Women empowerment and stereotypes - Airtel TVC
The new television commercial by Airtel for Smartphone network was aired a few weeks back and I knew it will create some uproar since it could be interpreted in many ways.
It begins with a female boss telling 2 male employees that they need to finish some work urgently, and by night-fall, the guy is busy working on it, in his cabin. The boss then leaves work in a chauffeur driven car, calls up her husband to ask him what he would like for dinner. She prepares an elaborate meal and video calls her husband to show him the meal she has prepared and asks him to come soon. It is then revealed that the guy in the office is the husband and the boss - his wife.
This TVC instantly reminded me of Indra Nooyi's statement - Women can't have it all. She is the boss, but comes home, cooks an entire meal and then waits for her husband to come home to eat. If she can have a chauffeur driven car, she could definitely afford a help at home to cook. Alternatively, they could have shown her to have gone out with friends for a meal and video calling him to say 'Hi' (since it is all about the quality of video calling)
For the sake of argument it will also be said that since she reached home early, she cooked, if he had, he would have. I doubt, for Indian audience, showing the wife as the boss is a big step. If they showed that wife was the boss at work and he came home and cooked as well, it definitely would have been criticized a lot more than now.
Irrespective of how the TVC has been received by the audience, Airtel should be applauded for the idea, it is indeed a fresh change. Agreed, men have become more sensitive towards the needs of their wife and help out in daily activities. Especially those who have had the experience of staying abroad (no kaam wali bai ). But then again the whole gender equality and where women stand etc. will take up another blog post.
It begins with a female boss telling 2 male employees that they need to finish some work urgently, and by night-fall, the guy is busy working on it, in his cabin. The boss then leaves work in a chauffeur driven car, calls up her husband to ask him what he would like for dinner. She prepares an elaborate meal and video calls her husband to show him the meal she has prepared and asks him to come soon. It is then revealed that the guy in the office is the husband and the boss - his wife.
This TVC instantly reminded me of Indra Nooyi's statement - Women can't have it all. She is the boss, but comes home, cooks an entire meal and then waits for her husband to come home to eat. If she can have a chauffeur driven car, she could definitely afford a help at home to cook. Alternatively, they could have shown her to have gone out with friends for a meal and video calling him to say 'Hi' (since it is all about the quality of video calling)
For the sake of argument it will also be said that since she reached home early, she cooked, if he had, he would have. I doubt, for Indian audience, showing the wife as the boss is a big step. If they showed that wife was the boss at work and he came home and cooked as well, it definitely would have been criticized a lot more than now.
Irrespective of how the TVC has been received by the audience, Airtel should be applauded for the idea, it is indeed a fresh change. Agreed, men have become more sensitive towards the needs of their wife and help out in daily activities. Especially those who have had the experience of staying abroad (no kaam wali bai ). But then again the whole gender equality and where women stand etc. will take up another blog post.
You are so true about the ad being interpreted in many different ways. The way I saw it was a woman who is a boss to her husband at the office, comes home in a chauffeur driven car, discards her professional work clothes and changes into something comfortable, rolls up her sleeves and does something she truly likes - cooking!
ReplyDeleteAfter a stressful day at work, cooking is a known stress buster. And cooking for your loved ones is more stress relieving than stress giving. Given that the woman had a cabin to herself and a chauffeur driven car, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that she can afford a "kaam-wali bai" or a "cooking lady" or could've easily gone out to eat. But the so call "feminists" are quick to label this ad as "sexist".
My POV (I'm a working Mom) is that if a woman wants to de-stress by cooking her husband's (and children's) favorite meal and settle down for a romantic dinner at home, what is the harm? If a guy did the same thing for his wife, these very feminists would've ooohhed and ahhhhed. But a lady doing anything is judged by the society's moral police. If she didn't cook she would be criticized by the traditional group, and if she did would be singled out by the feminist group. What's a woman to do? Can't live her life for once being judged? Tough life, eh?
-Lady Mcbeth