-law from hell.
5. Men like women who are samajhdaar about housework.
The money spent to get these folks a business degree and an education in life is a colossal waste. They are illiterate in the true sense of the world: having no critical thinking faculties to examine trends around them or to analyze their own work. Why else would someone who has been through 20 years of schooling believe in illogical heuristics from the early 1900s.
Here is some of the evidence selected from the sample of ads that are on air currently.
1. The Samajhdaar Aurat.
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2. The Bickering Aunties Collective or Kitty Party As The Sole Social Activity
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3. The Sahir Lodhi Endorsed Detergent Makes Your Tablecloth Cleaner
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4. The Faisal Qureshi Endorsed Toilet Cleaner Because Women Just Can’t Get Enough Of Cleaning Stuff
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5. The Girl As The Potential Wife Who Will Fuck Up In Front Of Her Suitor And Embarrass Her Family
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6. The Husband As The Caring Provider Whose Gifts Reflect His Expectations
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About baylawajah
I agree. Having worked with brands across the continent I can assure you one thing though: many experienced and creative brand managers are stuck reporting to the ‘old brigade’ of brand heads and chief marketers who prefer to purport the stereotypes. Because it works.
The new generation of young people may not believe in a whiter shape of pale shirt getting them a job (meaning the soap was better) but their parents do. And millions upon millions of TV watching matriarchs do. Unfortunately.
Rabayl,
That’s not even the worst, I think there was one ad whose entire premise was that women are a burden to their fathers.
However, brand managers and advertisers are slaves to the lowest common denominator and unfortunately, focus groups continue to show that traditional gender roles are what our middle class still considers “best”. They also don’t want to risk their brand’s reputation by launching a campaign that irks their target market, or worse starts a protest. It’s all about the numbers at the end of the day.
That being said, there has to be a way to make advertising campaign without consistently using sexist themes.
Not only are women confined in those roles, they actually need to be taught how to do their jobs properly by men. Men may get their clothes/toilet bowls dirty, but never fear! Here comes another man who will show your women how to get them clean! Sigh.
Spot On. I did am article on the same topic. bad TVCs. http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/8342/the-wondrous-world-of-badvertising/
We should get people from the top brands or MBA grads, from one of the schools mentioned, to comment here and share their views on this issue. One very common response to this issue is that most advertising companies are pandering to the masses and try to sell them their own stereotypes. Advertisers have no other choice but to rely and incorporate on what goes on in their target audience’s everyday life.
While I agree with some of the comments made here earlier, there needs to be a visible change in advertising attitudes in the 21st Century Pakistan. There has been a lot more socially responsible marketing of the late, that it spreads very smartly. Marketing that asks you to speak out and communicate more, all the while clocking up talk time on their voice service – social message intelligently sandwiched with layers of company’s product. Or, play outdoors, in the mud, experience nature, dirty your clothes and wash them with my detergent. At which one has to really stop and think, do the companies ‘really’ want you to change everything about your choices, your life and your society or does it simply want to sound appealing and cash in on that emotion by selling you their product?
Good point, Wannabe Marketer. You nailed it though in your last 3 lines: “do companies really want you to change everything?”.
Sit in a boardroom meeting with many marketers of a brand today and breakthrough ideas will spill out. Carry those ideas into the C-level boardroom and the situation becomes very different.
Personally, I’m waiting to see how they manage to advertise the Pink Bus for ladies in Punjab (I think that’s the province it’s in) without it enforcing gender bias or stereotypes of both men and women.
Yes, sexism has two sides to it, both men and women are portrayed in sexist ways. (Its not just the women.)
Recall the recent online Old Spice ads.
Good Quality, More quantity and less price thats all wanted by the customers. People dont want to see boyz n galz dancing to sell mobile sims and biscuits. or a girl wiith less clothes with a camera on the top of her head persuading to sell chewing gum (Latest fresh up add) i donno what the advertising agencies are trying to do. I remember we were never watched songs from indian movies from 90′s sitting with our parents. But the things they are doing now a dayz in commercials is much more than those songs, i wonder where they are taking us to. These commercials are changing our social and moral values in a very dramatic way. This needs to be changed by creativity rather than vulgarity.
i don’t know, there’s something about girls who prefer to stay at home and tend to the house, that turns me on and wants me to marry one of them. i hope one day i will find something attractive about career-women though. i really do.
“They are illiterate in the true sense of the world: having no critical thinking faculties to examine trends around them or to analyze their own work. Why else would someone who has been through 20 years of schooling believe in illogical heuristics from the early 1900s.”
hmm.. i’m thinking what function a tv advert serves in our environment. it seems to be a dramatized performance introducing a certain product to the general public, in such a way as arouses an interest in said public, and moves it in droves to buy said product. in other words, tv ads are made to sell products. now onto my main point.
in order for an ad to sell its product, it must present that product as something its viewers would want to possess. for that it must appeal to its viewers’ preferences and values. for example, an ad for a car might want to make mention of the car’s fuel efficiency, if it is particularly impressive. similarly, we see ads for various brands of cooking oil advancing their product’s healthiness.
it is no surprise then that advertisers would also seek to exploit women’s desire to please their husbands/in-laws. this desire is a fundamental part of women’s nature in our country, and therefore, these ads cannot be blamed of advancing illogical heuristics from the early 1900s.
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From a slightly different point of view (notwithstanding the accuracy of the critique), it would be good for Americans to see images of modern and real Pakistanis instead of the stereotypes of evil terrorists in pakols or enslaved women in burkas – hey, we’re killing modern suburban people just like us!