Do you have a dark skin tone because of which you aren’t getting a job? Want to get rid of it? Well, you can easily get pearly white skin with Fair and Lovely (now Glow & Lovely *facepalms*) at just Rs 100. Oh, you have pearly white skin but still can’t get a job, the problem lies in your dull and faded clothes. But don’t worry with Surf Excel your clothes will shine and so will your future. To Excel, you require Surf Excel because clothes define character and calibre. (Right?)
Beth Comstock said and I quote, “You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything”. Well, what she said is true as advertisements are the reason why businesses' bloom. The advertisement business has flourished immensely, the Indian print and television media of the advertisement industry is worth Rs. 75,952 CR and online digital marketing is estimated to be worth Rs. 17,377 CR. The government uses advertisements to bring about social change and awareness, political parties make use of advertisements for propaganda. Advertisers use catchy slogans, humorous or heart-touching themes, famous actors and models to endorse their brands. Apart from having an economic and political impact, advertisements have a great impact on our social life. In this article, we will be focusing solely on the impact of advertising on women.
If you meticulously watch the advertisements on television, you will see that after every 3 or 4 advertisements, one of them is directed towards the female audience. In most of the advertisements on washing machines, Cleaning, and Dishwashing soaps, kitchen requirements, or anything related to home or family, one will find a female protagonist. This female lead is joyfully multitasking all the work, to be honest, I haven’t seen my mother laughing and dancing while doing the chores.
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Now the question is – Are women really so happy while doing the chores? We always find these women doing all these activities with “immense love and enjoyment” but is it so? Are they doing it out of compulsion, or they don’t have any help? And we have just given her misery and kindness the tag of “love”? This lowkey penetrates in the minds of all the people that women are the ones responsible for housework and they must do it because they love us.
On the contrary, if you watch advertisements on cars, bikes, banking, insurance, paints, petrol, and many other products you will find that the lead is a man. Such advertisements tell us that men are the ones who can purchase and provide us with such needs. These advertisements highlight one toxic element that women belong in the house and men outside for other work.
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We very well know that many men are good at doing household chores and many women are good at driving, riding, and fulfilling financial needs. Cooking, cleaning, and other household chores aren’t optional; they are basic life skills everyone needs to know, it is gender-neutral so both men and women need to do it. We need more advertisements of men doing housework and women driving cars, etc so that we can normalize it.
Our next focus is on the beauty and fashion industry. William Bernbach has rightly said, “Good advertising does not just circulate information; it penetrates the public mind with desires and beliefs”. Well, the advertisements put up by the beauty industry have put a spell on women. Most advertisements have actors and models as their brand ambassadors, these actors and models already have “perfect” hair and skin, which lures women to look and feel beautiful like them. The industry has set unrealistic beauty standards and it makes women who can’t afford these products or look like those models feel low, as they aren’t able to match up with their beauty standards. These advertisements are sometimes so vague and bizarre, they make non-viable promises and compel women to try their products. Once Fair and Lovely used to have a shade card on their pack which made dark skin women feel dark and ugly.
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Many beauty product advertisements portrayed dark-skinned women as incapable of getting a suitable husband, career, it always showed that dark women are unhappy, even on their packages they show dark women who are sad and all of a sudden after using the product becomes fair and happy. It portrayed that the secret to an amazing life, is nothing but fair skin and dark-skinned women can’t achieve anything despite their merit. But thanks to the BLM movement that led to at least little awareness about open colourism and racism. The industry also tells women that their skin tone doesn’t matter if you have clear skin that is free from dark spots, acne, pimples, blackheads, etc. This industry also tells women that if you have short pixie hair you should grow them long with their shampoo and conditioner as only boys have short hair or if you have long hair, they tell you that your hair may be scanty, non-shiny, filled with dandruff, etc. In short, it tells women that they are never perfect and hence keep trapping them in buying more products. But some women argue that after using products from the beauty industry, they have the ‘perfect’ hair and skin they are looking out for. But to their dismay now the fashion industry tells them that they don’t have the ‘perfect’ outfit to fit their looks. If you first-hand want to witness the impact of the fashion and beauty industry just go to a shop that sells products for both men and women, you will find that the women’s section has more variety and options to choose from as compared to men.
The advertisement industry has a gigantic impact on women. It has led to Fear Of Missing Out on the latest products; consumerism, unrealistic beauty standards and body goals, low self-esteem, spending an exorbitant amount on fashion and beauty, fast fashion, etc. One of the bright sides of advertisements is that it has provided job opportunities to many people and has given them an opportunity to showcase their creative marketing skills, some of the advertisements are so heart touching, some advertisements also aim at social change. But on the flip side, it does have many setbacks too. The problem doesn’t lie in the products, the producers are producing products based on demand and everyone wants their business to grow and every person needs work to fill their stomach. But the persuasion technique used by the advertisers is unsettling. Sometimes these advertisements trigger one’s deepest insecurities thus shattering one’s confidence.
I would like to conclude by saying; the advertisers need to be considerate about the masses and the impact their advertisements have on people. As consumers we need to open our eyes and look at advertisements, if it is problematic, we must raise our voices and shouldn’t fall prey to their fake promises. The advertisers haven’t kept a gun pointing at our head so the decision-making power lies in our hands, we need to be more educated, wise, and prudent in choosing our products.
By:
Deann Pereira
FYBA
201118
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