Bùi Phương Huyền - Phạm Anh Thư - Phạm Thị Phương Anh -

Dương Thị Thùy Linh - Đinh Thọ Trường

Take a look at 3-5 advertisments on newspaper or TV that you think there exists a biased
representation of women/girls (eg, in terms of image, word choice, sentence structures, etc.)
Explain and provide your suggestions to eradicate the bias.

OUTLINE
I/ KEY CONCEPTS:
Critical Discourse Analysis
- CDA is an approach to discourse to reveal these hidden and often “out-of-sight”
ideologies, values, positions and perspectives.
- CDA pays particular attention to the relation between language and power, aiming to
unearth the ideologies underlying discourse.
-

II/ Representation of women/ girls:

* Vietnamese advertisements are considered a type of discourse which includes biased
representation of women/girls in Vietnam. We will analyze four advertisements in order to
show the representation of Vietnamese women in terms of a family cook, a teacher, a
caretaker, a household chores performers and a subordinate partner of men,....
1. Woman as a family cook
- Ads 1: Chinsu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSAg46ZPLuU
+ Characters: 2 women
+ Setting: They are cooking in the kitchen.
+ A young woman is cooking and after finishing the dish, another woman tastes
them and says that “ngọt gắt, ngọt lợ, ế chồng mất thôi”
+ After adding seasoning powder, the dish becomes delicious - “ngọt thanh”.
The sound of middle-aged woman echos far away and the prince comes to
their house. In the end, the young woman goes home with the prince.
→ A woman who does not know how to cook a good meal will be on the shelf.
→ Women represent a family cook in the family.
- Ads 2: Nước mắm Nam Ngư
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQE3s1jF8FM
+ Characters: an extended family: grandparents, parents and a daughter.
+ Setting: In Tet holiday
+ Almost all scenes belong to the grandmother, the mother and the daughter.
● After the mom helps her daughter wear Ao dai, she, together with her
mother-in-law makes Chung cake without assistance from the father-
in-law and her husband. Two men just appear last seconds at the
table when the family has a meal.
+ Language: The husband said:
● “Uớm vào là vừa vặn”
● “Chạm vào là tươm tất”
● “Nêm vào là trọn vẹn”
● “Từ khi có em, tết nhà anh luôn đủ đầy”
 => 3 first sentences are omitted the subjects, but we can guess that
eliminated subjects refer to “em” - the wife/ two women.
=> One of the main tasks of women in a family is making meals

2. Woman as a child educator

- Ads 1: Hạt nêm Knorr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmbwrrBNtP8
+ Characters: A little girl, her parents.
+ Setting: In the house: kitchen + the dinner room
+ The little girl and her mom appear first. The dad just turns up when the family
has a meal.
+ The little girl asks her mom a lot of questions:
○ “Mẹ ơi sao con cá nó không ngủ vậy mẹ?”
○ “Sao tóc ông lại màu trắng vậy mẹ?”
○ “Mẹ đang nấu món gì vậy mẹ?”
+ She cooks and gives her little girl instruction to make rib soup:
○ “Đầu tiên mẹ cho sườn heo vào nấu trước”
○ “Sau đó mẹ mới cho rau củ vào”
○ “Cuối cùng là hạt nêm Knorr”
→ Little girls will receive cooking lessons from their mom.
→ Mom is a person who will educate children, especially cooking lessons.
→ The women play an important role in educating children.

- Ads 2: Quảng cáo sữa optimum gold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov_tzqOIy10
+ Characters: little boy and his mom
+ Setting: They are in the living room, the mom teaches her son how to do the
math by using the song.
+ Mom raises the question one plus one, two plus two,... then the son will
answer equal two, equal four,...
=> Mom acts as a teacher to teach math and the son acts as a student who answers the
question immediately when being asked.
=> Mom is responsible for educating children.

3. Woman as a caretaker of the whole family

Ads 1: Vinamilk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j76-
OaPxqXY&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1eGquO4JnqY20XXCncPRreHuNHA6_26Gdw6iPIWHEpnWlMDCasM04L
s6Q
- Image: A woman struggles to feed her son. The house looks chaotic, which is
opposite to the next door family.
- Language:
+ The grandmother complains “Bởi vậy thấy bà không thích rồi, con dâu nuôi cháu nhìn
thương quá trời”
+ The husband complains: “Nhà người khác vợ hiền con khỏe còn nhà mình cay cay
cay!”
=> The responsibility of keep the children fit and healthy is shouldered by the woman. If the
children don’t grow up well, the woman will get the blame.
 Ads 2: Dầu chiên Đại gia đình an hảo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5utH_I2yM4
- Image:
+ A woman turns the alarm off so that her husband can sleep a bit longer,
+ The scene of her hands hanging the clothes and carrying the shopping basket in the
market
+ A drawing in which she has four hands holding a cooking tool, an iron, a clothes
hanger and a shopping basket.
- Language: “Đôi tay tay mẹ yêu thương nơi hạnh phúc chứa chan bình yên” , “Một
năm của mẹ là 365 ngày chăm chút cho gia đình, Tết này hãy cùng đại gia đình gửi
đến mẹ lời cảm ơn trọn yêu thương”, “Cảm ơn mẹ người phụ nữ của năm”
=> In order to be praised as “người phụ nữ của năm” woman has to be able to take
care of the family
Ads 3: Sữa CaloSure Gold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3rVajMKgbM
- Image: A little girl prepare the milk for her grandparents when her mother is away for
work.
- Language: “Mẹ đi vắng, con chăm ông và bà” “Mẹ đi vắng nhưng yên tâm thật nhiều”
=> Mom is responsible to take care of the grandparents, if she is busy, the responsibility will
be shifted onto the daughter.

4. Woman as a subordinate partner of the man

Ads 1: Bột giặt Vì Dân
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ovAtAsM4RY
Character: A family includes a wife, a husband and their son.
Setting: The mother see her son off to son, with his clothes so white and shinny. Her
husband at work with his uniform clean. The husband and son came home. While the
two of them playing at the back yard, the wife noticed their clothes got dirty, and she
has to washes by hands, with the help of “Vì Dân” washing powder.
Language: Lyrics: Vì con, mẹ chăm lo sớm tối
Vì anh, em mong muốn sẻ chia
Due to the lyrics of the ad, the wife is the one taking care of her son and her
husband. For her son, she has to work hard day and night. For her husband, she
wishes she can sharing burden with her husband, not the other way around.

Ads 2: Dầu ăn Neptune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJHOY1I0eMM
1:43-2:23
+ Language:
● The man: “Để khi con mừng tuổi ba me, thì ba mẹ sẽ lì xì cho con”
● The child: “Lâu lắm rồi mình không mừng tuổi ông bà, vậy sức khỏe của ông
bà còn dồi dào không ba?”
“Mình còn được mừng tuổi ông bà bao nhiêu lần nữa vậy ba?”
Ad 3: Phomai Con bò cười:
+ Language:
● The kid asks his mom: “mẹ ơi, ông bà sẽ thích món quà của ba lắm hả mẹ?”
→ From Ad 3+4, whenever mention parents or grandparents, it is said that “dad and mom” or
“grandfather and grandmother”
→ The words referring to men are often mentioned before those referring to women.
→ In some case, the women are not mentioned like in ad of “Phô mai Con bò cười”
⇒ This means the men is brought forward prior to the women in most ads.
⇒ The women are considered in a position less power and less important than men in families.

5. Woman as a household chores performer

- Visually, regarding household chores such as clean the floor, wash dishes or wash
clothes,... they are always considered as a woman’s responsibility
Ads 1: Nước rửa bát Mỹ Hảo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjeKd5abZOg :
+ Character: A woman and her family member
+ Image:
● A family gathers together and have a dinner party. All of the members looks
happy and they talk with each other. When the dinner ends, the image of a
woman holding a sponge to wash dishes appears
=> Washing dishes is believed to be a woman’s work.
● While the woman is washing the dishes, a man brings an eaten bowl for her
to wash
=> Man is just a helper for woman in household chore. He is not the main
person in doing housework.
● At the end of the advert, men talk and shake hands beside dinner table
=> The image of men’s business negotiation
● Meanwhile, two women standing next to sank talking about the benefit of this
dishwater : help them protect her hand skin.
=> The topic talking of women in a house related to housework.
=> Household chore belongs to wives.
Ads 2: Các sản phẩm của CIF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwN6P4Mysb4 :
Character: A family includes a wife, a husband and their daughter
Setting: “A woman has to go away from home for some days. She reminded her
daughter and husband to clean and tidy up the house. However, the husband did not
clean well and make it a mess. When she backs, she has to do every household
chores again”
Language
● The daughter called her and said: “Mẹ à, bố chả làm được gì ở nhà cả.”=>
The husband is not good at cleaning the house. He is not used to doing
household chores => Normally, he does not have to do such work.
● “Có mẹ chẳng việc gì phải lo” => All of the household duties depend on the
wife. She cleans the stove, washes dishes, clean a toilet and clean the floor
(1:30-1:53)
● At the end of the advert, the message is “Tổ ấm sáng bóng là nhờ vợ hết, vợ
mình thật là giỏi” => Wife is the one that make home clean, tidy and beautiful,
not a husband’s duty.

6. Woman as a loving portrayal of parenthood to the children:

Ads : Hạt nêm Knorr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmbwrrBNtP8
+ While cooking and instructing how to cook the soup, the mother always
smiles with her daughter.
+ At the end of the advertisement, when the husband asks how to make the
dish more delicious, the woman looks at her daughter and gives her a wink.
→ The daughter tends to hold a closer bond with her mom than her dad.

Nếu được thì các bạn nên tổng hợp lại xem là có bao nhiêu cảnh trong nhà- bao nhiêu cảnh
phụ nữ với vai chính trong nhà => Kết luận chung hơn

III/ Suggestion:
- In order to eradicate the biased representation of the women/ girls in advertisements, the
advertisement productors should consider ideas of the equality between two genders like
following ones:
+ Nước rửa bát Sunlight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtXuDY0-jZE&fbclid=IwAR3PHb8CIiSrEgsR-
h5311hS6MX3GhTvkqONYESnz6L_3ryRn4JxibfKNdA
=> Because the wife is occupied with work, the husband assists her to wash dishes, play
with daughters and takes care of them
+ Sữa bột Optimum Gold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvqZDe0-GHA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3VJ-tGOe08 Y0O3-
5nQpLY6rd2_duA6XP4H1jNAXNBN51t7X7Z30s_WDxk
=> Both mom and dad are teaching their son to do the math
=> Parents are responsible for educating.
+ Sữa Ensure Gold (0:14)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxwoSKRSSwo
=> In this video, the daughter/ daughter-in-law (not her husband) does give the present for
her mother instead of the father as normal (>< Bibica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB9hHi0W-vE )
=> The women is not considered as a subordinate partner.
=> Eliminate the inequality between the men and the women.