Mumbai: International Advertising Association (IAA), India chapter is hosting a summit on Gender Sensitisation In Media on the 29th of July at ITC Maratha, Andheri, Mumbai. The theme is Gender Portrayal across the creative spectrum from a 30 Seconds TVC to a 3 Hour film. Prominent voices of the industry will be speaking on why it is of paramount importance to Break The Bias that surrounds the industry when it comes to gender depiction.
The Voice Of Change, an IAA initiative, was started as a behaviour change communication initiative which was aimed at addressing the skewed portrayal of gender in the field of advertising and communication with the launch of the Geena Davis study with Unicef, in September last year, the IAA – India took the first step towards effective change. The facts presented in the study, based on the evaluation of more than 1000 plus ads, showed a disturbing trend of widespread gender stereotyping and prejudice. Sore truths were discovered about how women and other genders are seen, their abject objectification and pigeon holing.
On the backdrop of such ground-breaking research being done, the IAA has stepped up to bring all this knowledge and more out in the public eye under an umbrella banner through this summit. The aim is to ensure that the discourse reaches the right people and sensitises all creative minds and industry forces to drive palpable change.
Megha Tata, President IAA India, said “IAA has always brought forward initiatives that are meaningful and Gender sensitive, on and off screen and has also been the one who has always taken the lead on this issue in the industry. We felt that it is time for all of us to come together and be the voice of change. We want to address the dialogue of gender discrimination across the media spectrum and hope we will collectively bring much needed change in the system.”
“Over the last decade, women have broken stereotypes in this industry both behind the scenes and on the screen. It’s time we tell more of those stories and break biases. Through this change summit, the IAA brings prominent industry voices to communicate, converge and be the Voices Of Change that we need to empower the narrative,” said Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Chairperson, IAA Women Empowerment Committee & Head – Hindi and Kids TV Network, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.
The summit shall witness prominent industry bodies and partners such as like ASCI, UNICEF, Tata Institute Of Social Sciences, Unstereotype Alliance and Akshara Centre along with Chief Guest Poonam Mahajan and prominent voices like Vidya Balan, Deepika Warrier, Monika Shergill, Anupama Chopra, Santosh Desai, Nandita Das, Ranveer Brar, Tista Sen, Anuradha Sengupta and many more. IAA aims to sanction change through influential and evocative dialogue to enable effective change.
