The International Advertising Agency is organizing a campaign “VoiceofChange” which is focused on the Marcom industry asking the latter to be more attentive and sensitive to gender-related issues in all its communications.
Multiple digital advertisements have been issued to elucidate this subject. A short 16 seconds video indicated how the thought process of the people has been forged in such a way that we have accepted gender-biased conduct. The video starts with a small question, one is looking out for domestic help say, one who washes vessels, sweeps and swabs the floor then why is it that one imagines only a woman doing these? The video ends with a request to unite for a gender-equal world.
The next video which is also 16 seconds short again asks the public to picture a 35-year-old woman in an ad, any brand, any category. The video then raises the question that what role do you think the woman is playing? It wasn’t a scientist, was it?
The last video for this subject is demanding to picture a beautiful girl in an advertisement who has got silky hair, soft hands and a beautiful smile. The video goes on to ask that “you didn’t imagine a dark skin tone. Or did you? The video ends with asking to unite for a skin colour neutral world.
Megha Tata, the President at IAA India & Managing Director – South Asia Discovery Communications India, said, “The distinctive survey that we helped UNICEF and the Geena Davis Foundation with the portrayal of women in Indian advertising threw up several interesting findings.” “We felt that an innovative campaign that highlights these findings could help our content creators focus on such points in a very positive way and collectively become the Voice of Change,” Tata said.
Raj Nair, the CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Madison BMB, said that “A study of gender representations in advertisements in India brought up some unexpected facts. An industry that is deemed to be a flag-bearer of out-of-the-box thinking seemed to be turning a blind eye to a subject as pertinent as gender equality.
“This campaign brought forward some uncomfortable truths and aims to be an eye-opener for the Indian advertising and media industry to be more attentive and sensitive in their thought process. We leapt at the opportunity to hold a mirror to ourselves. And to assist IAA to carry on to be the Voice Of Change,”
The campaign urges people to come forward and write comments using #VoiceOfChange and share how they are willing to bring out this change in advertising. The knowledge partner for this campaign is Unicef.
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