The latest #UnitedByHalf advert campaign by United Colours of Benetton (UCB) is anything and everything about gender parity. “We are not the better halves, or the worst,” states a determined female voice as the advert goes on to picturise a host of women characters across ages, facing and celebrating life with fire in their eyes. The 63-second advert ends with the declaration to unite for the ‘equal half’.
Indeed, a well-intended message. The advert may not have caused the ripple effect that Nike’s Da Da Ding campaign, which featured Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, had, last year. However, to be fair, both had the goose-bump factor in common.
Such adverts, however, have become cliched, easily falling into predictable slots. Women empowerment adverts are, unfortunately, the new normal.
“Ideas like these are relatively unconventional and while in the past they might have been created for niche segments they are becoming mainstream today,” says Gunjan Soni, CMO, Myntra, and Head, Jabong business.
A close look at various adverts produced in India shows that the journey of Indian women from indoors to outdoors almost took two decades. The sepia-tinted print adverts of 1970s mostly featured women as docile and introvert, often lacking individuality. As 1980s set in, she started discovering herself and by 1990s, she got bolder and stepped out of the house.
Fast forward to 2017, career-oriented, confident women decision-makers take centre-stage. Creative directors have now even begun to tease the Indian audience with bolder themes.
For instance, the Anouk advert campaigns from Myntra that talked about homosexuality and single-parenthood, were one of the most talked about campaigns last year. “Any change in a set way of thinking cannot happen overnight. Given that behaviour is not only a factor of our social conditioning but also of information we consume via books, movies, music and other content,” says Soni.
Same-sex relationship and single parenting is a reality, and it is never too early to talk about such things.
“We believe that as more people get exposed to bold and unconventional ideas, they are at least opening their minds to the different possibilities that exist. Exposure is the first step towards behavioural change,” he says.
As a result, a slew of empowerment-themed campaigns now flood our television screens, Facebook and Twitter scrolls and WhatsApp forwards. Companies such as ITC, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Titan, Nestle and JSW Steel, are just a few examples who have flirted with the theme over the past few years.
But have these adverts been able to bring about the desired impact among the Indian psyche?
Accessorising vulnerability
Last December, watchmakers Titan launched ACT (App-enabled Coordinates Tracker) for women, under its flagship Sonata brand. ACT is a safety watch with a panic button, which when pressed alerts 10 contacts in the woman’s circle.
“We strongly believe that ACT is born out of a consumer need, and not just an insight. The product category and the campaign recognises the innate potential of every woman and the need for her to be reassured about her personal safety. It’s evocative of the fierce independence to take action and be in charge,” explains S. Ravi Kant, chief executive officer, Titan Watches & Accessories, Titan Company, on the motive behind the watch.
While such ideas deserve recognition, doesn’t it expose the fact that the current situation requires women to be on their foot and wear a watch with a panic button? The ‘consumer need’ factor reveals how the society have repeatedly failed women to ensure safety, despite TVCs and awareness campaigns.
Titan is not alone. A simple Google search for women safety tools or accessories in Google throws open innumerable links—from home-grown online company Flipkart to global giant Amazon—where one can now 'buy women safety’ online at best prices. Have we evolved into a society that commercialises women’s fear by accessorising vulnerability?
“If we are to take women’s fear of crime seriously, and if we agree that it is more a reflection of our social location within intersections of gender-class-race-ability structures, then we must reconsider what we mean by crime prevention and fear reduction,” points out Elizabeth A. Stanko, a UK-based sociologist, in her paper The Commercialisation of Women’s Fear of Crime.
Watches and pendants equipped with panic buttons and apps for women safety are all technological manifestations of old self-defence techniques such as pepper sprays and Swiss knives. So, over the years, the rhetoric has merely changed from “use or carry a pepper-spray” to “use this app or that gadget” to stay safe.
“Such products tend to normalise the whole issue. Priorities are merely shifting. It is like saying, ‘anyway, you’re not going to be safe, so here, use this gadget’,” says writer-blogger Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan.
“On one hand, we are doing adverts on iPhones and newer technology, and a few seconds later, it is tragic to have adverts asking women to feel and stay safe,” says Tista Sen, national creative director & senior vice president, J Walter Thompson, Mumbai.
What needs to be improved
Most of the advert campaigns are produced by brands that appeal to the upper-class population. Tanishq, Nike, UCB, and Myntra are labels that hardly appeal to the middle or bottom half of the pyramid, who are often fed with stereotypical adverts.
“The task of gender sensitisation needs to be adopted by more mass-market brands. The next big marketing opportunity lies in captivating rural India,” says brand consultant Harish Bijoor.
Most of the current campaigns fail to go beyond the superficial level and hardly get into the sensitivity of the matter. While it is encouraging that brands have been braver and bolder enough to embrace newer forms of communication and themes to engage with the younger and modern audience, it is still preliminary.
They often fail to get under the skin of the character. And when it comes to women-centric issues, there’s a huge difference between portraying people in homosexual relationship and essentially communicating the message to embrace all types of relationships.
The thought process needs to change. “Men coming out and supporting women could have a better impression among audience than portraying a be-different attitude,” says Sen.
What is desirable is an attitudinal change towards women. There is a collective failure in bringing about this change, among both men and women.
“For communication to work, panic should not be the only road to talk to women. Don’t make them feel more of a victim but celebrate who they are. Don’t necessarily make it on panic,” she warns.
