Gender advertising and superbowl

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Anybody (anybody?) who has read my last few posts knows that I have been discussing the imagery of women in advertising and holding the executives in advertising responsible for perpetuating the stereotype. While watching super bowl this year I was struck by how America thinks about gender —or actually what the advertising executives think America is thinking about gender— in 2013.

So clearly girls love pink and there is no way that a dad can take her away from her pink room. However a bag of chips can totally make pink, dad and his friend’s new favorite color? I am still mulling over the undertones but here is the advertisement for you to take a look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmIGTTy8pI0

Women in America are still expected to do the laundry but well they can use that as ‘advantage’ over their male partners to convey their own ‘game spirit’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoOfBVraMNw

There are quite some many of these but I stop here and think – this has semblances of my ‘real life ‘ but with completely distorted reflections I am being fed my own reality and I am buying it?

Change our advertisements: stop killing our girls

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I am starting today a post that will continue to highlight advertisements and their absolute disregard to the conversations the recent murder of young girl have started in India. A culture and a society soaked with misogyny and patriarchy needs to be brought under the lens. The recent report of the committee on Amendments to Criminal Law will be talked about in the days to come  but that report will need to be broken down into what we can do as daily citizens, men and women of the grand old civilization play a part to lift the weight of an age-old way of life.

Lets begin with this advertisement that I have seen at least 10 times in the last 3 hours today on various news channels etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tzs_bZLDLw

The advertisement plays out the stereotypical roles in household, in society, in relationships between men and women. This is being fed to us daily on all channels in the name of purchasing a specific insurance product feature. I dare the advertising genius behind this advertisement to redo this advertisement to instead depict scenes from real life:

[Scene 1: Husband beating wife and then apologizing]

Husband: I will never beat you again

Wife: Likh key dogey kya?

[Scene 2: Meeting between the girls and boys family to finalize the wedding]

Boys father: We don’t want anything, just your daughter to be our daughter

Girls father: Likh key dogey kya?

I wish our advertisers joined in the conversations by being proactive and not perpetuating the stereotype that is killing our girls and women every single day. I invite you my 1 or 2 readers to chime in and suggest advertisements that irk you and hopefully when each and every member of our social fabric joins demands for justice and equality perhaps then we can change?

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