Sab Kaam Mummy Kyon Karti Hai?
Have y’all been seeing the new Moov ad and been as intrigued by it as I am? No? Ok, first go have a look here, and then you can read what I have to say.
For those who can’t follow Hindi, this is how it goes. Young boy sees mother struggling to cope with a heavy load of groceries and rushes to help her. Father sees this and runs down the stairs - focus on why his child is doing such heavy work. Then, son asks, “Papa, sab kaam Mummy kyon karti hai?” (Papa, why does Mummy do all the work?)
I found it interesting that finally, there is a brand that chooses to focus on something real in women’s lives - that housework can be drudgery and housework can be tiring. That it’s not all about women overjoyed to be serving the best parathas to their family or rejoicing at having saved the two rupees on that washing powder or superwoman holding up career and home like Hanuman carrying the Sanjeevini. And, it’s also interesting that this view is presented through the eyes of the kid, who sees it for what it really is, Mummy sab kaam kyon karti hai?
Now, camera flashes to the faces of two other women who’ve been shown before - one drying clothes and another serving tea. I wasn’t clear what this is meant to be; neighbours eavesdropping on the conversation? Other women in the family who are actually the ones being (subtly) chided for not helping in? If it is the first, then it’s a nuclear family, and it is really Papa who is not pulling his weight. If the second, well, then that’s an easy way to let the men off, isn’t it, and put the blame back where it belongs, on other lazy women.
In any case, the ad doesn’t dwell on it. So, we have caring husband bringing out the Moov and a voiceover tell us that it’s good to use Moov, lest, Aap ka dard apnon ka dard na ban jaaye. (So that your pain doesn’t become a pain for your loved ones).
It was too good to last of course. Homemaker couldn’t possibly use Moov to make herself feel alright; there has to be a ‘family’ pay-off in it. I wonder if the ad could have still been as effective and more women-friendly if they had atleast shown the husband picking up a bag at the end rather than the woman using Moov so that she can be a martyr to housework again? I think society is changing and the days when women would gasp at the husband doing household chores is gone, well, going slowly. Perhaps marketers actually don’t see this change, or just want to keep it to the most conservative level and play safe.
(In other news, the fiery tamilpunkster is back after a long break. And read Mrinal Pande’s column in the Mint earlier this week, Women still unhappy both in India and Bharat, where she talks about the challenges that working women, especially those from poor families face.)
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the other women- maybe just to cue what all work a woman has to do
the family pay off- maybe the marketer is a man who does not help at home at all?
art - point 1, taken; i didn’t look at it from that angle. point 2 - isn’t it a miracle how this is the case with men in most ads? why are marketers so reluctant to acknowledge that society is changing and it’s no longer the same thing? or, like I said, is it just a case of wanting to appeal to the most conservative element?
Had similar thoughts while watching the ad. You beat me to it, as usual. not that I mind.
Unmana, yes, I think it is pretty much the first thing that occurred to me; I don’t expect marketers to be activists, but then, they also don’t need to be so scared, no?
Scared - I don’t know. Do you think they’re faithfully reproducing the world as they see it? *shudder*
Apu: Unmana, my experience from working in the marketing and related areas is - there is a continuum of attitudes in what we call the target audience (TA) - the TA is not a homogenous group in all aspects; to play it safe, marketers will often choose to go with the most conservative aspect, ignoring the more progressive ones, for fear of alienating the retrograde elements. So, yes, they do reproduce reality, but the ‘reality’ that they choose.