International Men's Day: The changing shades of masculinity in ads

Advertisers often hard-sell masculinity to appeal to their male target audience. Ads for products targeted at men like cars, booze, cigarettes, grooming products and innerwear play into the male fantasy by portraying men as daredevils, successful businessmen or heroes saving the day.

However, recent portrayals of masculinity have strayed from the traditional construct, which begs the question: "What is masculinity after all?" There's certainly more to it than what meets the eye. 

Brands have been shunning a black-and-white portrayal of men and exploring nuances of masculinity through advertisements. Ahead of International Men's Day 2022, we examine how representations of men have changed over the years and the advertisers who dared to zig when others zagged.

Ariel

Ariel had long been tackling gender stereotypes associated with domestic chores. This old ad starring model Khalid Siddiqui already had echoes of its award-winning "Share the load" campaign, which was released in 2015.

The ad shows Siddiqui picking up soiled clothes while getting heckled by a female voice telling him, "Kapde dhona mardon ka kaam nahi hain. Fail ho jaoge!" He in turn schools the heckler by saying, "Yeh aurat-mard waali baat nahi hain madam. Baat hain safai ki."

He goes on to do a stellar job washing the soiled clothes with a little help from Ariel, of course, and also makes an important point against gender-based segregation of household chores.

AU Small Finance Bank



The recently released and retracted ad from AU Small Finance Bank TVC generated a lot of debates, mostly against its favour. The 50-second commercial with Aamir Khan and Kiara Advani shows a gender role reversal with the groom performing the Griha Pravesh ritual at the bride's house.

In keeping with the campaign name "Badlav Humse Hai," the film intended to question some age-old practices that could use some augmentation. Sadly, it was poorly received despite its best intentions.

In a bid to pacify the angry internet hordes who accused the brand of desecrating tradition, AU Bank decided to pull the ad down.

Despite the fate of the ad, it succeeded in generating discussions and questions about patriarchal practices.

Gilette

Gillette's whole proposition since 1989 was "The best a man can get." Thirty years later, inspired by the changing narratives around gender and masculinity, the shaving brand sang a different tune. The tagline was changed to "The best a man can be", urging men to turn a new leaf and discard toxic masculine traits. Hot-button topics of the age such as misogyny, bullying and mansplaining were addressed through Gillette's 2019 film.

The overarching message to men was to hold each other accountable for egregious male behaviour to set an example for the youth. However, the brand misread its target audience and its call for change was misconstrued as talking down to men. Needless to say, backlash and boycotts followed.

Old Spice



Old Spice's original "Smell Like a Man" campaign with Isaiah Mustafa was self-aware to a fault. Almost satirical, the ad took a crack at ads of men's products that oversell masculinity. In 30 seconds, Mustafa lists all the over-the-top benefits of using Old Spice body wash, all the while maintaining solid eye contact with the viewers.



The Wieden+Kennedy ad was soon replicated in India in 2015 with Milind Soman with the "Mantastic" campaign. Keeping the format similar, Soman rapidly subverts preconceived notions of manliness while sitting bare-chested on a throne, wearing just a towel.

Raymond

Clothes maketh the man. In Raymond's case, the Complete Man. It is perhaps the first Indian brand to redefine what it means to be a contemporary man. With no high-speed car chases or saving hapless women from the bad guys, Raymond's ads looked at men as nuanced creatures full of tenderness, respect and love.

Released first in the 90s and conceptualised by Nexus Equity, Raymond's Complete Man ad campaign departed from the typical portrayals of angry young alpha males of the 70s and 80s.

Ambi Parameshwaran writes in his book Nawabs, Nudes and Noodles: "The waves of liberalization were opening up new opportunities for the young men of India. They now had to find balance to their life. Is it work or family or both? Is it money or fame or none? Is it friendship or the pursuit of material goals? The suiting brand managed to resonate with the new emerging ethos of upper-class Indian males."

ICICI Prudential 



But no matter how "outdated", traditional masculinity also has its strong points. ICICI Prudential and the Lowe Lintas team led by Amer Jaleel may have wanted to address this when they crafted the "Bande Ache Hai" campaign in February 2013.

The ad was released at a time when anti-male sentiments were at their peak. A month or two ago, in December 2012, the nation was rocked by the Nirbhaya rape case.

The ad film is a montage of everyday situations involving men: A father who checks whether the wooden plank is strong enough to bear his weight before his wife and child walk on it; a man who waits till the lights in his female colleague's apartment switches on after he drops her off outside her home at night; an elderly gentleman who moves his chair to block the sunlight from directly hitting his wife's face, and a groom who silently comforts his new bride when she bids goodbye to her father.

The ad walks the middle path by refraining to portray men in either extreme, which is the norm in media. When they aren't the gun-toting avengers, they are the beer-guzzling married man jaded by marriage and family. By showcasing them as caring family men who rarely wear their hearts on their sleeves, the ad reiterates there are plenty of men who are inherently good, and often they are our husbands, friends, colleagues and fathers. 

Lux

In its 75th year in India, Lux wanted to do the impossible -- use a male celebrity to endorse a product targeted at females. By tapping into the female gaze and the irresistible appeal of Shah Rukh Khan, the soap brand by the then Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) put to test the SRK part of Neha Dhupia's famous words: "Sex and SRK sells."

“Aaj mein aapko batanewala hoon meri khubsoorati ka raaz," said Khan as he soaked in a bathtub full of rose petals. He was surrounded by the top heroines across four generations -- Hema Malini, Sridevi, Juhi Chawla and Kareena Kapoor.

The 2005 ad by JWT was conceived with a goal to -- believe it or not -- appeal to its target audience even better, according to the then HLL VP Skin Ashok Venkatramani.
Despite the bold move by HLL and SRK, the ad didn't seem to work its magic on the profits of the company that year, but the ad seemed to enjoy great recall.

Seagram's Imperial Blue







In an age when brands are grasping at straws to appear progressive, it's refreshing to see some unabashedly be themselves. One such brand is Seagram's Imperial Blue and its "Men will be men" campaign for its...ahem music CDs.

The two-line ghazal "pyaar ki rah main chalna seekh" plays after every film concludes, to underscore the lengths men can go for "pyaar."

These bite-sized ads by Ogilvy showcase different scenarios where men indulge in harmless subterfuges to impress women. Among these include posing next to an expensive car, sucking in the stomach in an elevator, perking up the ears at the sound of clicking heels, etc.

The ad format has been adapted into countless memes with the same ghazal playing in similar scenarios.