Creative critique from a gender lens: 13-17 March

Dr AL Sharada, director, Population First, reviews ads from last week on the basis of gender sensitivity

Mar 24, 2023 09:14:00 AM | Article | Dr AL Sharada Share -

What worked:

Internalised biases are at the root of much discrimination at workplaces and are major hurdles in making organisations diverse and inclusive. The ad effectively shows how, in spite of having the same profile, bias against transpersons stops a transman from even getting called for an interview. The dismay on the faces of the employees shows how unaware we are of our own biases and the need to call them out whenever we encounter or observe them.

Gender Sensitivity Score (GSS): 3.5/5

Spotify

The ad highlights the invisibility of women in the music industry. While female playback singers do enjoy some visibility and popularity in the music industry, women working in departments of

sound engineering, music production and mix-tape management are often unacknowledged, almost invisible and often experience sexism, misogyny and discrimination. Women are making inroads into the male bastion of the music industry, and time we acknowledge and give them their due recognition.

GSS: 4/5

What could have worked:

Whisper

This is an extension of the earlier ad where girls go around distributing red slips with information on periods. While it is true that mothers need to be informed about the biological facts of menstruation to guide and support the girls during their periods, the execution is not convincing. Ensuring that the characters portrayed are more appropriate for the script would have made the ad more relatable.

GSS: 2.75/5

What did not work:

Both Kotak and Aditya Birla Finance ads fail to recognise women as prospective buyers of their products and are totally male-centric in their messaging.

Kotak