BIC’s Ad for Women’s Day
This was a 2015 Ad that BIC posted on their South Africa Facebook page to celebrate Women’s Day – meaning it’s was an ad directed towards women. In South Africa, Women’s Day is celebrated since 1994 in reference to the Federation of South African Women and their protest in 1956. Women’s Day is a day to reflect on the contribution of women to society, the feminist fight and show support to women by showcasing their strength. Taking this into consideration, it is surprising that this ad, that contains so many thing explicitly wrong, was approved by anyone. The ad shows the steps it takes to be successful; the idea could have been good but it was executed in an extremely sexist way. After many complaints, the ad was taken down and BIC released an apology statement.
First of all, “look like a girl” reinforces that woman should look feminine, girly, and younger than her age, because aging doesn’t look good in woman. It also perpetuates the sexualization of young girls and men being attracted to childish characteristics, reinforcing pedophilia. The “act like a lady” really means be submissive, nice and don’t express your opinions too much. Which is how many men expect women to act, so that men can feel in control. When it says “think like a man”, it implies that women are not capable of being successful because of their gender, and therefore need to think like men to do so, because men are smarter. The last line “work like a boss” has nothing wrong with it by itself, however when preceded by “think like a men” makes you visualize a male boss not a female.
The changes I made to the ad reflect what each line insinuates. I exchanged “look like a girl” and “act like a lady” to “look young and cute” and “act submissive and nice”. Both expressions make it seem that looking feminine and acting lovely is the only way a women will become a boss; when in reality, we know that women are usually not taken seriously when they do so. Taking care of your appearance in the workplace is definitely important, but this ad is telling woman to adjust to the heteronormative expectations. Where it says “think like a man” I wanted to make it clear that they really mean women cannot succeed by themselves, they need to base off a man to do that. So I added “to succeed” at the end of the sentence. Society tells women that they are too sensible to make important decisions and be in higher job positions. However, considering that the world is ruled by men, and the chaos that it is today I believe we could all use more empathic people in power. For the last sentence, I added “male” to “work like a boss” because I felt that that is the message the ad is giving. We can also get into the discussion that female bosses are seen as mean and “bitchy” when they are simply doing their job, just like a male boss, and they have to be more assertive, otherwise they are not taken seriously. Likewise, women have to work harder than men to get the same position and they would most likely be paid less. I added a “buy our pen to do that” in a sarcastic way because none of that had anything to do with their products.