The biggest conundrum of modern consumerism is the appeal of the product. So it is only natural that advertisers come up with brilliant and often emotionally persuasive ads which make use of everything ranging from identity, belonging to relationships and the universal human connections. But then and again, pop up those particular advertisements which are intended to produce that profound lump in your throat. Let it be Cadbury’s with their melodramatic sweetness, Fastrack with their quirky liberal attitude or those insurance ads, where you end up thinking about prestige and privilege. Which is why, two recent TV commercials have gone vastly unnoticed. True, there are murmurs of dissent in the social media. But, somehow the larger picture of our consumerist ownership and protection of women goes unnoticed in this melee for maintaining humanity.
The first commercial is something which almost everyone must have seen. The gruff cop who suddenly becomes a girl’s protector and sweet bhai when she ties rakhi on his wrist. Yes, we Indians do take the pledge to consider all Indians as our brothers and sisters and then violate this with metaphorical and literal incest. But, to think that tying rakhi is enough to ensure a total stranger ending up as somebody else’s protector… unlikely and a bit fishy. The idea of a woman needing a protector or that brothers have to be their sisters’ protectors, is in itself archaic and patriarchal. It fuels the norm where the woman is considered as a piece of property which the brothers she ties rakhi to, have to keep her from any harm till she can be handed over to the next owner. We have all seen women labeling their close guy friends as their brothers. This labeling sometimes comes in hordes, since simple friendship between a male and female is uncanny in our culture. And that is precisely what drives the emotion of kinship in such advertisements; the societal ideal where it itself acts as a collective blanket over a woman’s morality, body, agency and takes over her protection. And to what effect? In a society where the girl child is sometimes subjected to the groping hands of her brothers, fathers, uncles and cousins, does a simple rakhi or the ideal of protection entail real prevention of abuse? A child of ten or twelve whose budding breasts groped by her older cousin – what of her? Imagine her confusion and isolation when she is told that he is her protector. If simple rakhis could prevent the mass emotional and physical assaults that women and girls face every day, when why is the heartland of rakhi tying girls also that of rapes, mutilations and untold stories of other horrors? It is always better to remember that a molester, rapist, murderer or someone who coerces sex selective abortion, might also be some woman’s brother or cousin or close friend. Hence, I can safely tell you, Idea ad makers, that the only section of the audience who would have positively responded to your commercial are those gullible girls who are protected and forbidden from exploring the world as it is and the conservative ‘family’ oriented group who hold on to the status quo. Your ad might just have prompted a girl to think that the world is all peachy and wonderful enough to not be strong or have her own agency. Why have it, when you are telling her that someone else will have it for her!
Coming to the second commercial, this one is in Malayalam and unsurprisingly a jeweller’s ad. It has Amitabh Bachchan and Manju Warrier, the Malayalee heart throb and surprisingly, the gold jewellery’s commercial has not one shot with gold in it. It is all about the usual Kalyan Jeweller’s tagline, ‘Trust- Isn’t it everything?’ And as usual, it has focused on the loving, caring father and the errant daughter scenario, where AB is heart broken when his darling daughter goes with a man of her own choosing and despite several encounters, his ire does not weaken. But one fateful night, she calls him up because she is in labour and needs to be taken to the hospital. Here, it is safely assumed that the husband is ‘unavailable’ and there is nobody(?) else to take her. And when the husband comes to the hospital, MW tells him softly that she had trust in AB that he would come. And apparently AB is now the doting father/grandfather. Apart from the fact that the melodrama is enough to fill five years of some mega serial and the whole ad is at best, mediocre; the sheer force with which it advocates the protection and dependency that a father ensures a daughter is appallingThis normative idealism of equating the father with everything safe and secure loses its sheen when it comes to reality. . If this was a real case, there is a substantial probability that the woman would have gone into labour in her house itself. Single mothers, families where women are the major bread winners, they all stand on an emerging platform of social reality, while the commercial discreetly caters to the imagination of the patriarchal society which is on a slowly eroding base. As if that was not enough, the commercial also implies a subtle negative to any grown woman wanting to choose her own partner. After all, it is the father who forgave her for her ‘crime’. In a society like Kerala, where women are gradually opting to get more educated, enjoy their careers and focus on self actualization, this commercial portrays a symptom of the reactionary orthodoxy. Though, it adheres to freedom of speech, one has to wonder if it is not regressive and antisocial to kindle such emotional impediments upon the authority which the State has guaranteed to every individual.
After watching both these ads, full of sexist and oppressive agendas which do not directly signal an intellectual vigilance, masked in the flowery and mushy language of love, faith, trust, care and relations, one feels very cynical. Commercials are simultaneously for building awareness as well as for marketing. Shouldn’t they shed off and abandon such retrograde devolution and encourage progressive thinking? In the rush for profit making, have they forgotten the real ideals of humanity?
I still have to get my own pepper spray, but I will because I would walk the streets a lot easier knowing that my safety lies with me rather than have faith and trust that a rakhi-tied knight will aid me chivalrously if need arises. As for Kalyan Jewellers, I sympathize with the daughters of the architects of the ad, who advocate that women who are able, not be capable of making their own decisions.
