Advertisers distort women's image to attract consumers

By Tri Hafiningsih

JAKARTA (JP): Sensual girls flash in beer commercials for macho men. A housewife wins her mother-in-law's heart because she washes with cheap but powerful detergent. A wife is embraced by her husband because the laundry detergent she uses does not spoil her hands. A young woman is asked to dinner by a male colleague just six weeks after she started using a skin whitening cream.

Those are just a few of a lot of stereotyped images of women we see on TV, magazine or newspaper ads.

Women are judged by their physical attraction. Beautiful women are those who have white, spotless skin. Good housewives are those who are always ready to serve their families.

Women, it seems, will find indications of such gender bias for a long time to come.

An advertising expert told last week's seminar on women's image in the media that the use of such role models is still a demand in the advertising business.

Miranty Abidin, owner of an advertising agency, said the use of physical attraction and the image of women's domestic role is still an effective business strategy in attracting consumers. "That's part of the commercial marketing in advertising," she told an audience of limited male participants

The seminar, organized by the National Military's (TNI) women's organization, aimed to find ways to develop a more balanced image of women in the rapidly changing media.

Miranty said an ad should be designed to improve the image of a product. An ad that disturbs public morality will damage the image of not only the models, but also the product they are advertising.

The advertisers should be aware of the social marketing factor in the business, she said.

"It's socializing products that promotes fairer gender roles," she said, referring to a public service ad featuring a girl and a boy who have the same chance of winning a running competition despite their physical differences.

Another speaker told the seminar that there would always be a conflict of interests between the ideal and the social mission of the media to educate the public at one end and the business demand at the opposite end.

"There is always the moral consideration on one hand and business calculation on the other," said Agus Mulyanto, a member of SCTV board of directors.

He said that women are still the most targeted viewers of TV programs. "They stay longer in front of the TV, they also make up the greatest viewership of ads."

The television industry is booming, he said, but the stations have to survive the harsh competition by attracting the largest number of viewers and advertisers, Agus said.

TV stations should have provided balanced programs representing their social obligations and business interests, he said, adding that it is never easy to make such considerations.

"The aired programs should include highly educational news reports or films, even though they are low rated (according to the TV viewership survey), but we also need the best-sellers and lowly educational programs, such as telenovelas or sinetron to survive," Agus said.

Meanwhile, Toeti Adhitama, a senior editor of Media Indonesia, said that women will always face a distorted picture of themselves in the media if they refuse to become involved in the media business. She said women should create better opportunities for themselves to become the decision makers in media production.

"Women cannot express their point of view if they have no authority in the process," Toeti Adhitama said.

But in many cases, women were mainly responsible for the bad coverage in the press, Toeti said, referring to the exotic pictures of actress and model Sophia Latjuba in one edition of Matra men's magazine. "If she refused to be photographed like that, there wouldn't be such public controversy," she said.

Two leading women professionals spoke out about their personal experience in the seminar. Rini MS Soewandi, president commissioner of motorcycle manufacturer PT Semesta Citra Motorindo, and economist Sri Mulyani Indrawati had to put away their highly appreciated expertise, respectively as a top-rank company manager, and an economic consultant/observer.

Both women agreed to the fact that women have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to receive the same acknowledgement.

"I was treated differently by the press simply because I am a woman," Rini said.

However, the former top executive of Astra International said that she did not encounter such discrimination in building a career in business. "I am a professional and they judged me as one," she said.

It took a long time for Rini to be able to develop a mutual relationship with the press. "I tried to know them better and expect them to know me better," she said.