By Abha Gosavi:
I don’t know how many of you have seen the recent soap advertisement where a gang of ‘hot chicks’ bribe a group of kids with chocolate to get a handsome guy play football with them. The lusty girls watch as the guy rolls around in the mud taking off his clothes. At the end of the game, the girls run at him all equipped with hosepipes and a soap. Really? That’s the best you can do to sell a soap?
I was disgusted to see that advertisement. I was indeed outraged and infuriated. There was this another advertisement where a guy cuts trees while a couple of girls steal his shirt. The macho man then takes off on his bike, overtakes the girls, shows them some of his macho attitude, and off again on his bike – topless! Again! The whole idea makes no sense! The connection between topless men and the endless competition to sell men products is one I’ll never fathom. The portrayal of women in all recent advertisements as forever desperate about men has deeper consequences than what we perceive. Its not just the sheer disgust these gimmicks cause, its a lot more.
Its really ironic that such advertisements are increasing against the background of rising crime against women in India. A great number of factors are responsible for these crimes. But this one I can clearly see. These advertisements could really be one of the smaller forces in driving an increasing number of men to molest girls, women, and most unfortunately, even minors. I can almost see it in my minds eye, a guy from the shanties in Delhi or Mumbai views the advertisement on a television set with all his gully-mohalle friends. They say, ‘What a great way to get the items to notice us!’. With little or no education, this section of our society is most prone to believe such stupid advertisements. So, off they go to the kirana store and get the magic soaps and perfumes and what-nots. Having applied all the said materials in copious amounts they set off in gangs to get the girls. ‘So where to go?’, they say. The slightly more sagacious of the group suggests a girls’ college campus. If they don’t have ‘babes’ there, they are not going to have them anywhere! Oh my God! What a sight! Girls all around; dressed in jeans, skirts and even ones in salwar kameez to suit the tastes of the more conservative ones. When the objects of their fantasy pass them without even the slightest notice, oh their masculinity is challenged! How dare that weak little thing ignore my intoxicating perfume? Why isn’t she running at me with hosepipes and soap even though I am all covered in muck? Lets show this girl her place! And then they go, in gangs, to make her pay a price for her impudence. What happens further, I need not even mention.
Is it not so obvious that such small things as advertisements could cause the staggering crimes that have been gripping our nation? Is it so important for the manufacturing industry to sell its products in a way that can let off a chain reaction that can shake the nation? Or maybe the sales people are so blinded by a worn out advertising gimmick that they just can’t foresee the social repercussions of their actions. The national authorities set up a censor board for smoking scenes and explicit content in movies, but why not for these advertisements? Those two or three minutes of effective publicity can be imprinted quite permanently on the minds of the youth. One small step to avoid crime against women, let’s censor our advertisements and find an alternative to explicit content for sale of mundane objects.
Geetika Agarwal
And you have never appreciated a fine body playing football in the grounds? Really? Try taking things in a less serious and outraged manner. Oh and the urge to rape doesn’t come from the psychological nitpicking from ads, it comes from the assumption that a woman is nothing but a possession without a mind or say. Something that this particular ad kind of disproves by all the scheming the gals do. So yea, chill out and go start sex education classes in the places you mentioned rather than making ridiculous breast-beating articles.
Atanu Chatterjee
This is the last possible stupid thing that can happen. I am really amazed and amused: censor the ads also from now on…
Abhyuday Gupta
Don’t you think you are making mountain out of mole-hill here. Don’t tell me these ideas about sex-crazed women gives the idea of rape to the perverted mind. Women appreciate hot bods and to use that fact isn’t blasphemous. Rather, not acknowledging it is more ridiculous, don’t you think? However, what’s wrong with being sex-crazed, everybody wants it, so why hide it?
Ankit
Dumbest article I have ever read on this site.Telling that women should not show their desires towards men in advertisement or popular media, is no better than moral policing. “Wear proper clothes, don’t talk to strangers, don’t go out at night ….or you will entice someone”.. our society already has too much of this. This is what happens when people are too fixated in their own prudish culture and do not see what is happening in the rest of the world. Many developed nations have far less assaults/crimes and women over their are far more open about their sexuality.
Lack of quality education, bad parenting and some hindi films are far more guilty in this regards and need to be taken care of first, rather than focusing your attention on such trivial nonsense.
ila
true bro!
Nitin
I bet writer is a fat chick, or from a feminist group. I mean whats wrong with this ahole.
ila
Why can’t women display their sexuality? What is the problem with that? We would like to see some more topless men on the television screen as opposed to mostly topless women! Also videos and advertisements are not really the chief cause of crimes against women. It is largely about opportunity, and establishing their male dominance and social conditioning. A small advertisement cannot really make a big difference especially when there are pornography video parlour being run in those chawls, and shanties. At least this advert is one step ahead from depicting an Indian woman as a shy, coy girl who is forced to subdue her sexuality.
aby
No, Abha you are NOT over reacting, or need to lighten up. You said the right thing. There;s too much negativity in the comment section. So, I’ll just say keep posting such articles. As for me, I can’t sit through TV at all these days.