Two adverts that really grabbed my attention...
in all the wrong ways.
The Fair and Handsome ad in India:
Doing that to the women was awful. Doing that to the men is awful too.
The ad, in case you haven't seen it, has a college guy, going into the girls hostel to try and steal their 'Fair and Lovely' cream, as he isn't attractive coz he's dark. But after he discovers 'Fair and Handsome' and turns fair overnight, all the girls flock to him.
The concept of 'fair is beautiful' is so ghastly and all wrong. I mean more than half the world isn't fair. So what are we trying to say?
All the TV I managed to watch in India had heroines and heroes so fair and looking more European than anything else. Especially the Hindi channels. The in look, a la Aishwarya, is pan-European, not pan-Indian anymore. Us and our obsession with white!!!! I don't know when and where it will end, if at all.
The Open Polytech ad in NZ:
Open Poly is the largest provider of extra-mural education here. Recently, they've come out with a series of ads that have workers talking about a co-worker and how he/she has changed. 'the way he talks', it all happens in the evenings after work'... etc, giving the impression that it's an affair that they're talking about. It's only when the ad ends that you realise that they're talking about how the co-worker changed after doing a course.
I've seen and heard that sex sells things, but its a really sad state of affairs that it has to sell education too.
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I have been trying to blog, but I have become lazy and it's more enjoyable to read someone else's blog and its hectic at work and home since I got back. Added to that is the constant, mild depression that affects me everytime I get back from India. Takes a while for things to come back to routine....
8 comments:
"Guru" shyam???
I dont think there's any getting away from the "fair is beautiful" mindset, da... it's there even in Singapore, which is supposedly first world, as it were. I guess all the countries that were colonies of the West are that way...
Hi Shyam, glad you're back.I've been visiting your blog, waiting for a new post. Yep, great minds think alike (saw your comment on my post) Also, I'd written about the fair and handsome ad too a while back. Great minds again!
Shyam,
Hmm, I am sure what you are saying is true, but that isn't necessarily right.
As for the 'guru' bit, do you want me to take it off and maybe say 'Shyamlavalli's' or soemthing like that:)
Hi lak,
Its Lakshmi here, not Shyam. Anywyas, I will go ahead the read your post on 'fair and handsome (not)'.
Cheers.
Hey Lak,
Looked for your piece on 'fair and handsome' could not find it. Can you send me the link? And also you email address? Ta.
Sorry, got confused, GS---or should I say Lakshmi--nice to know a namesake!
Absolutely right..but there's only few of us who'll agree that fair=beautiful is all wrong. The matrimonial ads asking for fair brides, the stupid comments relatives make when a child (esp girl) is not fair, etc etc are all the rage-inducing practices we all know too well and get angry about. Hopefully our generation is better than the earlier generations, but with these kinds of beauty and fairness creams still propogating this crap, I wonder.
Hey Anonymous,
Thanks. And I do am a little fatalistic about people becming sensible about 'fair equals beauty'. But there's no harm doing what I can to weaken that myth. Cheers and do keep coming back to my blog.
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