Are Women subject or an object in advertisements now a days?

Blenders Pride/Romonov Liquor Advertisement

Advertising is a paid form of non personal communication used to persuade audience to buy a product. Advertising is to stimulate one to take action on a message to buy something. Advertising that can create awareness, arouse interest, stir desire and persuade convincingly to take action can have great impact on sales of the product. There are many different ways of advertising like advertising through Television, Radio, Newspaper, Billboards, Hoardings, Magazines, Text messaging, Bus shelters, Pop-ups etc. But the main focus of advertising are generally through – Television, Radio and Print based, we see them every day and everywhere. But the most effective impact on viewers mind is left by television ads.

A product needs an effective ad to attract people and make good competition. Advertising has become a part of producer's lives to win consumer's hearts. Marketers use advertising not only to persuade the audience to buy their product but also to advertise their products to their near ones, and if successful the non viewers as well become their customers. In an attempt to communicate the merits of their products or brands, advertisers have often chosen to use endorsements as a promotional strategy. As they have different strategies of promoting their products; one of the strategies they focus is employ women in promoting the products. Companies frequently exercise women as spokespersons to deliver their advertising messages and convince consumers of their brands. The use of women is one of the most successful ways of gaining the consumer's attention and getting her to infer the right message in a limited amount of space and time. Women endorsement has indeed become a universal characteristic of modern marketing.

Taking the examples of Liquor advertisements we can see the famous celebs like Shilpa Shetty and Priyanka Shetty. There is no point of using the women in liquor

advertisement. They are being treated as object in the advertisement so that they could influence the customers to buy their brand n don’t think what effect would it leave on the people n especially children. This would pose a bitter impact on our younger generations, In sum, alcohol portrayals are common in films, even in those with ratings indicating they are intended for children and adolescents. These portrayals are typically positive or neutral and drinking is associated with desirable outcomes and characteristics. Few studies have investigated the effects of film portrayals of drinking on young adults, adolescents, and children. The findings from these studies are mixed. Although evidence from one study shows that such portrayals can have small effects on drinking attitudes and intentions, the results from a second study are ambiguous. In addition, as with experimental studies of alcohol portrayals on television, it is not clear how relevant these studies are to the real-world viewing situation because they address only the short-term effects of limited and brief exposures in an artificial setting. Experimental demand also remains an issue for these studies.

Everyone wants to believe in happy endings. But as most of us know, the reality of alcohol for many people in our society is more like a horror story than a fairy tale. The liquid in the glass is definitely not a magic potion. We are surrounded by the message that alcohol is fun, sexy, desirable and harmless. We get this message many times a day. We get it from the ads and, far more insidiously, we get it from the media, which depend upon alcohol advertising for a large share of their profits. Thanks to this connection, alcohol use tends to be glorified throughout the media and alcohol-related problems are routinely dismissed. Alcohol is related to parties, good times, celebrations and fun, but it is also related to murder, suicide, unemployment and child abuse. These connections are never made in the ads. Of course, one would not expect them to be. The advertisers are selling their product and it is their job to erase any negative aspects as well as to enhance the positive ones. However, when the product is the nation's number one drug, there are consequences that go far beyond product sales. The tab for alcohol use doesn't end there. More than $2 billion a year - a sizable chunk of the over $90 billion the industry takes in annually - goes to prime the advertising and promotion pump and keep drinkers' money flowing freely. Problem drinkers and young people are the primary targets of these advertisers. While misogyny is rampant in alcohol advertising, usually those campaigns are aimed at men. It's

unclear why advertisers thought showing pictures of women they deem hideous along with degrading comments would make ladies line up

CONCLUSION

The projection of women in television ads has always been controversial and a matter of debate. As believed advertisements have a greater impact on audience so the way women are portrayed in ads should be positive. And no doubt as said earlier advertisers have understood this and are fencing a proper line especially for ads employing women. Advertisements affect the consumption pattern of the consumers. The presence of female model in the advertisement also influences the liking of a particular product. Advertisements should be more educative, informative and product oriented, it should be family oriented and should contain a bit of humor in it. Women should be presented in different roles; she should not be projected only as product user but also as product maker. In advertisements, portrayal of women should not be vulgar and the product should be given more emphasis than the female model. In conclusion women should be shown as confident, independent and empowered individuals in future advertisements.