BlackBerry Boys’ Chauvinism

We learnt how to ignite fire. We learnt the magic of the wheel. We broke mountains, harvested water from the river and reached the moon as well. We have passed the modern age and landed in an age of fast-paced technological age. Great minds have enabled us to have all that we want as Midas’ Touch. Things are just a touch away these days.

Technology does have a colossal impact on our life-style but not majorly impacted on our thoughts. We are still crippled by age old conventions and ideologies that advance very gradually. We have passed through several movements of feminism since its initiation. The ad-world somehow still desires to instill the patriarchal notions. The BlackBerry phone which was initiated as a business phone, that enabled busy people to work anytime and anyplace to get them much and much busier; they started up with a ‘BlackBerry Boys’ ad-campaign to target younger audience. We see the scope of brand growing larger with the sing-song ad. The fast-paced features of internet access, e-mail and the BBM chat attracted many young minds, and BlackBerry was no longer business phone only.

The ad begins with five gentlemen in their “cool suits” and their “shiny shoes” singing the BlackBerry song. They think the BlackBerry adds to their already established 'coolness', or rather the word cool is more associated to ‘cool dude’. To my amazement, I do ponder what makes them think that business phones can be used by business men. How entertainingly they have sidelined businesswomen class! Or in recent case, they have also marginalized girls using the phone for same networking reason as boys. We see how they still inculcate the idea of how technology is better understood by men rather than women. In my defense, I believe the world (chauvinistic) is still unable to grasp the idea of how women can handle technology and nature well, unlike men. With this ad, they are surely boosting their male-chauvinistic ego, while they still desire to call themselves “Boys”.

On asking this question to my friend Anushka, who is also a Blackberry phone user; she denies of having any problem with the ad. It is true for many people that the campaign of ‘BlackBerry Boys’ that propagate “Boys” and not girls go blind.

It seems to me that “Boys” is also used for the purpose of alliteration (Alliteration is the repetition of an initial consonant sound), to make it more catchy. In that case, why couldn’t they use “Babes” for instance? I think it would have shattered their consumption, while they seem to target larger audience, as we see male population on rise in most of the countries. The hegemonic, normative men would have their concerns using a BlackBerry phone or their masculinity would be at stake if they had to use a phone that sung BlackBerry Babes and having lyrics such as:

"We wear tall shoes,
We wear smart dresses,

We are the BlackBerry babes,

Oh Yeah!
We are bright,
we are special,
we are very very special,

We're the BlackBerry babes,
Oh yeah!
We're the BlackBerry babes,

We do chat and
We do shop,
We do surf and we do all on the move,
Ooooooooooo,

Cos, we're the BlackBerry babes,
Oh yeah we're the BlackBerry babes,
We're the BlackBerry babes."

Can you imagine any of the Khans of the industry using the phone cause of an ad singing like this? Or can you imagine any of our so macho cricketers using a phone with such feminine inclination. Many men would not want to buy a phone with such a song propagating it. However, the current Blackberry ad does, effectively, cater to men and women as well just by adding women in the ad sequence and not in the lyric. We see the biased nature of patriarchy shooting themselves on us. In the prior case, such equality would be hampered. The question I would like to bring into light is, even if they created an ad with such a song, would they dare to show men in the ad; as we see many women in the ‘Blackberry Boys’ ad?

And so the tradition continues… The second sequence of ‘Blackberry Boys’ ad propagates the use of the phone by the current pop-generation or the younger generation for chatting and social-networking purposes. The ad somehow essentializes the use of technology that can be appropriated by male counterparts only. However, the ad ‘compensates’ and populates it with the women in it, that really doesn’t seem enough.

We see how in this ‘progressive’ world the binaries between the genders do exist. We still find ourselves caught up in the quagmire of gender discriminations repeatedly propagated through media. While women are still trying to break the glass-ceiling and climbing the corporate ladder, paving their ways through equal opportunities and fighting for it, it is a tragic event to see such incidents happening in the ‘advanced’ world, is regressive and recessive.