Mindset makes ads retro

Two ads of BBDO India took home the Grand Prix Award and also won a regular Glass Lion at the Cannes Lions Festival, which is aimed at celebrating work that illuminates gender issues. Good news is that, there has been a slew of gender-bender national ads that have highlighted gender equality showcasing second marriages, working daughters-in-law, stay-at-home husbands, a wife who is actually the boss, the parents supporting the daughter and generally, the single woman moving with the times. While national ads have moved away from clichéd themes, regional ads are still sticking to the tried and tested stereotypes.

A recent teaser for a South ad endorsed by actor Prakash Raj had parents speaking to the actor referring to their daughters as ‘tension’.  This elicited a storm of comments in social media criticising the ad; a young woman reportedly filed a case against the ad campaign. The regional ads still consider the choice of branded jewellery or clothes as the prime subject of discussion with men making most of the decisions. Why is there such a retrograde attitude as far as local ads go?

Deepu Anthikad Head of Image Ad Films, who has worked in national, as well as regional ads opines, “The Malayalis prefer a traditional setting; their lifestyle may be modern with the latest cars and gadgets, but the mindset is  still traditional! An ad is made to sell a product to the majority of customers and the customer mindset is very important. A national ad may be done for a multinational company, where the mindset is more liberated; as opposed to single owners heading big enterprises regionally, who can’t be easily moved from their traditional approach. After all, it is big money at stake for the clients, and while a social message may sound and look good it may not translate to sales. As ad makers, we are ready to create such ads, but the clients still need to evolve.”

It isn’t that, regional ads haven’t made a go at creating gender neutrality. Actor Sajitha Madathil went through a hair raising time some years back, when the fiery activist decided to act in an ad for a leading hair oil brand  Indulekha. It showed Sajitha voicing her ire against eve teasers in Kerala, who get turned on seeing women with long hair;  and asks if women should opt for bob cuts. This ad brought her a lot of negative remarks.

Sajitha recalls, “My friends were skeptical about a social activist like me endorsing a hair oil brand;  but I went ahead and did it. The fallout was unexpected; from comments asking who I was to preach, to abusive comments about my looks. I had to complain to the cyber cell to remove the links. There were discussions in the media about my reasons for doing the ad.” She points out to a recent regressive ad for Chemmanur Jewellery stating, “Gold seems to be the major cause of concern and decisions are often taken by men and that is reflected in the ads. How society sees and expects women to be is how they are portrayed in ads; but the modern woman has marched giant strides ahead.”

Director and ad filmmaker VK Prakash, who has made national and international ads, states that he prefers making ads in the North rather than in Kerala because of the traditional mindset. Mentioning that he just acted in the Chemmanur jewellery ad and did not make it, he says, “In the Indian ad scenario, idea-based commercials changed to execution-based commercials. But due to the viral ads the idea-based commercials have come back in which we can talk stories and emotions. In Kerala, it is always execution-based commercials with stereotyped music and jingles. The Kerala mindset may still be traditional and I feel idea-based commercials which are whacky and different need to come out.”

According to Venugopal R Nair, Creative Director of Maitri Advertising who has created national and regional ads, when stereotyping is paying dividends, why change a successful formula? He says though, “Yes, there is a divide of ad content  between the North and South, and Keralites pick up trends late. Advertising as an art is evolving here, it will take time to match the national ads.” Citing the example of the recent V Star ad that has a tagline that states ‘Girl is the new boy’, Venugopal mentions, “Cinema is seeing women-centric scripts, surely you can expect ads too to follow suit. Wait and watch!”