The feminist ‘ad’vantage

Femvertising, which unites feminism and advertising, seems to have found many takers here. Does it mirror a progressive mindset or is it the newest selling trick

Over the past few months, a slew of ads themed on women empowerment have been doing the rounds in the online space. Last year Deepika Padukone’s My Choice video for Vogue had created a stir and drew some strong opinions from both sides of the table. Anouk, in yet another much-talked about ad starring Radhika Apte as a pregnant lady, addressed the issue of a woman’s right to maternity leave. Earlier Ariel had released their “share the load” campaign on television where they had roped in Imran Khan to tell men that doing the laundry is not only the woman’s job.

The most recent example is an ad for Biba, that released a week ago, and got many nods of approval for toppling the time-honoured arranged marriage tradition of the boy and his family coming to see the girl. The examples appear to be several and diverse, and are all part of a trend in the ad world called “femvertising” — advertising with a feminist focus. The idea, apparently, is that you can “empower women while also selling products”.

Globally femvertising is a well-recognised offshoot of advertising, which seems to be finding takers in India now. The question is, do these commercials actually reflect changing mindsets or is it a clever way of tapping the 70-80 per cent consumer base, that is women. And most importantly, is the consumer biting the bait

For the creators of such messages, the core thought is to start a conversation. Suvajyoti Ghosh, co-founder and managing director, Brandmovers India that created the Biba commercial, says, “Feminism wasn’t a very interesting area for us to explore. Question was how to associate the brand with the modern woman. The aim was to create conversations. The brief was to build digital engagement around the brand.” He points out how brands been trying to create stories as opposed to making only advertisements. “And I don’t think it is a passing fad. Brands have now taken a supplementary role, the key focus is on the changes that can be brought in the society.”

The rise and rise of Internet advertising has been largely influential in fuelling these voices. National creative director of Leo Burnett, Raj Deepak Das, the brain behind the radical Whisper campaign that went by the tag line “touch the pickle”, says women’s empowerment is not the “flavour of the season”. However, when he had created the campaign he was part of BBDO. Raj says, “It has always been there. It’s just that now we have more mediums to talk about it. These days, when you get a brand to talk about, you think about the entire category and not just the product you are selling specifically.”

But this is not a tool for a sure fire good ad. It has to have relevance to the product and the marketing need one is out to meet, says Shriram Iyer, national creative director at Mullen Lintas. “You cannot make a formula out of women empowerment or femvertising. It has to fit your product or service. If you look at the dating app Truly Madly, they did a campaign called ‘boy browsing’, that suggested that girls too are not behind in checking out guys, just as how it is like the other way round,” he says. Shriram led the campaign ‘Respect for Women’ for Havell’s kitchen appliances. “Kitchen appliances are seen as women’s territory. We questioned that and said that even a man can play an important part in the kitchen. It found favour with both the sexes. That product category and the marketing problem, naturally lends itself to the empowerment messaging. But when that doesn’t happen, one must not do it, because then it’s very fake,” he says.

He continues, “The primary responsibility of advertising is to solve a marketing problem. But I think as the media and the society continues to evolve, it has become important that we take the responsibility to do something for the society in whatever capacity we can. I’m not saying that advertising changes the society, but since we are into advertising, we have the option of influencing people through communication. We must not stop trying.”

And what does the consumer feel Sudeshna Donkar is all praise for the Biba ad, but when asked if that will impact her purchase, she said, “These kinds of ads are a refreshing change, yes, and I am glad brands are trying to move away from stereotypes while portraying women. But it is also true, even though these ads have a high recall value, they won’t impact my purchase behaviour. That is dictated more by practical things like pricing, utility and so on.”

Inputs from Somudra Banerjee