Thursday, April 4, 2013

Back to Ad Agonies


The more I see ads the more I wonder at how much the world has changed. All the certitudes of my long gone youth have vanished into mist and the brave new world simply seems too brave and too new for me to recognize.

Just imagine the scientific advances in talcum powders. Once all that they could do was spread a fragrance that turned heads towards to smugly smiling user. The latest advances now enhance character. I mean it infuses the heroine with the determination to drag the reluctant hero along in eloping with her. I am sure that those people are working on the next enhancement that will ensure that the user has the courage to face up to the parents and marry with their knowledge if not their consent. Truly, Science is a wonderful thing.

I can imagine consuming a chocolate which will make you look as though you fell face down into muck after you do so. A chocolate that, if you take your attention off it for a few minutes, would make it look as though you scrabbled around elbow deep in slush to come up triumphantly with a chocolate wrapper. I can even imagine such a chocolate finding a market despite all this. But, never in all my dreams, had I ever conceived of the possibility that someone would believe that such a chocolate would find a market precisely because it does all this. And, apparently, it does find enthusiastic buyers! Ah! Me! Where is the nearest cemetery? I am too old to live!

The ad that really tested me, however, was a recent dish-wash liquid ad. There is this lady doctor coming home and her husband bids her Happy Anniversary with a sumptuous spread cooked by him. There you have this doubly miraculous man – he not only remembers anniversaries but also wants to make his wife happy by cooking a feast – and what does the wife say? Shed tears of joy and murmur sweet nothings? Reality Check: “Now my kitchen is bound to be a disaster area”!

Next – surprise, surprise – the husband has even cleaned up the kitchen (Note to married men: Kill this man where you find him! He has no right to set the bar so high!). At least now a happy wife? One overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of her husband? Reality Check 2: “What? With an ordinary dish-wash liquid, my dear expert? That leaves a lot of germs – etc. etc.” Quite the sort of health lecture the husband was thirsty to hear in appreciation of his efforts to make her happy on their wedding anniversary.

What I will never understand – and will be glad to have clarified – is how this expert wife had that ‘ordinary dish-wash liquid’ in her house in the first place? Or do we believe that the husband went out on purpose to get that liquid avoiding the proper liquid that the expert wife had so thoughtfully provided near the sink?

I always knew I was shy a few marbles upstairs. After this I feel that I do not even have two to rub together!

Disclaimer: Any perceived gender stereotyping is all to the credit of the ad, please! After all, when the woman says ‘My Kitchen will now be a disaster area’ and all, the natural presumption is that the kitchen duties in that household have normally been the responsibility of the lady – and I make no value judgments about that!

If you liked this you may like to check out the index of other posts of this genre or read a selection of similar posts.

54 comments:

  1. Ha Ha - Nice one. Stupidity of ads is a a topic with lot of scope.

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    1. Thanks TF! Whenever I run oout of topics to write about I take recourse to ads - inexhaustible source of fun :)

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  2. "Quite the sort of health lecture the husband was thirsty to hear in appreciation of his efforts to make her happy" - ha ha ha. That was a fun take on ads :)

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    1. Mmm! Sudha - Hope Shiva fares better off - if he ever does anything around the house :)

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  3. In the advertising world men and women, both are raising the bar too high for ordinary mortals. Women with their spiffy looks and houses and men with their servitude and machoism. Amul Macho.....Bade Araam Se.

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    1. You know what? The thing I find the most difficult to digest is that they actually seem to be having a ball cooking and cleaning up - and not a hair mussed up. :)

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  4. I think I'll have start watching TV now. I'm missing out on all the foolishness. At this rate I'll be too intelligent to be allowed to live.

    Your note to married men was such a kind gesture. To be concerned for the survival of your mates is highly laudable. Quite brought tears to my eyes.

    Bless you O kind one..!
    Dagny

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    1. I know! I know! In this increasingly selfish world, people like me who can concern themselves about their fellows are worthy of high praise :)

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  5. I prefer the jumping japang jumpak jumpak thingies to the inane ads being doled out these days. Each ad is worse than the other. Look at what is selling in the name of nutritious food. And, I haven't seen the ad you mentioned but I am certain it is as bad as you say it is. Me, I am just glad when the hubby cooks something and still used Vim bar for washing utensils :).

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    1. Dettol Dishwash liquid, I think is the ad. Now I'm sure you will appreciate the ad better after this write-up :)

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  6. I am not much of a TV person so I really haven't seen any of these bizarre ads you wrote about. But that doesn't mean I can't add my ow two cents to this list! ;-)

    It sounds strange that the man wearing Axe would become the Pied Piper of today's times and women would be compared to mice.

    Using fairness cremes is guaranteed to make you a successful career-woman. (If they had said, it'll make sure you'll get married, I still would have believed them, given the skewed Indian Society and the obsession with a fair bride)

    Actresses like Madhuri Dixit proclaiming that a certain dish wash liquid is the best is taking the whole saga to new levels. Someone who might not have ever washed a utensil is proclaiming big things about a dish wash liquid is just not acceptable!

    TV actors cleaning toilets at random people's houses was just too much to be true!

    And the list goes on...

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    1. Well! If you have not used Ponds, hvnt had Silk lately or seen the Dettol dishwash liquid ad I beg you to do so soon :)

      Plus, Akanksha, this is not the first time I am writing about ad.s :) There are a whole set of pieces on this blog under the Label 'Ad Agonies' :) Quite a few of what you mention here are referred to in one or the other :)

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    2. I would love to read those! Hopping over :) Also, please share the guest post you mentioned about being the eternal bachelor :D

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    3. This is the post on my blog. The link to my post on his blog is there.

      http://jambudweepam.blogspot.in/2012/05/my-guest-post-how-to-stay-bachelor.html

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  7. The sheer stupidity of ads these days is unbelievable. They are so idiotic, they're not even funny. And if anyone can tell me the difference between regular Dairy Milk and Silk, I'll buy them all the silky bars they want to eat, or drip over themselves.

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    1. Here I am trying to be funny but have managed to tap a deep vein of anger in my readers :)

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    2. :D Your post has managed to bring out chuckles, making these ads a bit more bearable, which is more than what the ad-makers themselves have managed :-)

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    3. Ah! Somehow my recent few posts have been eliciting such serious comments that I perforce started doubting whether they were in the least bit humorous :)

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  8. When we had TV at home, I always walked in to watch at the Ads rather than the real program. They are one of the stupidest and weirdest shows you will ever get to see...and these ads are supposed to be strong as they have to make an impact in few seconds. The fairness cream and shampoo ads are real show stealers.

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    1. Birds of a feather, Farida! I even wrote a piece in this blog called 'Ads - the best programs on TV' :)

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  9. These are grim times, Suresh. These ads are only trying to tickle the funny bone of the bipeds. That was an excellent take on the issue.

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    1. I am gald that these ads exist :) Every time I run dry, I switch on the TV and presto I have material for a post :)

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  10. read it somewhere that the average IQ of human in general is on the rise; however, after seeing these ads on television, i have a serious doubt about the IQ of the person who made/written this statement. happy to be dumb and boring!

    another brilliant post Suresh!

    i have a half written post on ads. need to find it.

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    1. Hey Debs! Find it soon - looking forward to it!

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  11. LOL,now that i sit down to write about my favorite ads my head is going dizzy-which one to choose?
    Iwill just say i enjoyed your post thoroughly!!

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    1. Thanks Indu! Yup! There are too many of them! :)

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  12. I really wonder who they are hiring in these agencies these days! I have a feeling it's only BSc and MSc graduates, given the plethora of 'scientific research' based ads. All good products are made by men and women in white lab coats!
    Yes, must find and destroy that outlier husband. Preferably with Kaala ya Laal Hit.

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  13. Superb! Equally entertaining as the Deodorant post. I should start paying more attention to these ads now!

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  14. Thank God I no longer have TV at my house!!

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  15. Very nice one Suresh and your note to married men had me smiling :D ha ha

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  16. That chocolate advert makes me squirm every time I see it. I feel like slapping the guy and clean his face with a tissue paper and let his mother know that she is too lenient with her son.
    And we should be grateful that they are not showing people licking chocolates off each other.

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    1. Don't give them ideas Amit :) Already there is one where a chap scoops some chocolate off the other's fingers and eats it :)

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  17. That was a humorous take on today's ads! The ones that I despise the most are the Axe commercials and the fairness cream ads. In fact, yesterday, when I was whiling away my time at the airport, I could not help but notice that almost all ground staff and cabin crew women are fair skinned. Where is that ad agency which made tall claims of getting dusky women air-hostess jobs? All that said, there are certain agencies that come up with brilliant stuff - like the zoozoos or the Johnson's baby ads.

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    1. Hmm! I have already done posts of those Axe commercials and fairness creams :) Zoozoos were not my favorite though :)

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  18. Now that the 'Fatwa' is out ('Kill this man where you find him'), the wagers in the Satta market have gone up about the surviving chances of your Villain. My own shining nickels are salivating to reproduce, unfortunately I for one, is not of implementation variety. Thank God .. you did not stop at barring the guy from setting the bars, for a man with such an ordeal, if, is still alive - stands no chance of reformation. Druid .. any idea about how to get compensated from the guys who have been advising me on my tooth paste since my birth - but every six months, admonish me for not taking care of essential ingredients in selection - like Namak in Paste ..? Despite slaughtering my teeth with their very tooth paste, if salt was my missing link for my teeth which, is far from white, I wouldn't have minded dipping my brush in a bowl of salt. You must do some thing in the interests of mankind .. and of couse, teeth in particular.

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    1. What is my interest now? I am at an age where I am more worried about dentures :)

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  19. exactly that's what my hubby said when we watched the ad...why did she have the old dish washing liquid at home in the first place? and with a husband so good to be true, which wife will complain about using ordinary dishwasher? so much for believable ads!!

    where such stupid ads exist there are some brilliant ones too....one of the best ads i have seen so far is the new cockroach killer ad...."ek cockroach aur bhi cockroaches ko maarne wala tha"

    btw, lovely post....maaza aa gaya!

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    1. Thanks Titli :) So your husband is joining me in that fatwa? :)

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  20. LOL! Please tell me where you find such husbands, cooking food is still OK but cleaning kitchen, you must be joking. I think ad agencies hire single females with such fantasies :P

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    1. Well! Here I am - but women do not seem to be making a beeline for me :) (Ah! But I clean the kitchen now only because I have no-one to shove it on to :) )

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  21. Why blame them poor ad makers? They're are confused as the rest of the population are! They show women always cooking and cleaning and we yell at those because they establish stereotypes. Then they show such inane stuff like this. Hell, it would have taken all my will power to not drop the casserole and watch it explode into smithereens if someone had talked about dish washing liquid after all that! And then finally, we have the ad makers trying to fight steretypes but going overboard with their attempts -

    Registrar: 'to shaadi ke baad aap banengi Mrs. Shanti Pandit.'
    Groom: 'No Ma'am. Yeh Shanti Parmar hi rahengi. Main banoonga Vikas Parmar. I'll take her name'.
    And in the background, Havells or whatever croons Hawa badlegi. It makes me go #facepalm! A good use of such a fan would be just to tie up someone from the fan. God, what ads they make these days!

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    1. Yup! I was thinking that even if that did happen most of the rest of the world would still think that Mr. and Mrs Pandit had the surname of the husband anyway :)

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  22. The lies we are willing to believe to feel better about ourselves.

    Ad makers are like parasites - they feed on our ignorance and insecurities.

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    1. The biggest lie that we believe in is that there is some way we can purchase a better opinion about ourselves :)

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  23. I watch TV mostly for the ads unfortunately they keep getting interrupted by serials and other shows.

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  24. Good points! I don't mind exaggeration in advertisements, but I can't tolerate gender stereotyping.

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    1. Hmm! You will have me thinking that I wrote a serious dissertation on ads :)

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  25. Lack of creative ideas and a 'creative team' that is more interested in being different rather than intelligent results in stuff like this. I mean just look at the Shah Rukh Khan ad where he this fruit juice (Frooti ?) in a fotball field and all the players are shown as children wanting to have the juice. The creative idea may be that "even adults become children when they see Frooti(?)', but I found the idea as it's ok to have frooti alone and not share it with anyone, especially children !

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    1. Is it any wonder that i can always fall back on ads when I run out of ideas for blog posts :)

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