Girl power rocks. Review on Femina 'Femina Believe' commercial

Gone are the days when women sat at house, nursed kids and all that occupied their minds were to take care of the daily chores and wait for their men to come home to them, so that they could feed them, take care of their physical and mental needs and be done with it. Today the ladies are going places and claiming their place of honor in all spheres of lives and rightfully so. Today ‘girl power’ rules and how, we have the Kalpana Chawlas, the Kiran Bedis and the Sushmita Sens of this world who are all trailblazers in their own ways of lives, women who have dared to dream and go out to achieve extraordinary things in lives with their sheer dint of courage and self-belief. Some one once remarked the degree of maturity of a civilization of a country can be judged from the respect that their men accord to their ladies, indeed a very valid thought. If we do not give our women the sense of pride that they deserve then we are indeed no good then the barbarians for whom women were a means to get their things done (sic). I am sure by now most of you would be wondering what is wrong, we thought it was an ad review then why is he talking of sociology and all that kind of stuff. Well the ad that I am going to talk about today does harp on this same precinct and does come across with a powerful message extolling the power of the women of today, ‘ the lady of substance’ so to speak of.

The Client, for this ad is the Femina magazine published by the Times of India group in India. The magazine has today become synonymous with the ascending power of the girl, they have in fact imbued a whole generation of self sufficient and confident women, belonging to the so called ‘ femina generation’.

The team for this ad has Anil Sanjivan, Vipul Thakkar and Karan Rawat from Enterprise Nexus, who were the brains behind the ad. The soundtrack has been sung by Vivienne Poccha and composed by Vishal Shekhar, with lyrics penned by Vipul Thakkar. Navdeep Singh of Red Ice Productions has directed this ad. Audrey Maben (air racing champion), Sheetal Malhar (super model) and Megha Kawale (International DJ) have played the lead roles in this ad.

Storyboard for this ad revolves around the theme that nothing is impossible. The ad begins with a young girl near an airport hanger running along with the toy plane as if flying it. In the next shot she tries to convince her mother to buy her the toy place to which her other retorts ‘ you are not capable’. The girl does not lose hope and aspires to achieve her dream much like the girl of the next shot where she is shown sitting in front of a mirror trying to beautify herself, she is ridiculed ‘ you are not beautiful’. The third girl chronicled in the series is shown jiving to some Bee Gees song only to be reminded that ‘ you are not talented’. The ridicule does not bog down the young aspiring girls of all three vignettes of life. Neither do they let the lack of support and encouragement decide their fates. The ad ends with a voice over I believe in me

The concept of the ad was to showcase achievers in different walks of lives and to put their achievements in context with their inception trying to show that people are not always born as achievers, they have to strive and work hard towards being successful in any sphere of life. The ad showcases the spirit and will to succeed in each of us, only thing is some people get bogged down by circumstances and the enormity of their dreams while some people take it as a challenge to succeed despite of enormous odds. The ad gels with the mindset that most of us still have in India, when a girl tries to do something which has not been heard of our first reaction is to discourage her and pull her down by saying ‘ this is not meant for you’ ‘ you are not good to do something like this’ ‘ are you out of your minds and things like that. The ad extols the fact that our will to succeed is fired by our own inner resolve and belief in our abilities. This is more pertinent in what is still a largely male chauvinistic society of ours.

The execution of the ad is rather brilliant, with wonderful use of symbolization and aesthetic use of colors and tones. Use of symbolization such as someone trampling the toy plane under his feet or the falling of the rose petals from the vase is subtle and striking. At the same time the shots showing the women as young girls were made to look grainy and choppy in an effort to make it resemble old footage. The shots involving the grown-up women, however, were made glossier and slicker to portray modernity. Also bringing together ladies from different walks of life and not just sticking to known faces was an attempt to make people realize that achievers are there all around us only if we sit back and take note of their works.

Signoff for this ad could not been better with the line I believe in me, for the courage and will to succeed when no one is with you has to come from within and not without. The tune for this ad is rather catchy with the jingle going like I know nothing can stop me from trying, breaking the chains and flying. Don't stop me. I can be anything I want to be, don't stop me. I know nothing can stop me from trying, breaking the chains and flying. Don't stop me. I believe in me.

This ad is certain to appeal to the progressive Indian woman who are on the rise, women who are daring to break the stereotypes, women who are ready to take up challenges, women who are fired by the same zeal for success as their men, women who are not willing to lie low and accept things as their fate. Today’s women is the one who is going to go all out to shape her own life and destiny, and this ad is a salute to all such forward looking conscious women.

Questions Which ads come to your mind when we speak of portraying the glory of the womenfolk? What in these ads appeal to you and why? Which ads have shown women in rather bad or pungent taste, what is so abhorrent about these ads? What do you make of the so many fairness cream ads, which show fairness, and good looking is the only criterion of success? Which ad would you want me to talk about next?