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Do you love ad campaigns with social messages? Here are 7 Indian Women Empowerment Ads that have impacted the masses in the last two decades!
7 Indian Women Empowerment Ads We All Should See!
In my teens, when Women’s Day celebrations and special programs for women were aired on the Tele, I couldn’t grasp the day’s importance. Yet, one thing that always fascinated me was the ads that were released with a social message, especially for this day.
Often in less than a minute, these ads would tell such heart-wrenching stories, that wouldn’t be able to forget them!
Years later in university, during my advertising class, our professor explained that a visual story can be three hours long and emotionless, and sometimes it can be two minutes long and leave an impression for a lifetime! This explained why some of us forget film plots immediately after it is over, but instantly remember some obscure ad we saw for one week while having dinner!
Later at the end of the semester, we were asked to work on an assignment, where we had to break down an ad campaign with a social message! And it had to be a pick from our childhood days.
Our professor wanted us to understand the power of advertising, and its influence on the masses.
So this women’s day, I have curated a list of women empowerment ads, that hits the message hard into our hearts! Watch them more than once, and make sure others have them as well!
In sharing lies the seeds of empowerment!
This is the ad fifteen-year-old me saw one afternoon on tele, and immediately understood how widespread the issue of domestic violence is! And because we as a society turn our faces away and increase the volume of music to drown the voices in pain, doesn’t mean the problem is solved!
The Bell Bajao campaigns have multiple ads, though, primarily they have male protagonists, it drills into us that women’s empowerment cannot happen when the other half of society is not willing to do their part in keeping us safe!
And feminism is about equality, so the responsibility of women empowerment should equally befall men too!
This ad by Ariel is the most impactful in my life. After watching it on tele for seven days on prime time; it dawned upon my father that, he can help my mother with the washing machine at least! Though he has to brag about to his friends, that he helps his old wife after retirement! He only learned half of the message.
Personal stories aside, the ad campaign shows us how we women learn from our environment and examples we witness! We saw our moms work tirelessly without complaint while our dads enjoyed their karak chai after a hard day’s work!
If our moms didn’t receive help from our dads, how dare we expect our spouses to do the bare minimum? And that’s how women end up overworked, exhausted and drained of energy!
The Raga woman of today launched this campaign eight years ago, the message is as simple as the title. Though it starts as the second-chance airport romance, the story beautifully explains why some women chose not to marry their partners and break off their relationship!
It is a woman’s choice if she wants to get married and work, or quit the job and be a homemaker. As long as the choice is made by her and not forced on her by societal compulsion, it is all well.
Dove India’s campaign, doesn’t delay its message delivery! They start with the harsh truth, exposing beauty standards’ vicious nature. The beauty test for an Indian woman doesn’t start after she is an adult, but from childhood!
In school, you are asked to remove your glasses for a good photograph, at home your face is smeared with multani miti! And when you grow up you are asked to adjust your clothes, and go on diets all for the sake of being judged by strangers in the marriage market; who will pass careless comments on your body!
This particular ad campaign makes me angry!
Watch here: Mark Of Strength By Prega News
The Prega News ad campaign celebrates motherhood in its all glory and uncertainties. It is an obvious truth, motherhood is physically and emotionally life-altering! You are creating a life, there is no way things are going to remain the same!
But the feeling of uncertainty, fear and especially coming to terms with bodily changes can be a bit daunting and scary. This ad lays it bare; your body is yours, the stretch marks are yours, the weight is yours and your confidence is yours!
No matter how many classes I attended on the role of patriarchy in fuelling toxic masculinity culture and stunting men’s capacity to express themselves, making them physically violent when faced with life issues! Nothing could explain the correlation better than this ad!
Mard ko dard nahi hota,
ladke nahi rote,
be a man
As my favourite poet, Ocean Vuong once said, we as a society are only offering a language of apathy and violence! Start With The Boys campaign wanted us to change this language to Men, don’t make others cry!
So chuck that log kya kahenge and wear the clothes you want!
Watch here: Every BODY Can by Tetley Tea
The biggest lie ever pulled in modern society is: plus-size people are lazy, unfit, and inactive, and skinny people are weak and lack stamina and strength.
And these biases not only affect our social interactions and daily life, it more than often hampers our medical life! My friend, who was in chronic abdominal pain, kept getting advice to lose weight!
Only later, the doctors found out it was an acute case of ulcers! Which wouldn’t have aggravated, had they looked past her body weight!
Ad campaigns, are meant to sell products, the product can be a shampoo, medicine, tea, bags, or even an ideology. But when they are told for masses with social good will, they can have long-lasting impacts!
So which is the ad that you love most and think taught you an important life and social message? This women’s day let us all remember, that no matter how harsh the world is out there! We women must support each other!
Image source: Deepak Sethi, via Isock photos, edited on CanvaPro
Editor at Women's Web. She/They. 30. Bi. Bookworm. Comic book connoisseur. read more...
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