Last month, global advertising conglomerate WPP’s Chief Executive, Martin Sorrell, raised a small storm by admitting that sexism is pervasive in the advertising world. He was referring to the lack of diversity and the prevalent bias against women in most of the big ad agencies around the world.
What he left unsaid was the prevalent sexism against women in the TV ad spots and print ad copies that are written even today for some of the biggest brands. Advertising for apparel and fashion labels, and even fast food and cars, has often been vulgar and sexist and either portrays women as sexual objects or as ‘bimbettes’ incapable of independent thought.
History of bias
Advertising in the car industry has long been male-dominated, playing along with the presumption that driving a car is a male preserve. Some of the biggest German, British and American brands have depicted women as being incapable of mastering the difficult skill of driving a car. One of the old print ads (from the 1950s) shows the people’s car alongside an explanation that the men who buy the car don’t have to worry if their wives were to take it out because replacement parts are extremely affordable. “So whether it is a fender bender or broken lamps, though they may leave you furious, they will never cost you much,” says the copy.
Another European brand’s current Indian TV ad shows a young, possibly recently married, lad driving his brand new, entry-level sedan into the driveway of his swank villa. Even if you choose to ignore the fact that going by the bungalow’s posh appearance, he could have easily afforded a much more expensive luxury car, you can’t ignore the imagery created by the disapproving look of the stay-at-home wife. She steps out on to the balcony and only smiles her approval, essaying the cliched role of finance minister in the household, after the man says there was no down payment on the car.
After all, ‘advertising belongs to the world of make believe’ is the common refrain. But, often, ads are seen playing up archaic, biased gender roles that, instead, need to be condemned. The ad industry chooses realism only when it suits its purposes.
Till about a decade ago, advertising for car brands still had strong sexual references. Even now, there continues to be advertising that portrays women as incorrigibly bad drivers. Like the German brand, whose print ad shows a woman seated facing backwards and looking out of the rear glass while the car is being reversed into a slot. The ad was seeking to promote a new, built-in parking assist system.
Stereotyping
The advertising industry’s recourse to condemnable cliches, sexism and racism is even more appalling when you look at some of the TV spots that are regularly aired, even today. The list is long, but the most obvious ones relate to fairness creams, domestic aids and bathroom cleaners. According to the ad agencies, toilet bowl cleaners have to be pitched only to women, as do kitchen appliances and masalas.
The worst one to date that I remember is the TV commercial for a leading multinational dish-washing liquid. It shows the wife scrubbing vessels with some powder for hours after dinner. The hapless husband waits as the clock ticks away late into the night, and goes to sleep with a pillow between his legs. In the next frame the lady gets her hands on the liquid dish-wash, cleans the vessels to a shine and walks into the bedroom hours earlier, much to the delight of the husband.
Advertising standards
Mind you, there are, have always been, advertising standards councils around the world and, apparently, they are all equally inept at filtering out such trashy advertising. Their standards differ wildly, especially when it comes to objectification of women. For example, the level of nudity (of course, I don't mean men in their knickers) in mainline print advertising that is acceptable for the American standards council is much higher than its counterpart in the UK.
Shouldn’t such industry governing bodies’ standards be much higher than what their constituents produce? Isn’t it the duty of these bodies to ensure that a greater level of sensitivity be conveyed by the ads that are cleared by it, than is prevalent now?
Today, even in our everyday lives, women enjoy more rights, are intellectually more than equal to men, and are breaking age-old stereotypes. It is the advertising industry that desperately needs a dose of reality!