'Men will be men'— a phrase people often use to ignore men's sexist and misogynistic behaviours, be it in our daily lives, on social media platforms or in brand advertisements. If a woman gets harassed, blatantly objectified, sexualized or beaten by a man, 'men will be men' is used to neglect his mistakes and blame the victim. A lot of women are victim-blamed because they fall prey to the lustful eyes of men, when the fault is of the perpetrator. 

Imperial Blue has come out with another ad where it says ‘Men Will Be Men’. But here's a thought we women often have, do the men really agree?

Seagram’s Imperial Blue, a brand that is known for its 2-liner ghazal and tagline ‘Men Will Be Men,’ has been loved over the years by both men and women. However, a closer look at the ads, and the message it is trying to convey, comes across as problematic at various levels. The ads stereotype men, portraying them as people who don't bat an eyelid while objectifying women. These ads also portray men as always wanting to have physical relations with a woman, and that men help women only when they're expecting sexual favours from them. These ads also show that staring at a woman is perfectly fine and that women like being stared at, which is completely wrong. This constant sexualization and objectification of women is not even closer to establishing gender equality in the society, rather it promotes how normal it is to stare at women and sexualize them. 

Over the years, this series has portrayed women as objects of desire and dehumanized men to an extent that they think it is okay for men to be greedy, possessive, full of lust and materialistic. Never have we seen a real human emotion in their protagonists. They never seem to care about others in these ads or even for their own family at times. Today, when there is a worldwide conversation on how men should be held accountable for exactly this kind of problematic behaviour, Imperial Blue continues to normalise it and be the face of it. Surpisingly, people praise such ads blindly. This needs to stop.

Taking its legacy forward, Imperial Blue has launched an advertisement titled ‘Crossing’ featuring Karan Wahi. He spots a conventionally pretty woman walking towards him and helps an old lady cross the street so that he can evoke some empathy and catch the woman’s attention. He then sees another woman behind him and takes the old lady in the opposite direction with him, which implies that men will do anything to grab women's attention -- even make an old woman walk twice and toil for him. Women are tired of this narrative and suffer daily because of it. Please sign this petition and take a step to end this narrative and make people aware that men must be held accountable for their actions.