ADVERTISEMENTS – BANE OF SOCIAL CONSCIENCE

Jaswant Singh

The students of marketing would remember their first session where they are told about three points of marketing - Product, Price and Publicity. It is emphasized that even the best of products could flop for want of publicity, which in effect means that public eye must take notice of the product and then, with electronic media Blitzkreig merely bringing the product to public notice was not enough. It must hit their other senses. With the coming in of marketing agencies, the third point in marketing became all important, sometimes even at the cost of the product. What was aimed at was, again, how to get the attention of the public. Advertising agencies started recruiting creative artists whose imagination went far - sometimes even to the extent of not only being abused but also ethically unacceptable. Many of the companies were even hauled up before the ‘MRTP’ Commission for making tall claims which were actually not correct (i.e. dishonest claims). Certainly this is not the aim of marketing. We’ll examine some of the most absurd advertisements current today and the reader can judge for himself as to what impact these ads are likely to have on young impressionistic minds!

The first to come to mind is that of Jai Lime Soap. We are shown a young lady trying to push a soap bar into a small window leading into bathroom. When did we start keeping windows to bathrooms? The soap bar being large, the lady picks up a hammer and breaks the walls to adjust the ‘soap’. What is the message? Pure and certain absurdity! was it the best way to make known the fact that the soap is available in bigger size also? What a pity!

One of the most absurd advertisements going on today, and for quite sometime, is that featuring Azhar and Jadeja in the Pepsi promotion Ad. It depicts both the heroes biting at their bats at the command “Eat” and whispering ‘Lo Khaa Liya’. And then they use their bats as pillows at the command “Sleep” and say ‘Lo So Liye’. When “Drink” command is given they refuse to obey and start jumping like monkeys, holding Pepsi bottles in their hands. Again what do the producers/sponsors want to convey? it is more unfortunate that in search of money our role models (which Azhar and Jadeja are to the younger generation today!, don’t even think twice what they are doing? The other Ad of Pepsi features Azhar only along with the cardboard team. When he mutters “more cricket more Pepsi”, he is sitting alone perhaps indicating that he is the only one to survive - forgetting that whatever he is, he is owe to his team mates. Moreover ‘more Pepsi more cricket’ is more appropriate than the other way round.

Another hopelessly absurd visual ad. is again for Pepsi - featuring Sachin. This one has made a joker of Sachin tendulkar too. One fails to understand what he is doing when he brandishes his wicket around and finally blows dust from it. Obviously the sponsors believe that the viewers are morons who only need to be shown their Heroes with the product in hand and any absurd thing will do to force the product on them. And at last, Pepsi has got a big snub for their “Height of absurdity” from none other than one of their competitors viz., Thumps Up, which begins with two monkeys biting their bats and a background voice saying “If only some people had common sense” and it closes with “Don’t be a bunder, taste the thunder”. What a stumping effort!

Some of the advertisements are so vulgar and unethical that no one can see with the family. Today there is so much talk about feminism, women’s liberation and empowerment of women. There is also a lot of hullaboo against the exploitation of the woman’s body. But it appears that all this is only an eye-wash. Otherwise how could the self-proclaimed feminist and women-rights NGOs tolerate such vulgarity and demeaning of not only woman’s body but also her soul? I’d like to put before you some of the ads which have pricked my conscience.

To begin with there is an ad featuring Rahul Dravid promoting Nippo Batteries. It begins with “What is Rahul Dravid doing when he’s not playing cricket?” and then the cricketer is shown surrounded by young lasses and he is taking snaps. The girls are scantily dressed (as usual by advertisements). What has the Nippo Batteries to do with the girls (or other products). Isn’t it only to hook the baser instincts of the males by (mis) using the woman’s body? Is there any dearth of photogenic material - nature, wildlife, even cricket itself? But no, the idea is to use the woman’s body to promote the product. And then we talk of eve-teasing?

There is another advertisement which is totally vulgar. This one is also promoting a soft drink - but now it is Coca Cola. It begins with some road-side romeos accosting a tomboy girl with, “Ai, kya bolt, too?” and then she starts drinking Coca Cola in a pose that reveals all her contours. It appears that one of the Khajuraho statues has been transplanted right in our drawing room sans its artistic content. One wonders what the lady’s contours have to do with the quality of the soft drinks. Will any women libber justify the sequence of events in the advertisement? But it has not drawn any reaction from any quarter! Obviously this is going to encourage the roadside romeos to repeat the sequence in real life! And why not?

An advertising promoting ‘moods’ condom begins with a handsome man entering the, house and the lady, who is actually waiting for him, throws the house-hold goods (as if they have been donated) at him. And then the young man gets hold of the lady in his arms to control her, falls down and ‘loses control’ over himself - in public view the lady smiles and we are given the message that, “you never know when you may need moods condom”. Do you need to ban only blue films? Can there be any justification for this vulgarity right in our drawing room when we are sitting with mothers, sisters, brothers-both married and unmarried?

If your conscience has not yet been pricked enough, the advertising promoting Denim Jeans Cor is it a prefume) will certainly prick it - but only if you have some respect for the women. This is one ad which not only commercialises women’s body (which almost every second ad is doing) but also puts her soul on sale. This is the one which tells us that the human female is worse than her four-legged counterparts and gets bowled over by the dress a man is wearing or the fragrance (that too artificial) emanating from his body. It then proudly announces “A man who doesn’t have to try too hard”, indicating that if a man has Denim (whatever it is, trousers or perfume), the lady will come to him on her own - even leaving her earlier commitments! What a pity! what is left in exploiting the woman as a commodity?

There is one by “Directors Special” – The makers of IMFL (Liquor). It proclaims “Chase the desire”. This is totally against our Indian ethos. We have always bragged about our moral values - and one of such values is to curb our desires (remember lord Buddha, Mahavir, Guru Nanak, even Gandhi). In fact the whole socialisation process aims at making the child learn to control his desires. If we all start chasing our desires, where’ll we end? Chasing the desires is not the human quality. But everyone appears to be oblivious to the attack on our culture through this ostensibly harmless advertisement. The rot has already set in and can be seen in daily newspapers eve teasing, looting, rape of minors girls - only chasing the desire! God save us from ourselves!

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