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The original Advertisement

The AD begins by posing a question to every guardian out there, “Is your beloved daughter ready to begin a new life?” The first thing that comes to my mind and is widely discriminating is the assumption that “beloved daughters” can be prepped for their new life only by learning the “Bridessential Course”. The course description and heading are a portrayal of what the Indian society expects the role of women to be.

I understand that married life is tough and would require preparation, but the course is specifically directed towards “brides to be”. With an advertisement like this in the newspapers it reiterates that women belong in the kitchen.

Pankaj Bhadouria culinary academy is a training academy for individuals interested in learning how to cook or plan events. Pankaj, mother of a 20-year-old daughter, was the winner of Master Chef India Season 1 and went on to start her own culinary academy.

Would you ask working women who spend 8 hours a day working to come back and do house chores for 5 hours? Especially when men in India think they are entitled to these after work services by their wives, advertisements like these just worsen the gender gap and not fix it.

Despite rapid economic growth,19 less than a quarter (23.6%) of women aged 15 and above participated in the labor force in 2018 (compared to 78.6% of men). India’s low labor force participation rate for women is due in part to an increase in women continuing their education, the availability of flexible scheduling and the proximity of work location.

The curriculum of this culinary academy is actually great, they are essential skills that individuals should learn. But the way this advertisement stereotypes the activity of “house chores” and “cooking” is not good especially when in 2020 we are trying to fix the gender gap and not worsen it.

Culture Jammed version:

As you can see, I culture jammed the poster and created a somewhat more subtle design of the culinary academy.

I went with a medium color tone, because culinary skill is not gender specific it is individual specific. I believe that nowadays we need to focus advertisement in certain activities like cooking, cleaning or doing house chores not as something women are meant to do as wives but as something that is more individualistic. We need to stress the importance that these activities are for everyone and learning them is the road to being self-sufficient and not “menial”.

There is a huge stigma in India in regard to how wives are supposed to behave or what they are supposed to do. These chores for the longest have been considered menial and not “men” worthy which brings me to my art design. Hence, my entire design talks about how you need to learn these skills not to be “perfect” bride but to be a self-sufficient individual.

References:

Women in the Workforce – India: Quick Take. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-the-workforce-india/