Brands tread very close to racism

 

Some time back, the so-called racist ads on Nimbus Network caught the attention of people. The ad campaign, run during the West Indies series, said: ‘It’s tough being a West Indian in India’. A debate of sorts erupted. Another in the series was when Shilpa Shetty suffered racist attacks on the UK-based The Big Brother show.

 

While we cry hoarse over such issues, much happens in our own backyards that we conveniently ignore. Take the example of Indian fairness ads. Isn’t the divide between fair and dark skins more evident than in fairness creams? Broach the subject and people yawn. Insist on a view on this subject and the agency people say ‘we are just riding a cultural trend, not reinforcing it!’ observes Zubin Driver, network creative director, TV18 Group.

 

 

The fairness creams ads are the usual suspects; a popular punching bag., says Thomas Xavier, national creative director, Orchard Advertising. Though not in the overt form, racism in Indian ads prevails through mild forms of cultural or regional stereotyping. For example, Muslims are not portrayed in ads. It is a matter to think that Indian ads are implicitly Hindu, points out Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands.

 

The Sikh community is usually used to amplify the balle-balle experience. Remember the Maruti ad, where the kid says “Papa ki karan, petrol khatam hi nahin honda”. Lovely ad though. The portrayal of Sikhs in ads is mostly with the purpose to entertain and not to convey aspiration or class. Driver recalls the India Bulls ad that showed a ‘Sardarji’ getting up in an investor AGM and asking a ‘complex’ and ‘insightful’ question. “The choice of sardar was the result of a cultural bias,” points out Driver.

 

South Indians in ads are often shown wearing lungi and speaking Hindi with a heavier-than-lead Southern accent. A memorable ad is the Fevicol ad, where a South Indian dots a stick with the glue and dips it into a river and rejoices in a thick Southern accent on seeing the bumper catch. Driver of TV 18 Group says that “typical racism in India centers on the regional stereotypes and colour stereotypes, from the ubiquitous sardar to the Tamilian.”

 

Jagdish Acharya, executive creative director, Mudra, South is of the view that stereotyping can be good, bad, boring, meaningless and clichéd, but racism is when it gets ugly. “In advertising, at least, stereotyping is stereotyping and racism is racism.”

 

However, if stereotyping is done in a lighthearted manner, with the objective of just raising a laugh, “it is OK” says Xavier of Orchard. “A South Indian with his quirks or a Bengali for whom it is ‘a for orange’ is what it is, but if one of these guys loses his girlfriend to a Delhi dude because of his upper class English… well. That is not to say there isn’t racist stuff on air; fairness cream campaigns where the girl is a hapless loser as long as color of her skin remains black is a blatant case.”

 

In the US, Xavier says there is a genre of comedy called ‘insult comedy’. Here one can see what, if taken out of context, can be read as extreme racism. “But it is not seen that way because the intent is made very clear...to tickle the funny bone.” And therefore, Xavier says, the Nimbus ads are not “meant to offend” so it can’t be racism. “It’s just a joke that didn’t draw laughs.”

 

Many international ads use stereotypes as well. The South-American accent, the slang  used by the blacks and their ‘undercivilised’ environs are some examples, Acharya says. He shares the example of a famous commercial for a fruit drink that shows the head of the company abusing a French consumer who dared complain about the taste of the product. ‘What do the French know about such things?’ the ad says.

 

Even in the West, there are examples of the occasional faux pas. Sony’s ad campaign for the launch of its ceramic white PSP (PlayStation) in Holland showed a white PSP model personified by a white female model violently holding the mouth of a ‘black PSP’ male model. The company defended it by saying that the idea was to simply play up the colour contrast of Sony’s new ceramic white PSP model. Moreover, the New York Human Rights Commission had scheduled public hearings to look into the advertising industry’s historical lack of diversity. According to a Time magazine article on racism in advertising, CompUSA, which didn’t focus on black customers even though blacks spent about $750 million a year on computer products, promised to hire a black-owned ad agency.

 

 

As far as racism in Indian ads is concerned, Xavier says at best one sees a lot of lazy stereotyping. It reflects a lack of effort to understand regional nuances rather than an attempt to offend. “Advertising and Hindi films tend to pick up on the cultural clichés, easy stereotypes, because they believe they can get more ‘traction’ with audiences if they use them,” adds Driver.

 

More disturbing than racism is power play in advertising. It is about the weak against the powerful. If Shilpa Shetty were bullying Jade Goody, our sympathies would disappear, says Desai of Future Brands. “It is the powerful you want to turn against. Shilpa is vulnerable, hence is a perfect candidate to receive support of the people.”

 

Desai shares the Good Knight commercial where a man is shown to have a better sense of judgment than the woman. It is patronising and therefore not in good taste, says Desai. He cites another example that underscores the divide between the weak and the powerful - the Voltas air conditioner ad. “What the ad seems to suggest is that the AC is for the haves and not for the have nots.” And therefore, the weak will have to be content with the trapped cool air in glass jar. The AC is beyond their reach.

 

Even when such oversights are passed off as good creative ideas, one wonders to what extent using cultural stereotypes help the brand. “The only way it can be useful is when the idea of the ad subverts a cultural stereotype,” says Driver. But on the other hand advertising may inadvertently create cultural stereotypes. ‘The Smart Housewife’ is one such construct, the one who pushes, analyses, cannot be fooled, but the smart housewife is finally smart only because she buys a certain product that makes her smarter or better, points out Zubin. Xavier finds cultural stereotypes a shorthand for communication. “My personal view is, use it without being supercilious or insensitive. And laugh when you are at the receiving end too!”

 

And since the pocket from where the money comes does not have a colour or a religion, marketers could be a tad sensitive.