Arts and Social Sciences Journal

Third Gender in Advertisements: A New Wave of Inclusiveness

Abstract

Ashwini Shama*

When we open a newspaper in the morning, it will be flooded with advertisements. In fact one can come across more advertisements than news! Further when people put on radio or television, they are bombarded with advertisements. When one steps out of the house, it becomes impossible to escape outdoor advertisements in the form of hoardings, bill boards, electronic ads, Transit ads, wall writings and so on. Even without their knowledge, people are exposed to a large number of advertisements. So practically, it is impossible to escape advertisements these days. The matter of concern here is the kind of messages that gets passed on through the advertisements. Portrayal of various concepts in the advertisements has always been an interesting area of research or study. Extensive studies have been conducted on depiction of women in advertisements. It is the same with the depiction of children in advertisements. The social and economic effects of advertisements, the cultural aspects are widely studied. But one aspect that has been completely sidelined is the actual understanding of gender issue in advertising. When the phrase ‘Gender and advertising’ is used; it is usually understood as the portrayal of the roles played by men and women in society. But what about the Transgender population? This perspective is rarely covered in advertisements.

This paper tries to look at advertisements from a new perspective. The paper shall be descriptive in nature and concentrates on the latest television advertisements and campaigns of various products which includes Tans people in their advertisements. The paper shall also try to peep into the advertisements from other countries bearing the same concept. It focusses on how the third gender is being portrayed in advertisements. The latest wave of Tran’s genders being included in the advertisements shall be studied. The paper shall also try to understand the reaction of public to this inclusiveness.