Portrayal of Women in Advertisments

In this time period, advertising has provoked the feeling within women that in order to gain acceptability in a society, having good looks is an absolute necessity. Marketers are driven by profit motive and for that matter they adopt tactics which will fulfill their goal of maximizing profitability, regardless of it being ethical or not. Women in media are promoted as commodities that helps them in fulfilling their marketing and strategic goals. Their role is based on their physical attributes instead of their personality, character or other mental abilities. This phenomena is well exemplified in the television commercial shown below:

The advertisement shown above is of a campaign conducted by ufone for its pre-paid connection services. The television commercial exhibits three young ladies dressed up in a western attire and are seen to be involved in activities which in an Islamic state can be referred to as immoral. Their behavior, dressing and their body language are by no means suitable to serve as means of promotion for any brand. The advertisement further promotes the concept that a girl just requires good looks, and with that she can overcome all hurdles in her life.

Through this promotional advertisement, not only a wrong image of women is set in our society but it also affects the general perception or psyche of teenagers regarding the role of women. Respect for women women on general, also suffers a back lash, as media portrays a negative image or stereotype regarding the feminine group of our society. As the commercial was not in accordance with the cultural values of our part of the world it lead to the cancellation of this promotional contract and it was abandoned.

It is well evident that all advertisements agencies and other media giants have their own respective marketing strategies. But the manner, in which women are being portrayed as saleable commodities, is something which is of great concern for all of us and sufficient action needs to be taken.There is a dire need to take steps that would help in increasing the participation of women and they should be allowed easy access to expression. Moreover, they should be empowered with decision making authority at all levels and achieve the gender balance in the appointment of women in all form of media. Furthermore, the diversified positive role played by women in media should be portrayed and promoted at a larger scale.

We must develop and adopt certain codes of conduct and guidelines that would assist in removing such biases in the society. We should aim to promote balanced representation of women that would help in building up a more unified society. This is the time to come up with schemes and adopt policies that would alter stereotypical attitudes and behaviors concerning gender roles and responsibilities. In return it will lead to gender equality and positive attitudes and behaviors.