Gender benders in the ad age

Where have things really gone wrong as brands bravely try to set right the gender stereotype issue? Is Indian advertising trying too hard to come out of the closet of its own making? Harish Bijoor has some not-so-'Vim’sical answers

Of all the suppressions in modern human history, the biggest one of them has been gender. The stereotyping of gender and the ostensibly “superior” role of man as opposed to that of woman has been a common-string theme across nations, continents and economies. Man, considered to be the breadwinner and woman considered to be the housewife (not home-maker yet), are over-simplified role models that are typified, showcased and even celebrated across communication mediums, whether it be television, cinema, print, radio, and outdoor.
Advertising is part of the culture. A part of the sub-culture of communication. And advertising has typically embraced this gender inequity into its DNA across the globe. Never for a moment thinking that it might be doing wrong. The United States of America has been notorious over the last several decades of advertising history where the typification and type-casting of the American woman have been done to death and beyond. Even after-life has not been spared. The woman, her role in the home, in society, at clubs, at spas, at social soirées and most certainly at kitty parties has been done to boredom in American advertising history.

The USA led the world in advertising theme, tone, tenor and decibel for decades. The whole world followed in its footsteps. And so did India. Many of the early brands that entered the Indian market entered through the route of bulk imports. The early detergents, beauty soaps, coffee and milk supplements came in as foreign brands imported in bulk and re-sold to those who could afford them in India. When brand volumes gained, these very companies of overseas repute set up shop in India.

In many ways, this was the early brand colonisation of India. When the brands entered, so did their attendant advertising. And in these pieces of advertising lay the early seed of gender inequity that eventually grew to become a monster all its own. The Indian then has added to it all in good measure over the years. One very easy way of managing advertising and communication is through the route of humour. We added zing and zest to it all by deepening the gender divide instead of taking the progressive route of erasing the divide gradually.
Indian advertising history is filled with examples of using the feminine form as lure and bait, just as it has used regional divides to create zing and fun in its advertising format. Dividing to rule has been the format in use. Indian cinema helped it all the way as well, with Hindi cinema stereotyping it all with finality. The South Indian (called Madrasi) versus the North Indian (called Punjabi) versus the person from West Bengal (called Bengali) of Kerala (called Malayali) for that matter.

Back to the gender issue then. All of a sudden, gender is turning out to be important in Indian advertising once again. Companies at the forefront of big Indian brands and their advertising agencies are attempting to go woke. The idea is to reverse the trend that has taken the route of the typification of roles. Just as Indian cinema (Bollywood, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and all other language genres) are attempting to do this in their storylines, Indian advertising is coming out of the closet of its making. Brands such as Ariel, Horlicks, Titan and more have attempted gender role reversals. The latest attempt was by Vim from the stable of HUL. As each has attempted to do this, there has been a backlash. The Vim backlash was so strong that it actually forced the brand back into the closet of its own making. The brand actually took the convenient exit route “patli gali” (narrow bylane) and said “I’m a jokin”(in that filmy Aakhri Pasta manner). Where have things really gone wrong as brands bravely try to set right the gender stereotype issue?

While the brands seem to be on track, they are trying to force the pace of this reverse motion a bit too quickly. Brands and the people behind their advertising agencies are very highly influenced by social media. Many of them live and thrive in this ecosystem and are quite distanced from the real ecosystem of the market. In reality, India today lives in four distinct geographies, and more importantly four different and distinct psychographic clusters. There is ‘Urban’ India (which is quite virtual in its motivations), there is ‘Rurban’ India (at the cusp of rural and urban), there is the much-celebrated ‘Rural’ India and then there is finally a fourth cluster which I call “Deep-rural” India.

This is a terrain that few marketers know well enough. In each of these four clusters live a mix of people, the rich, the middle-class and the poor. The motivations and exposures of every cluster and sub-cluster are different. Different things drive these different segments. Each of these segments lives in a different marketing era as well. While some are “marketing-tribals”, others are “marketing-villagers”, and some are “marketing-enamoured” just as others are “marketing-bored”. The marketing-bored segment lives in the big cities of India. They have been exposed to generations of advertising and marketing talk and cliché. Our modern marketing and advertising people belong to this segment as well. They are the ones who are tired of gender stereotyping. The others are, however, still enjoying it even. And in between lies the gap. And into this gap fall those who try to hasten the pace of “woke” on their brands and their attendant advertising stances.

Gender inequity and imbalance in Indian advertising is certainly an issue. The gap needs to be filled in slowly. Not in haste. It must be done with a very careful assessment of the market and what the market is ready to take. In a market that is not yet “woke”, no point trying to force the pace of “woke”. When brands use the mass medium to take a niche message through, it just does not work. If you have a niche message that is woke on gender, take it through the niche medium. It will work in its small manner there, and who knows, it just might help broaden that narrow wedge into something meaningful as well. The insidious message of gender stereotyping happened slowly through messaging that was subliminal before it became as obscenely overt as it did. The reverse will happen just as slowly, and just as subliminally. Well. That’s my word versus yours. Touché!

(The author is a Bengaluru-based brand strategy expert & consultant and can be reached at [e-mail].)