QUEEN’S ROAD: Making advertisements for the woman of today is no mean task. Airtel blew it earlier this year with a campaign that showed a woman as her husband’s boss during the day and a MasterChef who coaxes him to come home at night to a table groaning under gourmet food. Tanishq, after offending scores of women with the 2010 ad that had the tagline ‘jewellery that makes you want to marry,’ managed to redeem itself with the one that stood for widow remarriage. And a recent ad campaign for a popular jewellery brand nailed it with the image of a woman running the house and buying jewellery for herself while her husband took a hiatus from work.
It’s simple, really, to show women as equally capable and accomplished individuals who attempt to break patriarchal stereotypes and ‘rules’. But then comes a second thought and maybe a third one. And brands like Airtel and Tanishq (with the former ad) after taking one step forward, go two steps back.
In the past week, the Internet has been abuzz with Titan Raga’s latest ad that features the gorgeous Nimrat Kaur.
She sits at an airport, reading a book, while a former partner walks up to her and says, ‘hi.’ They get talking and he realises that she is still not married. They could have made the relationship work if only she had quit her job, he says. And when she suggests that he could have quit his job, he says, “How can a man not work, yaar?” Like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. She pauses for a moment, looks down at her watch, and says that he is still the same man that she left. A couple of awkward exchanges later, he gets up and leaves.
The ad speaks volumes in such few words. While making feminists on the Internet smile and nod in agreement, it has surely upset the conservative lot who rue the challenges faced by the traditional Indian family set-up. If you’re going to go around telling women that they can walk out of marriages to pursue their dreams, who will raise the children, they ask. Apparently, the men can’t because they were built to be breadwinners, and for them to do anything else is unnatural.
Raising a child and taking care of the family is always the woman’s problem. We never see men worrying about finding work-life balance, do we? By refusing to quit her job, stay at home and let the man be himself, she is not doing the one thing that is expected of her. And that is something the system cannot do without. By raising very valid questions, the advertisement joins the list of the most memorable ads of this year.