Ads targeted at women

In previous blogs we have see how women are shown in the advertisements. Most often these ads are targeted towards the male audience.
To sell to a woman, advertising relies on that modern idea (only a few hundred years old) about how men and women relate -- romance. Romance fits into the woman's intellectual view of relationships since its major element, courtship, the process by which men apply to be and women select mates, is the discovery of how the male does or does not satisfy her societal criteria for a suitable sexual partner. Rarely does the romantic appeal contain the blatant sexual messages that appear in ads aimed at men since such messages would counter the intellectual view. Although an ad may use a man's body as an attention getting device, he is usually shown in a romantic rather than sexual context.
For ads aimed at women, they can achieve the romance approach through using stereotypical images: roses, soft light and music, a doting man (often a bit bumbling and thus endearing). The ad sells the product on the basis that its purchase will give the woman this feeling of romance in her life.
For example, diamond advertisements use a romantic approach. Although men buy most diamonds, they buy them for women; in general, she makes the purchase decision. Thus, it makes sense to aim the ads at the woman. The images are of soft lighting, elegant surroundings, and an obviously well-to-do man (who is also sometimes a supportive and nurturing parent) offering the gift of diamonds. These images satisfy a woman's societal criteria for a desirable man: money, status, taste, and sensitivity to her wants and needs. If there are any sexual undertones, they are extremely subdued and non-threatening.
Thus, it is clear that sex is a strong appeal to use in advertising. However, it is a gender linked appeal. Sex easily sells to men; it is an adjunct to women.

Restriction in Ads

In India “Indecent Representation of Women Act” governs the way women are shown in the ads. This act was enacted in 1987, supposedly in response to demands from the women's movement to tackle the derogatory depiction of women in the media.
It defines “indecent representation of women' as the “depiction in any manner of the figure of a woman, her form or body or any part thereof in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent or of being derogatory or denigrating women or is likely to deprave, corrupt or injure the public morality or morals of any person or persons of any class or group”.
However it is not without its shortcomings. It is said to be curtailing the right to freedom of speech and expression. It also is sometimes used to camouflage the discomfort with woman’s sexuality. It is also supposed to be sexist in nature because of the representation of terms of women’s shame and honour.
The controversy over the banning of the Amul Macho and Lux Cosy underwear advertisements, under the Cable Television Network Act, in July 2007, is a prime example of how the portrayal of women's sexuality can be censored under the guise of obscenity and indecency.
At the same time the law does not clearly deal with the stereotypical representation of women in the ads and seems to focus more on the sexual representation of the women
So rather than expanding its scope on the sexual representation side, it should also look at the way the women are represented in the ads in a restricted role

Fashion Industry

Fashion industry is one of the industries which are dynamic in nature and in order to make your collection successful, it should be advertised properly and through right channels.
Usually any clothing can be shown as effectively on a mannequin as that on a living person. However high profile fashion designers prefer to show their collections on models rather on mannequins. Most of the collections are on display at any of the various fashion shows take place.
Though both men and women generally model for these fashion shows, more often than not, women form a majority.

At these fashion shows women act as walking mannequins who just walk on the ramp doing the catwalk and display the dresses.
Here the women are not represented completely in a role of a beauty or a sex symbol, but rather a statue on which your dresses are displayed.
Also often the “designer” dresses reveal more than they hide. These models appear as sex symbols in these dresses. But still it’s not a stereotypical sex symbol role for these models as the product they are selling is relevant to the way they are shown, unlike in sexy symbols where the product has no relation
Also the models in the fashion industry create the false impressions of beauty like many other ads.

Dove Self Esteem Fund

As part of Dove campaign for real beauty, in 2006, Dove started the Dove Self-Esteem Fund that claims to change the Western concept of beauty from ultra-thin models with perfect features to making every girl feel positive about her looks, no matter what they are. In an effort to promote the Fund, Dove ordered a series of highly-successful online-based short films promoting the self-esteem concept

Dove Self Esteem fund has reached 2 million young girls till now .It is committed to reaching 5 million young women by the end of 2010. The fund defines “reaching” a girl when she has gone through an educational program that lasts at least an hour of her life. The Dove Self-Esteem Fund invites girls to play a role in supporting and promoting a wider definition of beauty.
It is a global project, which consists of network of local country initiatives linked in strategy and direction by a global steering group. In each country, the fund supports a specific charitable organization to help foster self-esteem
On its website the Dove self esteem fund provides various online resources for young girls as well moms and mentors so that they become aware of the real beauty. The online resources include articles and videos on self esteem and various facts about the beauty industry.

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

“We see beauty all around us” is the tag line of the dove campaign for real beauty.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a worldwide marketing campaign launched in 2004 that includes advertisements, video, workshops, sleepover events and even the publication of a book and the production of a play. The principle behind the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with their own body.
For the launch of the campaign normal women of different shapes and sizes were featured in the promotions. The ordinary looking women featured in the ads for the campaign.
The campaign was shot by the British portrait/fashion photographer Rankin. Rankin was chosen because he brings out the character and personality of his subjects and he likes working with non-professional models. Dove wanted to celebrate women by using a photographer who also shoots supermodels, giving them the same star treatment.


As part of this campaign, in 2006, Dove started the Dove Self-Esteem Fund that claims to change the Western concept of beauty from ultra-thin models with perfect features to making every girl feel positive about her looks, no matter what they are.

Anorexia

The women who model for ads these days are extremely slim. These often makes young girls believe that only if you are slim you are beautiful and will be able to succeed in life. As a result many girls try very hard to maintain a slim figure.
Many girls become obsessed with the idea of achieving this slim figure and take great pains to achieve it. This obsession towards slimness is known as anorexia.



Girls suffering from anorexia often starve themselves so that they don’t get fat. Often they don’t even eat food which is necessary for survival. They are always short on confidence and feel they will be rejected in the society just because they are not thin.
Often treatment for anorexia includes compulsory feeding for these girls. At the same time effort is made to increase the self confidence in these girls so that they do not become obsessed with looking slim.

Many of the critics blame the companies for propagating the idea that thin is beautiful and employing only thin models in their advertisements. As a result the attitude of some companies towards this is changing e.g. Univlever has launched the Dove Self Esteem campaign which portrays that everybody is beautiful in their own way

The Beauty

Many of the advertisements targeted at women are the beauty products. These beauty products may not be targeted only at young college going girls but former consumers across age group of 16-30.
The themes of such commercials are such that they implore other women to look like the women shown in the advertisement. The women who are shown in these advertisement are said to be beautiful looking.
A concept of beauty is propagated through advertisements. These advertisements show that in order to be beautiful you need to be thin, you need to be fair. The women in these advertisements are hence generally very slim or fair looking.

This sort of advertisements may not be restricted to just beauty or any women oriented products. Often these models are part of commercials for other products too. When initially Phillips launched its flat TV, a slim model was shown in the advertisement comparing her beauty with that of TV.

Often this concept of beauty leads to low self esteem among women who feel they are too fat or dark to be beautiful. The outcome of this can go much beyond just low self esteem. Often girls looking at the slim models try to become like them. This syndrome is known as anorexia

Sex symbol

Usually the women portrayed in advertisements are characters which are directly or indirectly related to the product, be it a housewife using the detergent soap or the college girl using a beauty product.
But sometimes women are shown in advertisements just as sex symbols. They are shown in ads just to make the ads more “spicy and hot”. It is based on the idea that sex sells.

In order to portray women as sex symbols, they are always shown wearing skimpy clothes and some cases no clothes at all. The idea behind doing this is that such ads will always be easily noticed and thus increase brand awareness. These ads are there usually just to create an impact. They rarely show the utilitarian value of the product.


But sometimes the product gets lost behind these glamorous sex symbols. Consumers may only remember the model and her clothes and not the product she is endorsing.
Also these ads often run the risk of coming under the scanner of censor board and may be banned for being in bad taste or showing women in a derogatory nature.

College Girl

The college going girl is also one of the popular stereotypes shown in the ads.
The character is mostly used to endorse various beauty products. But it can be used to sell various other feminine goods like small scooters, ladies cycles etc. It can also be used in ads for products of women’s as well as men’s apparel.
As the products to be endorsed are usually beauty products, the college going girl is extremely beauty conscious in nature. She will select the products which not only make her look beautiful, but also which are delicate on her body. So if the product to be endorsed is beauty soaps often the emphasis given is on the delicate effect of the soap on the skin.

Also the college girl is often shown in ads which supposedly enhance beauty like the fairness cream. Hence the models which are chosen generally have a fair complexion.

Also the college girl is shown to be extremely fashion conscious and is shown wearing trendy clothes.
Now a days with the changing attitude of people towards women, the college girl now is also shown to be confident about herself and very ambitious.

Grandma

One of the characters in which women are shown in advertisements is that of a grandma. This character is represented in different ways in different advertisements.
In some of the advertisements the grandma can be shown as the matriarch in the family, who influences the major decisions. However these roles are not very common.
Another way the grandma is projected in the advertisements especially Indian advertisements is someone who upholds the traditional values. It is often shown that grandma being a staunch supporter of ayurveda. As a result often certain products which have ayurvedic contents in them especially beauty products use this character. She is shown as someone who does not like the modern product, but likes it when she knows that the product contains natural / herbal contents.
The character is also used in medicine ads where we know that grandma’s medicines always worked. The modern medicines are supposed to be similar to grandma’s medicine. This concept is also used in concept of baby products where the grandma advices the parents on what to use
A similar character though it need not necessarily be in the role of a grandmother is that of a mother-in-law. She is often shown to question the products used by her daughter-in-law. But she is satisfied with the explanation given which in turn is the pitch for the product targeted to consumers.

Blackwoman

A stereotype of women which is common in US is the portrayal of a black woman. This stereotype is not prominent or almost absent in India, but was very common in US.
Usually the black women are portrayed as domestic helps in homes in commercials in US. They may also be represented in similar roles like a cleaning lady at airports, restaurants etc.
This portrayal of black woman as somebody who does only menial work is rooted in US slave history where the blacks did not have civil rights. It puts a notion in the minds of the consumers that the black woman can only be in such positions and can never rise beyond it.
The characteristics portrayed by the woman in this role are that of obedience, care for her employer. She accepts whatever said by her employer and does everything to help him or her.
The advertisements generally of things of domestic use like detergent or cleaning soaps etc. It shows the black woman in the role of domestic help agreeing with her mistress that the detergent really has the qualities which her mistress believes in.

One of the ads shown in India which had this stereotype was a Saint Gobain ad in which a black woman was shown as a cleaning lady in a restaurant

Superwoman

One of the new characters in which women are portrayed in advertisements these days is that of superwoman. A superwoman is a combination of a housewife, a businesswoman or a working woman and at the same time conscious about herself.
She performs her duties not only in the office, but also takes care of her family. As a result she is portrayed of being capable of doing everything.
She is confident in nature, just like the businesswoman, however at the same time she gives the interests of the family a high importance.
She can be shown as working in offices and coming back to house to do the household chores just like a housewife.
However as she works and earns money, we do not necessarily see her being too price conscious like the housewife stereotype.
Some of the possible ads in which the superwoman is portrayed are that of consumer appliances like fridge, washing machine or TV or sometimes personal care products as well.

This concept was popularly used in the whirlpool ad campaign, which showed the model not only as a good housewife, but also as someone who has her strong opinion and knows the things around. It can be conjectured that she is probably a working woman as she is much more confident than a traditional housewife stereotype

The Businesswoman / Working woman

Traditionally women have been shown in ads in very limited roles and mostly that of a housewife who doesn’t have much of individualism. However with passage of time as women’s liberation has taken place, and the roles of women in the ads have evolved too.
One of the new roles in which women are represented in the ads is that of a working woman and as a business woman. These roles represent a character which has more confidence in herself and her abilities.
Often nothing is mentioned about her outlook towards her family and others. But she does take care of herself. She is not as beauty conscious as some like the beauty nor does she care as much as for price as the housewife.
Generally the businesswoman is a part of the advertisements which target the niche segment of young working professional woman, who are willing to spend something extra for the elegant look and at the same time are not influenced hugely by the concept of beauty created by the advertisers.
Some of the ads could be that of financial products like insurance or something like designer jewelery, or as we see in the below picture, a cigarette

The Housewife

The housewife is one of the most often repeated stereotypes in advertisements. The housewife represents a woman who believes in value for money. She usually buys goods which are useful for the entire family. Given a choice, she usually gives more importance to the price of the good. At the same time however, the housewives are extremely intelligent and make the right choice for their families.

Housewives are shown in the ads of mostly FMCG goods. Most often the ads sell products like detergents, cleaners which are commonly used by them. However the housewives are also present in ads of other goods which are primarily used by them like fridge, washing machines etc. They can also be in ads like moov, which provide relief from pain indicating the amount of work housewives do in the house
The housewife character is often portrayed to be paranoid about cleanliness. They require all parts of their house including toilets to be extremely clean. Not only should their clothes, but also of their husbands and children be sparkling white.
But the character of housewives often portrays the idea that women are supposed to do all the household work. Often they are shown doing some household work like washing clothes, cleaning house etc. Thus often give a negative image of women and do not show them being capable of doing other work.
One of the most memorable characters of housewife create is Lalitaji in surf excel ads

Women in Advertisements

All of us aware of the importance of advertisements for marketing of products and services. The short duration of the advertisements often make it necessary that the producers make use of certain stereotypes in the ads in order to connect with the consumers.Over the years these stereotypes have evolved and many new ones have been formed

As a result the women we see in the advertisement generally represent a certain character to whom we can attribute certain characteristics. The stereotypical characters for women include the college girl, the newly married woman, the housewife, the cleaning lady etc. whom we encounter in our lives everyday.

With all these characters we assign a certain idea like the housewife will be intelligent and cost conscious. The image of the housewife has been epitomized by "Lataji" in the Surf Ad
Apart from these characters the women are shown in the ads as sex symbols. Often the character has no relation with the product or the service.These ads are often based on the idea that sex sells, and aptly show women in scanty clothes or often no clothes as in the Tuff shoes advertisement.