Sexist Communication in Advertisements: It’s Not Fair Honey!

Abstract

Money makes the mare go. Similarly market makes the language dance to its tune. Deepika Padukone sells coffee by belly-dancing. John Abraham sells almost everything with his shirt off. Mangoes as sex aids and deodorants turning women into nymphomaniacs – advertising in India seems unable to think beyond Sex to Sell (Rajan 2013). Commercials from the 1950s are jaw-dropping in their prejudice. Some of the decade's slogans - 'keep up with the house while you keep down your weight’ or a leather shoe is pictured beside an undressed female model, with the words 'Keep her where she belongs' or a promotional poster for Kellogg's Pep cereal suggests that 'A harder a wife works, the cuter she looks' - are peep-holes into an era when women's roles were confined to the corridor between the bedroom and the kitchen (Thompson 2013).The above advertising slogans of yesteryear reveal how sexist and inappropriate language was once widespread in advertising but several generations from now the dilemma remained unresolved when we observe today the way the language is being used in context of women in the advertising media. In particular, language and gender are sensitive issues that remain widely controversial in the domain of advertising. The paper discusses the sexist language employed in advertisements and the compulsion of marketers to showcase the visual images and verbal messages that demean the female species but captures the eyeball. The author finds that sexist communication is planned and strategic and illustrates further the way it influences the social, cultural and economic position of women in society.