Gender In Advertising

The ad for a certain shampoo on the television portraying two of the most sensuous and physically attractive star models, (who are also an off-screen pair in real life) is an indicator of how sex roles have changed in Indian advertising. Cinematographed in monochrome with the right shades of darkness and mood lighting, the word 'hot ' recurs like a double-edged metaphor in the ad, an adjective that has no direct relationship with the product being advertised. Why?
This, and other contemporary ads raise pertinent questions about perspectives on gender in media representations of men and women. The Bipasha Basu-John Abraham ad mentioned above for instance, underscores how men in Indian ads are being presented in a much more macho-dominant manner than they were before. Another ad for male underwear shows a number of females with pseudo-coy expressions on their faces coming out of a toilet. The camera cuts to a shot inside the toilet where a handsome male model lies prostrate with telltale lipstick marks across his body. Again, the product advertised does not really bear a direct relationship with the message or the script since few Indian males would
Some of the common stereotypical portrayals seem less prevalent in Indian ads. For example, unlike in British magazine ads, women in Indian magazine ads were more likely to be portrayed in "neutral/other" ways and less likely to be portrayed as sex objects. Women modelling for mobile phones, cars and two-wheelers, painkillers, and as protagonists carry neutral portrayals. Women were also less likely to be portrayed in "dependency" roles in Indian ads than in British ads. It is noteworthy that these results are similar to those found in two other Asian countries--Korea and Japan--where, again, females were less likely to be portrayed in very negative stereotypical ways than in western nations. As mentioned earlier, the religious and cultural differences between India and western nations may account for this