<p>This study interrogates how femvertising – advertising that purports to empower women reshapes gendered expectations in the context of YouTube campaigns targeting urban Indian audiences. Drawing on Goffman’s semiotic framework and Hegelian dialectics, the research explores how contemporary portrayals of women and men oscillate between disruption and re-inscription of normative ideals. Thirty in-depth interviews reveal that while femvertising aims to counter traditional stereotypes, it often introduces new symbolic constraints: women are portrayed as hyper-competent and emotionally unwavering, while men are marginalized or aestheticized. These portrayals, though framed as progressive, are frequently perceived as implausible or staged. The study identifies marked gender-based divergences in interpretation. Male participants tend to frame empowerment through economic rationality and social hierarchy, whereas female participants express a complex blend of aspiration, skepticism, and fatigue. Findings suggest that femvertising not only fails to resolve representational asymmetries but also generates fresh tensions around moral credibility, realism, and social relevance. The research contributes to critical advertising studies by situating audience interpretation within a culturally specific and philosophically anchored mode of inquiry, and by offering a reconceptualization of femvertising as a contested site of symbolic negotiation rather than a straightforward instrument of empowerment.</p>