Stereotype trap

The other day I was watching TV with my daughter and she asked me, “Mama, why is it that the grandfathers in all the ads look the same? The grandfather will be dressed in a kurta, wearing glasses and have a partly bald head with some white strands here and there. Do all grandfathers today dress and look like this?” I couldn’t give a satisfying answer while she kept arguing with her point of view. But I realised that the grandfather is a victim of the stereotypical trap.

This is one such example where marketers and designers fall for the stereotype while communicating with the masses.

“Blue is for Boys and Pink is for girls”is what we grow up with! Hence, if we spot a boy wearing a pink shirt, it’s quite obvious that he would invite remarks that might even mean ridiculing him at times.

This typified cultural influence largely affects the visual or iconic representations of people, places and things. Due to this, we miss out on noticing an individualistic or differentiated impact.

Since the communication for any brand encompasses all of these factors, many brands subsequently fall into this predictable imagery trap, thus affecting the brands’ perception in the consumers’ mind at large.

Most of the brands take the safer route of representing familiar visuals and content on the basis of how their consumers or people at large have been behaving or responding to certain things. While it’s great to delve into consumer insights that shape the brand image, it’s also necessary to identify the opportunities to direct the flow of the insights towards creating some path-breaking concepts and see whether the mould can be shaken or broken.

While what we have talked of above is mainly from a branding perspective and as a purveyor of ideas, other repercussions of these small acts of typicality impact society at large.

This kind of typified portrayal leads to unfathomable expectations from the people and relations around us. We expect that our parents should behave in a particular manner, forgetting that they are individuals and have a life beyond their children. We begin to stereotype the employee-boss relationships at work.

As a creative responsibility, we must gradually, yet steadily, work towards breaking the mould in the visual representation of things, people and places.

Some of us are already doing it, but eventually it is looked upon as one of the unusual approaches. That’s what bothers me.

Why can’t it be “The Approach towards looking and presenting ideas–concepts to people”? That is a more realistic, holistic, relatable and progressive approach.

Dove’s new “Let's Break the Rules of Beauty,” sets a perfect example, which also alters the perspective of beauty.

It portrays a variety of women whose look and style don’t necessarily fit the Indian beauty ideal of youthful looks, fair skin, long black smooth hair and a slim, trim figure. This campaign encourages India to appreciate its diversity in beauty, and bring a change against the variety of pressures and influences that keep a narrow beauty ideal alive. So let’s focus on having a different take on every new problem that comes our way and resolve it creatively.