Type: TV Commercial
Tags: Sexist, Misrepresenting women
The Offensive Scale Rating: Red! (extremely offensive!)
Description
This advertisement is about gaming on devices with 3G connectivity by one of the major mobile/internet providers in India that is part of a mammoth business house here. A young girl is excited about going “out for a drive” with the popular stud, who has sleazy written all over his face. The girl’s friend who not-so-secretly likes her gives her a gaming phone/device with 3G connectivity and strong graphics that makes gaming, a one-of-a-kind experience. So throughout the day, our stud tries to take the girl to different places that are either isolated or have other couples who are busy getting cozy but he is not getting any because our girl is glued to her gaming device. The background music also suggests that our stud Finally he returns with her to the same spot where he picked her from, where her not-so-secret-admirer is still waiting for her.Theme of the ad: I think is that gaming is so fast and uninterrupted with this provider’s 3G services that everything else is forgotten.
Messages relayed:
The problem that I have with this and other advertisements of the same provider’s 3G services is that it represents women as a group that has no choice in the matter of intimacy with men. So if the man wants to have sex, the woman has effectively no say in the matter. In this case, the other man then has to use his brains and distract her with a “shiny new toy” so that she does not respond to the stud’s advances. This is so ridiculously sexist that I am surprised nobody has spoken out against it. Or maybe somebody has and I am not aware of it. Then there is the other bit about the girl being portrayed as an absolute idiot who does not have brains enough to understand that a man is trying to touch her shoulders or legs. No sir! She thinks it is a fly or a possible insect hovering around her and she impatiently smacks it off with her hand. In fact, I am now wondering why they did not let the stud have his way with the girl since she was so clearly engrossed in the game that she would not have really noticed! In a nutshell: The problems that I have with this advertisement are that it is offensive to women and is sexist. The way the girl in the advertisement and therefore young women in general have been portrayed, shows narrow-mindedness and chauvinism that is really very disappointing.
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