Mere Hamdard
From 'The Candy Jar: Good Ideas to Chew On' – an online series.
☰
There are Men (and Then) There are Men
Pakistani advertising has changed over the years and a lot of the transformation has been positive. In this context, conscious efforts have been made to change the stereotypical image of women; today, they are mostly depicted as working women whose only goal in life is not solely to get married. Girls are depicted playing sports, riding bikes and feeling empowered (at least in the ad-created world).
However, I recently saw an ad that seemed to offer a different perspective on women’s empowerment. This was an ad for an air conditioner based on the idea that an air conditioner could be far more in sync with what a wife was feeling, compared to her husband. The ad shows two couples sitting together and having a good time. One woman tells her friend (played by Kubra Khan) that they are planning to go over to her house the following Sunday. Khan replies that since her mother is leaving the following week, she will be busy on Sunday. Her husband (played by Usman Mukhtar) innocently cuts in, asking whether Khan’s mother has changed her flight, as she was supposed to leave before Sunday. Taken by surprise, Khan covers up by asking her husband how it was that he didn’t remember that indeed her mother had delayed her departure. The husband quickly agrees. The other husband then enters the conversation by inviting Khan, Mukhtar and her mother over the following Sunday, an invitation with which his wife is visibly none too pleased but nonetheless agrees. The ad ends with both women cooling off in front of their own air conditioners, the pay-off line being that only a machine can be perfect and understand one’s mood.
I found the ad sexist, although sadly, I seem to be in the minority on this one (women and men have liked the ad). For me, the message was that men are dumb and do not understand their wives.
Show a woman depicted as dumb and an army of people (mostly women) will crucify you. Yet, depict a man as dumb and you get laughs.
I also think the ad is offensive to both genders. Along with showing men as dumb and out-of-tune with their wives, it perpetuates the belief that women are comfortable lying, so long as it does not have serious consequences. To me, this insults women and their intelligence.
Some may argue that this sort of thing happens and that the ad is just reflecting real life. However, the argument does not hold water because advertisers should not pick and choose which social values to uphold and which not to. An ad that shows women being comfortable lying should have feminists up in arms, just as much as one for a beauty cream that promises a woman the prospect of marriage. It is a negative portrayal from a moral and progressive point of view.
The truth is (and it will be denied by most in this field) that advertising and marketing are designed to feed off our insecurities and social fears.
A case in point are the detergents marketed to the less privileged segments of our society, where the fear of losing social status is a theme that runs through most of the ads. The fear of giving rise to taunts from the family or baradari (community). Of being shamed. We could probably label this the social cost of not using a product.
In most advertisements, men are usually portrayed in one of two contradictory ways: hyper-masculine or hypo-masculine. One is the super-confident man who dominates women and is a success in a professional, personal and social setting. The other is the dumb and (often ugly) guy, who lacks the charm or personality to influence other men and win their respect, let alone impress women. Traditionally, the bias has been in favour of the ‘imaginary’ alpha (the alpha is a myth) male in our ads. However, trying to redress that bias by showing weak and unconfident men is not the solution.
It may be interesting to note that in 2019, the Advertising Standards Authority (UK) banned a couple of ads for violating gender norms and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. One of these ads showed fathers as clueless about raising their kids. As a result, new rules were introduced to “ban the depiction of men and women engaged in gender-stereotypical activities to help stop limiting how people see themselves and how others see them and the life decisions they take.” The offending ad showed two fathers at a restaurant so engrossed in their lunch (which is served to them on a conveyor belt) that they failed to notice that kids being carried away by the conveyor belt. In Pakistan, people would have laughed rather than bristled at this depiction of fatherhood.
According to research, the dumb man/dad persona is mostly used when selling products to women. I am pretty sure that the macho man is used mostly to sell products to men. If the hyper-masculine man is supposed to be aspirational, using the hypo-masculine one is a fear tactic used to represent what undesirable men look like. Of course, the sweet spot is the man who is balanced and does not display extreme behaviour. The point is that we need not only more of this type of man; we need people who are balanced and real, regardless of gender. And this means showing men and women how to behave in ways that reinforce positive social behaviour.
Tyrone Tellis is Senior Manager, Corporate Sales and PR, Bogo.
tyrone.tellis@gmail.com
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I also think the ad is offensive to both genders. Along with showing men as dumb and out-of-tune with their wives, it perpetuates the belief that women are comfortable lying, so long as it does not have serious consequences. To me, this insults women and their intelligence.
Some may argue that this sort of thing happens and that the ad is just reflecting real life. However, the argument does not hold water because advertisers should not pick and choose which social values to uphold and which not to. An ad that shows women being comfortable lying should have feminists up in arms, just as much as one for a beauty cream that promises a woman the prospect of marriage. It is a negative portrayal from a moral and progressive point of view.
The truth is (and it will be denied by most in this field) that advertising and marketing are designed to feed off our insecurities and social fears.
A case in point are the detergents marketed to the less privileged segments of our society, where the fear of losing social status is a theme that runs through most of the ads. The fear of giving rise to taunts from the family or baradari (community). Of being shamed. We could probably label this the social cost of not using a product.
In most advertisements, men are usually portrayed in one of two contradictory ways: hyper-masculine or hypo-masculine. One is the super-confident man who dominates women and is a success in a professional, personal and social setting. The other is the dumb and (often ugly) guy, who lacks the charm or personality to influence other men and win their respect, let alone impress women. Traditionally, the bias has been in favour of the ‘imaginary’ alpha (the alpha is a myth) male in our ads. However, trying to redress that bias by showing weak and unconfident men is not the solution.
It may be interesting to note that in 2019, the Advertising Standards Authority (UK) banned a couple of ads for violating gender norms and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. One of these ads showed fathers as clueless about raising their kids. As a result, new rules were introduced to “ban the depiction of men and women engaged in gender-stereotypical activities to help stop limiting how people see themselves and how others see them and the life decisions they take.” The offending ad showed two fathers at a restaurant so engrossed in their lunch (which is served to them on a conveyor belt) that they failed to notice that kids being carried away by the conveyor belt. In Pakistan, people would have laughed rather than bristled at this depiction of fatherhood.
According to research, the dumb man/dad persona is mostly used when selling products to women. I am pretty sure that the macho man is used mostly to sell products to men. If the hyper-masculine man is supposed to be aspirational, using the hypo-masculine one is a fear tactic used to represent what undesirable men look like. Of course, the sweet spot is the man who is balanced and does not display extreme behaviour. The point is that we need not only more of this type of man; we need people who are balanced and real, regardless of gender. And this means showing men and women how to behave in ways that reinforce positive social behaviour.
Tyrone Tellis is Senior Manager, Corporate Sales and PR, Bogo.
tyrone.tellis@gmail.com
Read Comments
Related Stories
A case in point are the detergents marketed to the less privileged segments of our society, where the fear of losing social status is a theme that runs through most of the ads. The fear of giving rise to taunts from the family or baradari (community). Of being shamed. We could probably label this the social cost of not using a product.
In most advertisements, men are usually portrayed in one of two contradictory ways: hyper-masculine or hypo-masculine. One is the super-confident man who dominates women and is a success in a professional, personal and social setting. The other is the dumb and (often ugly) guy, who lacks the charm or personality to influence other men and win their respect, let alone impress women. Traditionally, the bias has been in favour of the ‘imaginary’ alpha (the alpha is a myth) male in our ads. However, trying to redress that bias by showing weak and unconfident men is not the solution.
It may be interesting to note that in 2019, the Advertising Standards Authority (UK) banned a couple of ads for violating gender norms and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. One of these ads showed fathers as clueless about raising their kids. As a result, new rules were introduced to “ban the depiction of men and women engaged in gender-stereotypical activities to help stop limiting how people see themselves and how others see them and the life decisions they take.” The offending ad showed two fathers at a restaurant so engrossed in their lunch (which is served to them on a conveyor belt) that they failed to notice that kids being carried away by the conveyor belt. In Pakistan, people would have laughed rather than bristled at this depiction of fatherhood.
According to research, the dumb man/dad persona is mostly used when selling products to women. I am pretty sure that the macho man is used mostly to sell products to men. If the hyper-masculine man is supposed to be aspirational, using the hypo-masculine one is a fear tactic used to represent what undesirable men look like. Of course, the sweet spot is the man who is balanced and does not display extreme behaviour. The point is that we need not only more of this type of man; we need people who are balanced and real, regardless of gender. And this means showing men and women how to behave in ways that reinforce positive social behaviour.
Tyrone Tellis is Senior Manager, Corporate Sales and PR, Bogo.
tyrone.tellis@gmail.com