REPRESENTATION OF GENDER STEREOTYPES IN INDIAN ADVERTISEMENTS: AN ANALYSIS ON ARIEL’S #SHARETHELOAD CAMPAIGN

Advertisement is a marketing tool that influences customers to purchase goods and services from companies. The advertisements do this successfully by presenting the product/services in an attractive manner. In doing this, advertisements propagate certain social, cultural, and ideological value systems within society. Most of the time, this act is dependent on the market space. Directly or indirectly advertisements inculcate right or wrong systems of thoughts and beliefs in the mind of the customers. Gender representation is crucial in advertisements as it tends to stereotype gender roles. Marketing advertisement in India has become increasingly focused on gender roles, family hierarchy, and traditional marriage practices. Gender stereotypes are not new, and they are especially visible when looking back at decades-old commercials. These depictions of men and women even carried over into the digital age. The paper aims to discuss an Indian advertisement by Ariel that challenges stereotyping gender in the Indian context. The advertisement's message is unique and aims to break away from the conventional approach typically used in Indian advertisements.