OgilvyOne Worldwide Mumbai’s campaign takes a bold stand on sexist lyrics in Bollywood songs

OgilvyOne Worldwide, Mumbai has created a campaign – #NotMusicToMyEars in partnership with Love Matters to battle offensive lyrics in Bollywood songs.

The Impact so far In just 2 days, the campaign has received 39.8 million impressions. #NotMusicToMyEars has trended nationally. As a result, Farhan Akhtar, Bollywood Superstar and Musician, made a commitment on twitter promising not to include lewd and offensive lyrics in the movies he makes.

Ravi Karkara, Sr Strategic Partnership Adviser to Assistant Secretary General/Deputy ED at United Nations Women has also called out to Bollywood and the music industry to say no to the objectification of women and girls in songs and lyrics.

Bollywood music is the most popular genre of music among India’s young urban population. It has a telling impact on the behaviour and psyche of the youth. And while we all love dancing to the numerous songs Bollywood puts out, there are those that cross the line. For example…

 “I’ve behaved long enough. I’ve sighed long enough. It’s now time to talk dirty. Like dirty, dirty”

“Don’t be shocked that I’m following you. And don’t even try stopping me. I have a right over you.”

“How many kisses are you going to run from? Come, be my whore.”

All of which, are lyrics from popular Bollywood songs.

As an industry that has a lasting impact on the collective sub-conscious of our youth, we’ve realised that the gaps in gender equality and other taboo issues could be filled if we start sensitizing these spaces. Considering the enormous power Bollywood wields over impressionable young minds, it is vital to draw the industry’s attention to lyrics that do not fulfil any substantial goals but end up further stereotyping.

The idea behind the campaign is to make audiences realise that many of the songs we dance to, have lyrics that are downright lewd and derogatory to women and their bodies. What often tends to happen is that a soul-stirring, foot-tapping melody disguises such lyrics to the extent that they almost stop mattering. With this campaign, we’re hoping to get audiences to wake-up to this reality. And through them, make responsible song-writers, directors and producers take a stand against including demeaning lyrics as part of their work.

The campaign launched on a popular music streaming app. It consists of a playlist of songs that acts as click bait. Immediately after three specific songs is an audio capsule of the english translation of the song which helps the listener understand just how lewd the lyrics he/she just heard, were. The capsules are songs number 3, 7 and 11. Here’s a link to the playlist.

On twitter, influencers tweeted like they were victims using the actual lyrics of the songs. Thereby creating a frenzied response from their followers. Post which they revealed they were merely tweeting lyrics of songs we’ve all unwittingly been dancing to.

Gender stereotypes, the normalization of violence, social stigma and the idea of ‘idyllic’ love associated with a sense of ‘unconditionality’ lead to people accepting a culture of tolerance. This prevents them from recognizing situations of violence and abuse as unusual.

Bollywood films and daily soaps often portray how love attains a transforming magical power to transform violence into care or how a stalker becomes the love of her life. How a partner (often a woman) is impelled to be supportive so that the relationship would endure, to the point of interpreting it as her responsibility. While focusing on permanence of their relationship, they neglect their own needs and well-being.