Surf Excel Not For Girls

So who among you is fighting sexism every single day? Did I hear you say 'me'? Or did I hear you ask what is sexism. Or have you been too busy to notice or you don't care because it is too pervasive and you need to pick your battles? Well, I have been there too, first not knowing what sexism is and then not wanting to fight it because life is hard anyway until I reached a point, where I said, let me start.

Being a teacher I am very watchful of how I conduct a class where there are both girls and boys. The examples I give, the pronouns I use, the one's I call on to participate are all making an impact on the psyche of the children. One of my girls is an excellent sports person who has the potential to become a swimming/ athletics/ yoga or gym trainer. I once went to watch a cricket match where she was part of the team (only two girls in the entire team that consisted of boys) and I heard the opponents being encouraged to hit the ball towards her when she was fielding because 'ladki hai'. Where is this coming from in this day and age? Yes, day and age.

What has been really getting under my skin for a few years now are the advertisements of Surf Excel. Run a search on Youtube for 'surf excel ads' and see what you find. While there are countless advertisements of the brand, I am focussing on only those that show children playing. You will notice that these ads have only boys getting dirty while playing whereas girls (very few and far between) are getting dirty painting, being geeky or, cooking. After going through numerous ads I also noticed that boys are getting dirty saving chickens, searching for something or even saving their little sisters and grandparents from some kind of trouble, but there are no boys getting dirty cooking, painting or doing something geeky. Have a look at some of them below.

1. Boy giving his football shoes to a friend who cannot afford shoes.

2. Girls can stand on the side and ask for help or giggle because girls can't climb walls or walk on a slide and dirty their bums. (Never mind that I did it, my sisters did it and all my friends did it- girls as well as boys.)

                                    

3. Let's not even get into the number of things wrong with this one. But here is one geeky girl (the way girls are 'supposed' to be) who saves the boy. Here is the ad involving a girl getting dirty, but not on the playground.

4. How cute! A little boy becoming a puppy to cheer up his teacher grieving the loss of her pet.

5. Grandson becoming a scarecrow to save his grandmother's chillies being eaten up by crows.

6. Grandfather encouraging his grandson to repair his bicycle and then offers to wash his t-shirt. Wow, something progressive you might think, not until you see them calling up the mother who has some special hands (which only mothers have) with which she washes clothes. (Happy Mother's Day everyone! Let's hold those very hands and wish our mums whose only job is to wash clothes and dry chillies in the courtyard)

7. Hey little brother can you also fight those people who think that your little sister can't defend herself?

8. Only boys wear shoes, need to learn to tie their shoe laces and get dirty in the process. What's worse, it's their cuffs, collars and pockets that get dirty (girls do not wear clothes that have cuffs, collars or pockets).

9. Another grandson, another grandfather, another grandmother and another mother who washes clothes.

10. Boys playing on the playground. Boys bullying. Boys making peace. Not one single girl. Not even fielding.

11. There is a girl here getting dirty only while doing art.

12. If there is a girl in a Surf Excel Ad, she is not getting dirty playing some rough game on the field. If there are girls in the advertisements, that is as most of the advertisements center around boys. Have a look at this page here and skim through the faces- how many boys? How many girls?

And then, a whole new world opened. I saw real kids in real life advertisements of Surf Excel. There were girls playing in the mud, on the playground and on the fields. Getting dirty. Like girls in real life.

Girls on monkey bars, playing lagori, running in the park.

Few girls playing here too. (don't know if I should be miffed by this, but the Indian girls are shown giving a great idea, but the Indian boy wants more freedom to play).

Hopscotch, riding a bicycle, parks and gymnastics.

Six videos in the 'Kids Today' project which have real life clips and what look like real life children. There are girls playing in the mud, parks, beaches, on monkey bars, running, jumping, swimming. That's real life. If not for all but for some of the girls- where they can get dirty while playing or reaching out to others. 

These advertisements are watched by all and I am worried about the messages it sends. Although the new campaign of Surf Excel roots for more children playing (and I see some evolution in their ideas) I am worried about the scripts they are writing for advertisements which are being shot in a studio setting, completely under the control of creative heads. Do creative heads realise that their 'creations' have certain sexist undertones? Has nobody noticed this before? Of course, there are advertisements where girls are playing too and almost all ads are sexist. However, what really gets to me specifically in the Surf Excel Ads is that you can almost never see a girl having a daag that is accha. 

(P.S. I am not a marketing/ PR or ad guru nor am I an expert- these are all my observations. Do I not understand that brands take years to build their image and I need to speak to them directly before I write about them? Yes, I do. I once asked Surf Excel this question on Twitter and waited patiently for the ads to change- but no response and no change.)