The very existence of ads in Ramadan is an abomination upon humanity, but then the annoying ad producers go ahead and put the cherry on top of the cake this year with absolutely sexist ads that seek to do nothing but either objectify or stereotype women.
Let’s start with, perhaps, the ad I cannot stand the most. Seriously, if lighting the whole compound on fire was legal, I would’ve possibly done it and I’m not in any way an arsonist. So here’s the ad in a nutshell, Amr Youssef is attempting to sell the compound making it seem like some sort of heaven on earth. How does he go about doing that? With a couple of mild sexual innuendos. “Helwa,” he says referring to the women he sees walking all about the compound. That’s what we do now, we use ‘pretty’ women to sell vacation spots.
Allow us to go to exhibit B, where limiting stereotypes are used in portraying women in the ad of a supposed reputable multinational telecom company. Let’s recap the ad; a girl is riding her scooter, the girl bumps into a fruit stand in the street and falls off her scooter, the girl then hurriedly searches in her bag only to pull out her phone and take a selfie. So what’s the point being hinted at here? Women are vain creatures whose number 1 worry in life is capturing the moment with the right selfie. I mean, it’s not like guys take selfies, God forbid.
I know a lot of people will think that these are just measly one-minute ads- not a big deal, huh? Why am I making a mountain out a molehill? The fact that we all need to understand is that what is portrayed in the media plays a huge factor in what happens in real life situations. I find that the problem here is with the mindset of a whole society; a society that views sexism as normal, or at times, even funny and entertaining.
