Since times immemorial, brands have been known to make use of gender stereotypes and biases to market their products. In spite of umpteen number of attempts to make our country more gender neutral, scantily clad women are used to sell almost everything from bikes to deodorants. The brand which has now come under fire for a relatively lighter offence is Dabur’s Real, the well-known and popular juice brand for making it seem like their juice is only supposed to make boys happy.
While Real clearly never even thought someone would read what’s written on their carton, nine-year old Mriganka Dutta apparently did and her father wrote to Maneka Gandhi requesting her to look into the matter.
A responsible father, wishing for a fair world for his daughter, brought to my notice this seemingly minute yet questionable error. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/1AW5vJk5Fm
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) February 16, 2017
The Minister for Women and Child Development also replied promptly to the concerned father and told the girl that Real has replied back saying that surely is for both girls and boys. The brand replied back saying that under no circumstance did they intend to discriminate on the basis of gender and that they will make the changes needed.
I wrote to Dabur to look into the matter and they’ve assured necessary amendments. 2/2 #WeAreEqual pic.twitter.com/dT1HDLnxNt
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) February 16, 2017
An official statement by the juice biggie said that,
“Let me reassure you that the use of the term ‘him’ on the pack is not gender-specific and was used in a more general sense to connote children and not any specific gender.”
We are yet to figure out what finally comes out of this discussion kicked off by the nine-year old’s question but it goes without saying that brands need to be a lot more gender neutral no matter what they plan to sell.
