A few years ago at the World Economic Forum’s summit in India, I was part of the team that curated a public conversation between social activist Mallika Sarabhai and Prince Jaime de Bourbon Parme of The Netherlands. The 30-minute conversation began with a haunting dance performance by Sarabhai, in which she depicted a scene where a rape victim was ousted and shamed by members of her community. Sarabhai went on to then explain on stage with a befitting rage the plight of being a woman in India and the misogyny that permeates every part of society.
Towards the end of the conversation, Prince Jaime gently asked, “You try to shock the men, and wake them up. But you can also bring them on boardIJ” “I am sure it is possible, I have not tried it yet,” Sarabhai replied.
The question posed to Sarabhai stuck to me, and I get reminded of it each time there is a campaign for women’s emancipation that threatens to strike men out of the solution.
Recently there have been a series of advertisement campaigns on the theme of gender equality. Some companies such as Nike — who in their Da Da Ding campaign last year that featured women athletes in an inspiring action-packed video — emphasised girl power. Da Da Ding did not relate women to men. Instead, in two and a half minutes, it laid out the grace, energy, and vigour that women have in their own right. The Nike campaign did not condemn or shame men, nor did it demand anything of them. It is precisely the latter that made girls come across as powerful.
On the other hand, the United Colors of Benetton recently released a print and video advertisement called ‘UnitedByHalf’. The one page newspaper print advertisement read: “We are not better halves. Or worse. And we are definitely not the weaker halves. We won’t settle for less. All we want is our half. Our half of the space. Our half of the cake. Our half of the give. Our half of the strength. Our half of the food on the table. Our half of the opportunity for education. Our half of the decisions. In the decision making. Women have been denied their half for too long.” The 45-second advertisement video begins with a young bride standing next to her husband as a woman’s voice over in a low pitched threatening tone says: “We are not the better halves definitely not the weaker halves.” The rest of the film shows women across age groups and in different vocations demanding to be equal to men.
Only the campaign title is about uniting, while the words and imagery of the Benetton campaign is immensely divisive. It seems as if women and men are two opposing parties fighting over resources to be cut into two equal halves. It reduces the value of merit to gender, by emphasising that women do not want more or less but just equal resources as men. WhyIJ If an individual that happens to be a girl merits that specific ‘resource’ to the extent of having more or all, then can she not have itIJ
“Some people only ask others to do something. I believe that, why should I wait for someone elseIJ Why don’t I take a step and move forward,” said Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history, at Harvard’s Sander Theatre three years ago. Her words were more powerful than all the 900 people sitting rapt in attention as she spoke, and certainly more inspiring than the utterly regressive United Colour of Benetton recent campaign. Strong women and men do not compare, complain or whine, they go ahead and do what they have to.
Benetton has a reputation for using shock tactics about social issues to sell its products. In the past, its billboard campaigns have included a newborn with umbilical cord attached, and also the Pope kissing an Egyptian imam. However, hardly a year ago, John Mollanger, the 45-year-old Frenchman incharge of the Benetton’s brand and products, had declared: “There was a period in the 1980s and 1990s where advertising’s main mission was to create awareness with shocking creatives but I believe it was a moment in time. We have moved away from pointing a finger at what we thought was wrong and instead we want to actually improve what we think is wrong.”
The basis of commercial advertisements is in its name — they are commercial. Any social messaging in it is less driven by altruism and more by economics. For instance, an important chapter of womenomics is that if the woman is won over to buy a product, then her family does the same.
Yet the wide outreach of media in India, its rhetoric nature, and its consumption by all classes of society make advertisements an important influencer on society in the digital age. It is in this context that awareness to new or taboo issues might come with shock tactics played out by the media. While improving or urging change towards solving problems that we know about well only comes with a more matured and inclusive approach.
The writer is Chief Sustainability Officer for the group of companies, Jindal Steel and Power ltd. She is a Global leadership Alumna of the World Economic Forum. miniya.chatterji@jindalsteel.com