Femvertising in India: The ‘Girl Power’ Marketing
“It (femvertising) may have started with good intentions but now almost every category from detergents to apparels has taken up the cudgels. Everybody feels this is what is cracking it right now.”
– Pallavi Chakravarti, Executive Creative Director, Taproot India
A 7-second cement ad aired on television in India, in 2010, had the visuals of a bikini clad young lady coming out of the ocean and walking towards the screen, when the voiceover announces ‘Vishwaas hai. Isme kuch khaas hai. JK Super Cement. (There’s trust. There’s something special in it. JK Super Cement).’ There was little connection between the ad and the product and had no relevance, insight, functional or emotional connect. The use of Ursula Andress-inspired visuals ended up upping the feeling of lust rather than trust.
Since the beginnings of advertising, women have been featured in ads of various products and were stereotyped by objectifying their bodies to raise the sexual appeal of the ad and attract consumers. There had been little progress in the portrayal of women. However, in the recent years, the age old mantra of ‘Sex Sells’ was slowly being replaced by ‘Girl power’. Femvertising was all around, with messages and imagery of women empowerment and girl’s self-esteem. Companies like Nike, P&G, Vogue, Anouk, etc., made it the theme for their ads. With several companies joining the bandwagon, with or without the connect or intent to sustain the message of fempowerment beyond the ad, experts feared that the intended purport of femvertising would get diluted...........
Femvertising: A New Genre of Advertising
On the International Women’s Day (March 8th 2016), the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his speech said, “A woman is above all else a mother.” Also the social media was flooded with numerous quotes, greetings, and messages sent on the occasion highlighting the various roles played by a woman viz., that of a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a mother.
The statements express the general view of the society that offered conditional respect to women based on the role they play in relation to others (mostly men) and not respected based on their own capabilities, values and strengths. The roles had become a kind of to-do list for a girl to become a complete woman. Then they were boxed into the perimeter of rules and restrictions to conduct each of these roles and not allowed to define themselves..............
Femvertising in India
In India, there’s a popular myth that if women touch the pickle jar during menstruation, the pickle will rot. As girls enter puberty, they were introduced to different taboos related to menstruation – do not enter the temple or worship, do not enter the kitchen, do not touch/water the plants, do not wash the hair at least for the first two days, etc. – and were barred from leading a normal social life.
It was estimated that 88% of menstruating women in India have no access to sanitary napkins, 200 million women lack awareness of menstrual hygiene and around 23% of Indian girls between ages 12–18 years drop out of school when they begin menstruating, as a consequence of not having access to safe and sanitary protection or lack of functioning toilets...............
Real ‘Girl Power’ or A Bluff
During the mid-20th century, women were considered beautiful if they had fair skin and a full, curvy voluptuous figure. A fair skin was a must-have for Indian women to be socially acceptable and desirable by men. As years passed, women were socialized to want a very thin body frame. Advertising had a huge role in influencing women what they view as ‘beautiful’. With the advent of software like Photoshop and prevalent retouching technologies, advertisements created new definitions for the ‘ideal’ beauty of a women by portraying images of flawless women with impossible to achieve anatomy and perfect skin and hair (Exhibit VI).................
Assignment Questions
I. Can advertising bring a social change? What role does media and technology have to play in communicating the message?
II. What were the advertising patterns followed in the Indian ads w.r.t femvertising? How did femvertising evolve in India?
III. ...............
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Changing Trend of Advertising
Exhibit II: Ads Objectifying Women
Exhibit III: Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty
Exhibit IV: Women-Centric Films in India
Exhibit V: Femvertisements in India
Exhibit VI: ‘Ideal’ Woman as Portrayed in Ads
Exhibit VII: Femvertising Sells
Exhibit VIII: SheKnows Fem-vertising Survey Insights
