Thanks to years of conditioning, gender roles have become a common occurrence which frequently reflects in popular media, including the advertisements.
However, with changing times, people have been standing up for the right, making appeals to the brands and asking them to make necessary changes.
For instance, recently someone called out Scotch Brite and asked the brand to change its ‘bindi donning woman’ logo. And now, netizens are now pointing out clear sexism in the latest Voltas Beko ad for dishwashers.
Firstly, the ad only features women who are shown to be talking to each other over a video call. At one point one of the women does mention that her husband is washing the dishes but that’s about it.
Secondly, the hashtag the company is using for product promotion is this: #TestedByRealMoms.
So it isn’t just sexist, but also reinforces the idea that only a mother can take good care of household, and hence would know whether the dishwasher is good or not.
This was highly criticised by people on Twitter, and here are some other reactions.
After the backlash, the spokesperson of Voltas Beko released a statement which read:
As a brand, Voltas Beko has always celebrated the spirit of womanhood in all our campaigns. Likewise in this advertisement, we captured a fun, casual conversation between four independent and spirited friends who got together over a video call during the lockdown. One of the characters in the video refers to how the family has been managing household chores, with her husband taking over the responsibility of washing dishes. This is when the protagonist of the film recommends a dishwasher. Our products have been developed to create convenience and comfort for all our customers, and are gender agnostic.
Which is not a very convincing explanation for an advertisement which features only one gender throughout.