Choti ki Pehli "Gol Roti"!!! time to celebrate?

Advertisements play a huge role in reinforcing stereotypes. Take a broader look, how are women portrayed in advertisements? Most of them revolve around women applying fair and lovely or winning their mother in laws heart by a certain cooking oil or dishwashing soap. Even in 21st century, when it comes to household chores, women are the ones believed to do it . The audience watching such stereotypical advertisements unconsciously associates household chores with women and thus reiterating the pre-existing gender – stereotypical activities.

Let’s talk about this one advertisement in particular , where a young girl gets out of the kitchen with a perfectly “Gol” roti and her family bursts into happiness over this so called huge success and decides it’s time to celebrate this occasion with ice cream. How does the audience perceive such advertisements when aired in countries like Pakistan where husbands divorce their wives, and a father killed his daughter for not making gol roti? They play a part in confirming the mindsets of such husbands , fathers etc.

“A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth” (Goebbels)

It is almost unbelievable how much impact a 20 seconds advertisement can have on the audience when repeated over and over. When things are repeated over and over , they become the norm. Such advertisements justify the stereotypical mindset that women are to do domestic chores even when they are little girls. While the little girl gets out of the kitchen with a gol roti in hand with her mother , the men of the family enjoy on the dining table.

I will end this on a question, how hard was it for the family to celebrate their daughters success in a sport ? or show up the little boy with the roti “ Chotey ki pehli gol roti!!”