A Study on Gender (De)Stereotyping in Indian Television Advertisements

This research explores the gender (de)stereotyping ads and seeks to assess them by the youths. The research investigates how youths perceive and react to the ads. With the viewpoints of youths, it further attempts an interaction with the advertising professionals/advertisers and interviews them about advertising practices. For this, a qualitative research design is used, which employs focus groups and interview methods to receive the perceptions in detail, and then transcripts the conversations. Literature reviews on television advertisements indicate that women are portrayed mainly in two types of roles, i.e., as homemakers and objectifications. Stereotypical portrayals of women and men in ads are evident at large. However, there have been some ads in recent years that shift women into varied capacities. Diffusion innovation theory and social expectation theory served as the theoretical under pinnings for this research. This research found that destereotyping ads challenge and question several stereotypes prevalent in Indian society, and maintaining a serene and humanistic instinct. The destereotyping ads were liked, watched, and appreciated by the young audience, who expressed that such ads should be more in number. On this, advertising professionals revealed that they don’t have all the rights to set the advertising practice, but brand managers have the right to approve and take the ultimate decision of what to portray and what not. Ultimately, the brand managers or brand owners are all in all, and they are the clients of advertising professionals who pay money as per the cost of the ad.
The research suggests that television advertising communication should remain user-conscious, meaningful, and engaging; the advertising content should be free from stereotypical behaviour. Additionally, the study recommends that advertising professionals and brand managers should both have the responsibility to pay proper attention to the rising ethical and social concerns of youths regarding television advertising.

Keywords: Destereotyping, Non-Traditional Ads, Television Advertising, Gender Stereotyping, (De)stereotype commercials in India.