Sexy, naughty, bitchy

Lakshmi Ajay / TNN / Mar 6, 2009, 00:23 IST

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What’s with the new brand of sassy, brazen women in advertising these days...TOI figures out.

What��s with the new brand of sassy, brazen women in advertising these days...TOI figures out.
Men do it well, but women do it only better! Sisters turning their catfight into a mortal combat with some sassy stunts, a girl and her mother shocking the living daylights out of an annoying nosy guest or sauciness la Bollywood style, tv commercials have just discovered women at their naughty best and how! Admakers have finally realised and salvaged the ad positioning of women from the Lalitajis of the yore to the sassy new Lolitas.
Gone are the days when women were forever seen sighing at their neighbour��s shinier detergent or dancing around a bigger fridge, taking hair fall tests or whipping up meals for the family. So what do advertisers feel about this new avatar of the women on telly? Ad guru Santosh Desai remarks, ��The women in advertising seem to have been moved away from the kitchen altogether. There is a complete role reversal of sorts and the power equations of women in ads have come a long way. Earlier the mother figure was always the gatekeeper, but now she is a single woman, a working mother and a spirited one who knows how to let her hair down as well. The flipside is that the focus has shifted from the problems of the home to outside the home, namely weight, cosmetics, fairness, gadgets etc and this trend is very disturbing.��
The brand ambassadors have also got bigger and sassier. And so did the roles! Gwendoline Fernandez, senior copywriter with an advertising firm agrees, ��Most of these ads are in sync with the current roles of women who are not ��gharelu�� and are outgoing and bolder. The target audiences are young women who are not afraid to have fun and the ads are in keeping with the demands of youngsters to relate to a cool image. Even brand ambassadors like Asin, Genelia and Katrina Kaif add to the hip and happening image of today��s woman. They are natural and even in their films have dared to do things differently and that is what they convey.��

The Indian woman is no more scared to be experimentative and aggressive. The shrinking violets have given way to the feisty but fun femme fetales.To be daring is the order of the day. Ashish Pingle who is the marketing manager of a popular beverage brand has a different take. He says, ��Advertising would never work if you portray people as they are. Every urban woman might not be sassy and bold, but there is definitely an aspirational value there which the brands want to cash in on. There is a radical change in the personification of women who are go-getters and aggressive but also know how to have fun. This strategy clicks with the youth because they always look for aspiration and icons to follow.��
Seems like women have ousted men from the daredevilry department and look smashing doing it as well! So the ladies are all set to strut their stuff and give you your share of zing. After all girls just wanna have all the fun, right?

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