Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles

by Ambi Parameswaran

  Let us move to yet another category, tea. Tata Tea was one of the most outstanding successes of its time. Launched in 1983, the brand got the nation singing its tune when it unleashed its Anu Taazgi De De film in 1996. The film, a copy of a famous song from an Amitabh Bachchan film, had Javed Jaffrey asking the model turned dancer Anuradha Aggarwal, ‘Anu taazgi de de’ (Anu, give me freshness). The same brand decided to do a film where the woman protagonist had a bigger role than just to dance and sing paeans for Tata Tea. In the 2000s, the Tata Tea woman was ready to coach children to play better football, because her husband, the school coach, had a broken leg. And in 2010, the brand used its ‘Jaago Re’ theme to show that the women of India are not ready to cow down to pressures. In one film, a young woman is at a government office and the smiling clerk is telling her that the job will get done if she gives him some patte – which means leaves and is also a colloquial term for currency notes. The young woman asks if ‘small leaves’ will do. To which the clerk says that small leaves are not very useful, some big leaves will be needed as well. To his surprise, she then takes out a pack of Tata Tea Premium tea leaves and places it on his table saying that the pack has a mix of well-selected small and big leaves.

  Arvind Rajagopal, Professor of Media Studies at New York University, is a keen observer of societal trends as reflected through Indian media and advertising. He points out that the woman was always shown, in Indian advertising, as someone inside her house doing her duties, cooking, sewing and caring for the children and the in-laws. According to him, one of the earliest films that decided to show an upper-middle-class woman – short code: fair – woman actively engaging with the male market was the Surf Excel Lalita ji film made in 1984. The film shows a woman, played by Kavita Choudhary, actively arguing with the shopkeeper to get a better deal as she explains the virtues of her Surf detergent powder to an off-camera male. Alyque Padamsee, the adman behind the campaign, has said that the character, Lalita ji, was modelled after his own mother. He also goes on to say how Surf had to take on an emotional appeal to fight Nirma and this was possible only by presenting the Indian housewife as a hard-nosed bargain hunter who demanded value and not just a cheap price. Apparently, the film was almost rejected since it presented the Surf user as a ‘rude and insulting woman’. But Alyque got Shunu Sen, the then marketing director of Hindustan Lever, to review the film once again and managed to sell the film to him, albeit adding a bit of humour and sarcasm. Maybe that helped to tone down the belligerence of Lalita ji. All said, the film did work for Surf and managed to help stem the wholesale migration of Surf users to Nirma. With Surf, the humble Indian housewife was finally given a voice to argue with a male character, even if only a lowly vegetable vendor2. It is interesting to compare the depiction of women in Indian advertising with what was happening in the UK, wonderfully captured by the BBC Washes Whiter commercials collection; even in the UK women were depicted in stereotypical roles of cooking and cleaning right though the post World War II period till around the ’70s and ’80s.

  One of the earliest researchers who examined the presentation of women in advertising was Erving Goffman, often referred to as the ‘most influential American Sociologist of the twentieth century’. He looked at the presentation of male and female characters through numerous lenses. How different are the scenes depicted in the advertisements versus real life and he concludes that one big trend was the presence of ‘hyper-ritualization’ wherein gender-defined roles are even more accentuated in advertisements, male appear more masculine, women more feminine in hyper-typical roles3.

  I was at a panel discussion in Mumbai in April 2015, where several panelists were discussing the role of a woman in Bollywood. Actress and producer, Nandita Das was at her vocal best explaining how dark skin was a big taboo in mainstream Bollywood movies even in the 2010s; and she pointed out how actresses turn fair as their career progresses. Anjum Rajabali, one of the most talented scriptwriters, also spoke about how mainstream Bollywood films were totally male centric. He explained that almost all the dialogues in most Hindi films, including his own, are spun around the male hero; if he is in the scene, he is speaking; if he is not in the scene, the female characters are speaking about him. He challenged the audience to go home and do this exercise. In fact, one of the divas of Indian films of the ’70s and ’80s, Sharmila Tagore has also mentioned that in her entire career, she played a working woman twice; as a singer in one film and a doctor in another. That was because she was the heroine. She adds that a working woman was always seen as a danger to society because she was a danger to the institution of marriage4.

  From the days of Anne French advertising hair removal in the 1950s in English language magazines, marketers have been trying to change their appeal to the Indian woman in many different ways.

  When researching women in the ’80s on their reasons for using cosmetics, Rediffusion unearthed a truth that will today sound obvious. Till then, the belief in advertising agencies, and in client organizations, was that women used cosmetics to look good and attract men. Well that was partly true, but women said that they also used cosmetics to feel good. This translated into a wonderful line for Lakme – the brand that had just moved to the agency – ‘Looking good and feeling great with Lakme’. Cosmetic brands the world over have realized this truth and today tout many such promises such as ‘You’re worth it’, ‘Real beauty’, ‘Only the best will do’, ‘Beauty lies within’ etc. Let us not for a minute think that all cosmetic brands have adopted the high ground of ‘inner beauty’, but all I was trying to present was that in advertising circles, there was much debate about understanding women a little better even as far back as 1980.

  The opening up of the economy in the ’90s saw the entry of global beauty brands that set out to redefine beauty. Sensing the opportunity, Pradeep Guha, then Director at Times Group decided to play up the Femina Miss India contest into a national celebration of beauty – and brains, if I may add. Not only were participants carefully selected from across the country with several regional rounds, Times also invested heavily in training them to make an impact on the global stage. Pradeep hit pay dirt in 1994 when two of his protégés, Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai, won the two most prestigious beauty crowns, Miss Universe and Miss World. This double whammy did for the beauty pageant industry what Kapil Dev’s World Cup victory did for one-day cricket. Young girls wanted to win beauty contests, beauty parlours started sprouting up across small town India and in came a slew of global cosmetic brands.

  Gender stereotyping is an occupational hazard when it comes to brand marketing. For example, the Nirma advertising that gave Hindustan Lever sleepless nights in the ’80s was but a portrayal of typical middle-class women who went by the names ‘Hema, Rekha, Jaya and Sushma’ – don’t forget that the names were probably inspired by the ruling deities of that era: Hema Malini, Rekha and Jaya Bhaduri. All the washing was done by women; men and children just pranced around in that ad.

  Ariel broke this stereotype in an ad, in the late ’90s, where they showed a man washing clothes to avoid being scolded by his wife for spoiling the clothes she cares for. The brand has gone one step further in 2015, by unleashing the campaign #ShareTheLoad.

  Whirlpool decided to gain favour with housewives by calling them ‘homemakers’. The series of films done by the brand in the late ’90s and 2000s showed how the woman of the house is in control while her husband creates chaos. The chant of the kids ‘Mummy ka magic, chalega kya?’ became an anthem of sorts. Women across India even idolized the Whirlpool mom.

  Come to 2005, when Hero was launching their scooter brand, Pleasure, they decided to position the brand for girls. Not only they did they avoid any reference to boy usage, they decided to cock a snook at boys saying, ‘Why should boys have all the fun?’

  As we have seen over the last few brand stories, Indian advertising has tried to capture the changing shades of the Indian woman. But please remember these are just exceptions that prove the rule. The average ad for a s
oap, toothpaste, shampoo, detergent, hair oil, tea, beverages, packaged foods, milk etc. still present Indian women in their classic gender-defined roles. To see if this is true, this author along with a team at FCB Ulka decided to pick about thirty television commercials, each of branded packaged goods, from 1987, 1997 and 2007. Of the thirty ads from each year studied, only three showed working women.

  I would suspect the number would have increased in the last ten years, but here is a sobering thought: The rapid change of Indian women has also got Rama Bijapurkar to comment, ‘Women in India have changed the most as a result of both social and economic changes of the past decade. They have changed far more than the men and more than “society” as a whole. Some of these changes are for the better [sic] and some have caused unimaginable backlashes, but overall women power has increased in the past two decades and we can expect it to keep rising in the future – it is now past the point of no return’5.

  Women have been the target audience for all household products as well as packaged foods and so they are also one of the most researched target segments. The joke in the market research industry is that in several cities of India there are prefixed ‘focus-group women’ who attend focus groups almost every day of the week. But that aside, companies and agencies have tried to understand the changing shades of Indian women for several decades.

  FCB Ulka has done a series of studies to understand the changing Indian women. These studies called ‘WomanMood’ have been conducted every seven years. From 2001 to 2015, there have been three readings of urban Indian women – small town and big town. WomanMood I, done in 2001, showed that6:

  – The woman sees herself as the ‘Annapurna’ – provider of the food in the house; but she is not too happy cooking

  – The husband-wife gap has reduced but only on the surface

  – Man is clearly the provider and the head of the household

  – Kids are the focal point of the nuclear family

  – Working women are aspirational, but they are evaluated by how good a homemaker they are

  – Health largely meant cleanliness and family health

  Now let us fast forward to 2015 and see what the new pillars are:

  – The woman has become more assertive about her decisions for herself and the family

  – She has converged roles and believes that all have to work together for the betterment of the family

  – She believes that she has to work both for financial reasons as well as self-growth

  – She needs her ‘me’ space and time with her friends

  – Kids are to be given higher education to become independent

  The changing dynamics of Indian women has also been reflected in the way the editorial content of women’s magazines has changed. In FCB Ulka’s study of Hindi magazines, it was found as against a predominance of articles on cooking, managing your husband, managing your in-laws in the last decade, today’s Hindi magazines are reflecting the new aspirations of women – with extensive coverage about businesses you can start from home, courses you can do to improve yourself, basics of financial investments etc. It should be mentioned that the magazines are also covering hitherto forbidden topics like getting more pleasure out of lovemaking. Why not?

  Television serials are also reflecting this new reality; saas-bahu serials are no longer occupying centre stage. Even serials about a woman trying to become an ‘officer’ have found acceptance. The stories are also reflecting the new reality of married life, with the husband trying to be a lot more understanding and accommodative than before.

  In December 2014, the International Advertising Association in collaboration with Hansa Research released a study ‘Changing Trends in Portrayal of Woman in Indian Advertising’. The researchers spoke to ninety-four professionals in marketing and advertising, and they concluded:

  – Professionals endorsed that it is education and financial independence that is empowering women and giving them more decision-making powers

  – Gender roles are less clearly defined today than what it was some years ago, but women still feel children are their responsibility

  – Advertising today portrays women as more energetic, confident, multi-taskers than as ‘homely’. Is there a new stereotype of supermom emerging? In Asia, such moms got the nom de guerre of ‘Tiger Moms’.

  – Using women provocatively is seen as a way of grabbing attention now

  There was still an overwhelming feeling that Indian advertising has not been able to portray the actual status of women in society. While there seems to be a change in the portrayal of women in advertising due to her newer roles, there still seems to be a lot of opportunity to explore various facets of women and showcase them in advertising.

  BEAUTIFUL HAIR: How come women in ads have such beautiful long hair? Well, that is the magic of – very expensive – computer graphics and what are known as ‘hair extensions’.

  Women of India are changing and the jury is unanimous in its verdict. And the general consensus is that the change has accelerated over the last twenty years. What has triggered this acceleration?

  The first major driver would be the growing affluence and the consumption economy that has emerged in the last two decades. The desire to buy new things, provide better education to children, move into bigger homes, buy a bigger television set/car and take foreign vacations have all driven urban couples to re-examine the need for two earning members in the family. In addition, these have also redefined the role of the elder generation, who also want to partake in the largesse of a bigger family budget and are ready to play the role of a baby sitter.

  The definition of a ‘suitable girl’ has changed and the Centre for Social Research, Delhi reports in India Today, 6 April 2015: 1960s meant pretty, virgin, accomplished; 1970s meant convent-educated, homely, smart, fair; 1980s meant tall, fair, slim and qualified; 1990s meant high earning, beautiful; 2000s meant compatible, working girl7.

  This in turn is creating new demographic seismic shifts. As mentioned in a previous chapter, the age of marriage is moving up steadily. According to 2001 census, about 24.9 per cent of girls in the age group fifteen to nineteen were married; the number dropped to 19.9 per cent in the 2011 census, a drop of a whopping 5.0 per cent in just one decade. In a similar vein, they are having children later, maybe trying their hand at working or getting better educated. Livemint, 18 March 2015, observes that these numbers vary across the states of India, depending on women’s literacy and social customs8.

  If advertising is presenting women in new roles, Bollywood too seems to be waking up to this new India. From the days of Mother India where the mother was the ever suffering do-gooder, in the movie Vicky Donor she became a whisky-loving mom. An article in the Sunday Guardian dated 10 May 2015, lists the mother stereotypes as: righteous murderous ma; diving mother; hysterical mother; mistress mother; super-understanding mother; I-want-to-get-my-progeny-married mother; feminist ma; most ma imaginable; footloose ma; chief ma; kewl mom; step-mom; attention-seeking mom; reluctant mom; sad mom; hot mom etc9.

  The desire to do something on their own has driven women and mothers to enter new areas like start-ups. The new term ‘Momtreprenuer’ has been coined to describe them.

  Is it that we have finally managed to give women their rightful place under the sun and vanquished the Manusmriti curse on women? Well, the numbers tell a different story. While women are 48.9 per cent of the population, they occupy only 11.4 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha, 10.8 per cent of the ministerial posts in the central government, 8.4 per cent of the supreme court and high court judges; 17.3 per cent of civil services; 5.8 per cent of the police; 10.3 per cent of small- and medium-enterprise owners; 2.7 per cent of CEOs/MDs. Thanks to government guidelines, around 42 per cent of gram panchayats are headed by women. Maybe the change that we are looking for will come from rural India (Livemint, 9 March 2015)10.

  The concept of ‘Missing Women’ was first used by Nobel Laureate Amartaya Sen. According to Sen, the ratio o
f men to women in developing countries like India and China were too low to be natural outcomes. He came up with a staggering statistic that more than a 100 million women were ‘missing’, many from India and China. The topic of gender discrimination in India is something that has been widely written about11.

  Now compare this with the developed world. Approximately, 70 per cent of all American females work outside the home. The comparative figure for India would be around 17 per cent. Women dominate higher education and in campuses across US and Canada, the ratio is 60:40 female12.

  The wheels of our nation need to turn fast and women can play a key role, as depicted by an ad by Taproot for the brand Nirma, released in the 2010s.

  An ambulance is stuck in the mud. Its wheels keep turning throwing out dirt, but the ambulance does not move. All the car and auto owners are honking irritatedly, while bystanders look on. Then four women get out of their car, walk to the ambulance and push it out of the rut. Their clothes are now dirty, but the ambulance is on its way. As the women walk proudly to their cars, the Nirma jingle kicks in.