Article Global Media Journal Indian Edition/ Summer Issue / June 2011

USE OF WOMEN IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND THE ISSUE OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Dr. Saswati Gangopadhyay Reader & Head Department of Mass Communication University of Burdwan Burdwan, West Bengal, India Website: http://www.buruniv.ac.in Email:saswati703@yahoo.com
Abstract: Globalisation has facilitated conveying of media signals manifold with entire society been converted into a marketplace. The immediate effect of entertainment centric programming has led to the rise in advertisements alongside the media contents. The basic objective of advertising is profit maximization with the depiction of minorities within society including women in tune with the consumerist culture. Advertising for women have increased due to increase in purchasing power and decision making capabilities of women yet role are stereotypical either as housewives or sex objects with an ideal body image and fair skin. Even in neutral portrayal women are projected as inferior especially intellectually. Gender relations affect the unequal power relations in society and these are reinforced in advertisements. Social responsibility especially in case of women is found to be wanting as advertisements use female forms even if women may not be the target consumers. The social responsibility is needed and the media should scale down on the profit motive and self regulation against obscenity in the interest of public good. Keywords: Women, advertisement, social responsibility, profit motive, gender relations

Introduction Globalisation has facilitated conveying of media signals manifold. Multinational media conglomerates have formed, which use improved transmission technologies along with uniform and standardized software (contents) for all regions in which these conglomerates operate. This advancement has a direct impact on social behaviours and cultural attitudes of the regions they 1

operate in. globalized mass media has made contents of different mediums more entertainment centric. Grossberg etal (2006), globalization is about flexibility and mobility of production and marketing and the complete immersion of population within worlds of media images, commoditization and consumption. Standardized messages especially in entertainment mediums have great impact. The lifestyles of upper-class are mostly portrayed in the entertainment contents to create a sense of desire and aspiration amongst the viewing public towards such lifestyles. The immediate effect of entertainment centric programming has led to the rise in commercial messages or advertisements alongside the actual media contents. Advertisements featuring products and services like various gadgets, electronic items and high end housing, air travel, vacations abroad, banking, etc are shown to increase interest in these things amongst the public. This soft peddling of consumerist culture in the mass media benefits the agenda of multinational corporations (MNCs) who are prime beneficiaries of the effects of globalisation. The entire society seems to have been converted into a marketplace for MNCs. Hence the depiction of minorities within society including portrayal of women is in tune with the consumerist culture propagated by the globalized media. Patel (1998), the mass media functions in the larger system of patriarchy and capitalism that controls media structures and organizations and represents women as subordinate. Advertisements have made tremendous progress in the past few decades and have become an indispensable component of modern business and planning. It has to be kept in mind that advertisements are the tool in the hands of the sponsors to make prospective customers use their goods or services. The basic objective of any enterprise is profit maximization. To achieve this goal sometimes advertisements maybe put in such a manner which might give misguiding information, may degrade a rival product, can withhold information on possible side effects of the product, possibly injure the feelings of a certain section of society like minorities, different ethnic groups, women and may be decadent or obscene. Advertisements are produced in such a manner so as to attract attention immediately. They tend to influence people of all ages and of varied socio-economic structures. From the morning when one is reminded of the different brands of toothpastes to the time one is ready to go to bed, one is told of the different kinds of mosquito repellents that will give trouble free sleep. Advertisements are slickly produced and capture attention instantaneous. It is impossible to avoid a slick by 2

produced advertisement and nowadays they tend to influence people of all ages and socioeconomic structures and women are no exceptions. Depiction of Women in Advertisements Women are main targets of commercials related to them and household use like cosmetics, apparels, jewelleries, food, cleansers i.e. detergents and soaps, utensils, kitchen gadgets etc. Advertising specialists feel that the easiest way to gain customer confidence is by referring to stereotype and hierarchical order that are reflected in social life. Ads created an illusion of happiness, depicts an ideal world, where everything is clear, simple and requires no great effort. They glamorize everyday life and domestic chores while portraying a vision of happy and perfect family complete with a model couple, one or two kids and pets all ensconced in a beautiful house. They target womens feeling of responsibility and appeal to womens traditional mission to guard their homes in this case against disease germs etc. as if sterile both rooms and kitchens prone to be the way towards fulfillment of the socially accepted roles of mothers and housewives. Women are depicted as sexual or aesthetical object in advertisements where they are made to look beautiful with help of various products or services and are made capable of demonstrating desire openly especially to attract attention of men with the help of the acquired beauty and charm. In this respect it can be said that the emotions like envy and jealousy amongst women is a recurring feature in womens products though not that apparent in advertisements for mens products. This goes a long way in demeaning the image of women though jealously is a human trait not exclusively a womans attribute. Also advertisers use womens emancipation to soft peddle consumerism. They highlight how the urban working woman becomes a super mom, great wife and efficient worker by using all kinds of labour saving appliance at home. Patel (1998), women are utilized in advertising to sell products to both male and female consumers through their two-dimensional role: as caretakers of the household and the family and as a decorative sex object That women have sex appeal and that female form is attractive is cashed in by the advertiser. Advertisements where women are end uses like detergents powders and cakes, spices and masalas, sarees, cooking oil, personal care products and cosmetics etc, show women as unhappy before use of product and happy after use as if satisfaction and contentment is derived from use of products and services only. In most ads women are shown as taking case of family which is a 3

noble occupation and there is nothing wrong in projecting it however, it is the glorification of the ever smiling immaculately dressed, submissive housewife which is not correct. Even though working women have been accepted in society but still the advertisements are yet to portray such women correctly. Independent and young working women are shown as having a chief concern, how to look and stay beautiful not just to the onlooker but also to herself. As the female form is attractive is cashed in and commoditized by the advertisers. In case of advertisements where women are end users of the product or service, it is highly justified to use women. However it is seen that in case of many advertisements women may or may not be the target consumers yet they are still used. In reality they are used in selling diverse products from male shaving systems to automobiles just because the media persons think that beautiful bodies are good for brand recall. Joseph and Sharma (1994),the growing power of media both electronic and print and their increasingly commercial nature ,which obviates all pretence at a higher purpose, suggests that the commoditization of women so evident in the west in the 1960s is likely to become more virulent in India in the near future. In society today, self esteem is an important issue that affects every one including women. These days projection of a careful body image especially for women has been generated. Female models are shown to look perfect and in effect inspire the women to try hard to attain the all important standard of beauty and perfection as set by the visuals of the advertisements. Advertisements have many stereotyped views about women, one of which is to have an ideal body image, be it her face or body, she has to look perfect. Women models in advertisements act as role models for women and teenagers, who see them often, which in turn have an impact on the mind of the female viewers and therefore they wish to obtain perfect bodies. Women try hard to gain such ultimate body image because they want to have attractive figures which resemble the perfect bodies shown repeatedly and think that this is the set standard. Many diets therapies are advertised with assurance of fast and easy weight loss leading to a happier and successful life for the user. Many women opt for these crash weight loss centers courses or medicines and believe that this will be a quick solution to their ideal body image problems. Without realizing it, some of these women especially teenage girls, become anorexic and bulimic because of the unrealistic desire to look perfect as projected in the different advertisements by perfect models. Munshi (2001),in the contemporary urban Indian context, the media driven consumer culture mirrors western ideals of the perfect body-perfectly shaped, toned and exercised. 4

Advertisements take advantage of the Indian mentality of craze for fair skin especially for girls. Young girls are made the target of various fairness creams and encouraged to become fair to either attract a husband or get a job. In various advertisements, it is shown that after use of product, the girls become fair skinned and get good marriage proposal or the desired job. It seems that fair skin is the only ticket to success and all other qualifications and qualities becoming irrelevant. As a developing nation with many objectives and goals pertaining to development, the society needs celebrity endorsements. Using film actresses to model for such positive messages is quite common now ranging from diverse ideas like national integration, family planning, wildlife preservation, energy conservation, AIDS awareness to eye donation. These are indeed socially responsible activities of advertisements and these actions need to be lauded. Unfortunately such messages are few and far between in comparison to other commercial messages which are in huge numbers and are related to beauty creams, lotions, colas etc produced for easy and quick money even though some of the contents of such messages are derogatory often encouraging voyeurism, modeled by film actresses and female artists of well known television serials. Beauty contests are held often all over the country which is no more than ploys to use the winners of the contest to endorse the multifarious products and services, which have sponsored these events. Munshi(2001) speaks of a sudden spurt of made in India international beauties directly related to beauty business which do not lag behind as they are aware of the huge market. The patriarchal mindset is reflected in advertisements which are again an extension of societal values. In the last few years due to positive effects of globalisation it has been notice that female workers are getting hired in the service sector and this sector is considered friendly to women employees. Women are earning more and spending more, hence corporate and marketing strategies are being fashioned to target women and use women in advertisements in neutral manner. However it has been noticed that in such advertisements women are projected as inferior especially intellectually. In most cases advertising agencies and the sponsoring company are represented by men who sometimes even unknowingly make such representations. Women are allowed to take decisions for detergents, spices etc, but when more important decisions are taken like cars; loans; shares then men are shown as the decision makers. Also working women are mostly depicted mostly as holding subordinate position to males, where the males are shown as self assured and females shown as looking for male acceptability. Gender relations affect the 5

unequal power relations in society and these are reinforced in advertisements. Kakar (2003), our society does not like changes it prefers keeping people in their place be it have-nots, scheduled castes or women. And it finds its strongest ally in advertising. Joshi (1999), there is an urgent need to initiate changes in the existing portrayal of women in advertisements to make this medium more effective and positive as far as womens portrayal is concerned. Concluding Remarks Social responsibility especially in case of women is found to be wanting as is clear from the earlier deliberation. This is especially true in case of portrayal or representation of women in advertisements. Advertisements bombard the public with information on products and services at home or outside. It is difficult to miss persuasive advertisements as they are produced in such fashion to attract maximum attention. In these advertisements women may be the target consumers or not, but nevertheless female forms are used. Where women are users of the product or service it is highly justified to use women but in reality they are used in selling diverse products from male shaving systems to automobiles. The advances in communication and information technologies have imparted greater power and more impact to the message. It has to be kept in mind while giving any message to the public that this country has multi-ethnic, religious and cultural groups with varied types of customs. There some traditions in this country which have to be respected while preparing such messages, all individuals including women should be projected with respect. The reason why this is not the case may be that as the mass media including advertising are a part of the traditionally conservative patriarchal society in this country, hence women are a powerless group open to exploitation hence get a negative portrayal. A self regulation in media against obscenity and violence along with stricter implementation of law is the need of the hour .The social responsibility is necessary and the media should scale down a little bit on the profit motive in the interest of the greater public good. Parsai (2005), it seems that media should cut down on profit motive a little so that society would benefit more It has to be kept in mind that advertisements are the tool in the hands of the sponsors to make prospective customers use their products or services. However to achieve this goal, messages put forward must not give misguiding or false information. It should not degrade a rival product, withhold information on possible side effects of the product, injure the feelings of a certain 6

section of society like women, minorities, different ethnic groups etc and be immoral or obscene. Advertisers have the basic responsibility of being aware that what ever they are advocating aught to be backed up by the manufacturer with standard goods or services. It is imperative that advertisements be socially responsible and have contents which may be considered as within the cultural and ethical paradigm by society at a given time and place, not just for the satisfaction or the benefit of the producer. If an advertiser produces socially responsible advertisements backed by standard product or service, only then can they make some profit and improve the image of the enterprise in the long run. References
Grossberg, L.Whitney, D.C., Wise, J.M.(2006).Media Making Mass Media in a Popular Culture. India: Sage., p424 Joseph, A. & Sharma, K.(1994): Whose News. Sage p 19 Joshi, U(1999). Text Book of Mass Communication and Media. Anmol Publications p 211 KakarP Times of India, March 9, 2003 p 10. Munshi(2001)Marvellous me:The beuty industry and the construction of the modern indinan woman .Sage p87 p88 Parsai, G.(2005)Media should have self regulation: The Hindu (a Chennai. March 8th 2005 p12 Patel, I.(1998) Women in the Third World in An Encylopaedia of contemporary women issues Edt. N.P. Stromquist. Garland Publishing p 125.