Advertising: Need to Break Gender Stereotypes

Advertisements are the ghosts from whom a common man just cannot escape. We wake up to advertisements and they continue to haunt us till we hit the bed. Whether we like it or not; one cannot escape advertisements. We are forced to witness them in some form or the other. The level of bombardment by advertisements is high today with the increasing amount of advertisements in every media. Our day starts with a hot cup of coffee and a newspaper. On most of the days, it is a full-page advertisement on the front page of the newspaper that welcomes the reader rather than news content. Television and Radio consists of more advertisements than creative or news content. Step out of the house and the huge hoardings greet us to wide variety of goods and services. While surfing some serious content on the net, advertisements continue to pop up on the screen making an attempt to draw attention. While we are at theatre watching a movie, or walking down a street; our eyes cannot escape advertisements at all. Moreover, mobile phones have been the latest target of advertising companies. Cell phones are bombarded with calls and messages by various service providers. As we are drowned in these advertisements, one important matter we all need to think about is the impact of these advertisements on the society, specially the youth. What are the kinds of advertisements created today What kind of message are these advertisements passing on to the society If one closely observes, it is clearly evident that advertisements continue to pass on stereotyped messages to the society.