Ad watchdog flags harmful stereotyping of women, plans team to check it 

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Wednesday flagged mainstream advertising’s overuse of stereotypical and harmful tropes against women, based on a study of more than 600 commercials conducted in collaboration with nearly a dozen leading consumer goods brands such as Cadbury’s maker Mondelez, Kellogg’s and Colgate-Palmolive. India’s advertising industry, which makes an estimated $9 billion annually as of 2021, has often relied on depicting women selling domestic and beauty products to make money for itself and its clients. The GenderNext study, led by Futurebrands Consulting, found several problematic tropes such as sensualising the act of eating by women, showing women as spenders in financial advertising, women running around the house while others lounge around, male gaze acceptance in beauty ads, showing women as lower down in tech-hierarchy in gadget ads, male celebrities challenging and instructing women among others across multiple categories, such as personal care, fashion, beauty, home and hearth, gadgets and wheels, money and education. The study’s findings are similar to a recent analysis of 1,000 most viewed Indian TV and YouTube ads by UNICEF in its ‘Gender Bias and Inclusion in Advertising in India’ study. It found that women were mostly shown selling domestic and beauty products to female consumers and as being responsible for childcare and shopping, but less likely as working women in paid jobs. The self-regulatory industry watchdog, which can issue guidelines but not enforce them, also plans to set up a task force to evaluate advertising guidelines on harmful stereotypes, ASCI chairman Subhash Kamath said. Secretary general Manisha Kapoor said ASCI is planning more initiatives in this space.  The study was sponsored by Rio Pads, Vivel, Eureka Forbes Ltd., Kellogg’s, Colgate-Palmolive, Diageo India, Mondelez India Foods and Procter & Gamble Home Products, Kotak Silk and Mahindra & Mahindra. Highlighting that advertising needs to catch up with women, the study proposed a category agnostic framework “The SEA (Self-esteemed-Empowered-Allied) Framework” to guide stakeholders in imagining as well as evaluating portrayals of women in their advertising by building empathy and aiding evaluation. The study also proposed a 3S screener of subordination, service and standardisation for scripts/storyboards, casting and styling to identify stereotype red flags. 

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