The first lesbian ad of India goes beyond the stereotypical homosexual references and shows two people in love. This is why it has gone viral.
section 377 has always received a mixed response from people. There are those who believe the law to be extremely regressive and then there are those who think that homosexuality will lead to human extinction and is thus ‘unnatural’. Whatever stakes there might be, there is no denying that sexuality is fluid and love is simply love.Another thing that shrouds the realm of homo erotica is the stereotypes: gays are always effeminate, lesbians are tomboys and other jargon that popular mainstream media often dishes out. But as it does happen, stereotypes are exaggerated and often extrapolated outside their contexts. So, yes, not all lesbians are un-feminine, and not all gays are feminine.
Picking up on these few notions, the ethnic wear ad by fashion brand Anouk is a fresh breath of air. It features two women in a relationship, living in with each other and waiting for a visit from the parents of one of them. The ad, simply titled ‘The Visit’, is for a fashion portal.
The ad does not focus on the ‘lesbian’ part as much. Instead the women are portrayed as two people, people who are in love, and the fact that they just happen to be lesbians is eased into with such a grace that you cannot help but smile at the ingenuity and genuineness of the love portrayed between the two leads of the ad.
The ad also loops in live in relationships, which are frowned upon, but the relationship is portrayed with such beauty that you are bound to see the love, and not the status of the relationship.
The ad was conceptualized by an ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore and made by the production house Hectic Content. Avishek Ghosh, co-partner of Hectic Content, told the Times of India, “We tried to avoid the stereotypes associated with gay people. There was no one woman looking more masculine or feminine in the film. We tried to give it a candid feel like it is any other couple being apprehensive about meeting the parents.”
