The Ad Mad World

Whenever we say something, the message touches the recipient at two levels: one is at the superficial, cursory and sensory level and the other is the deeper, subconscious level. It is not necessary that the same message conveys the same meaning at these two levels. What is conveyed depends on how the recipient is tuned in at the time of receiving the message and what he/she chooses to interpret (selective perception) and also whether the sender of the message has taken care to ensure that he is sending coherent interpretations at the two levels.

Some of the recent advertisements that are running on TV seem to be making me wary at the subconscious level. Though the commercials are good for their sensory appeal, the meaning they convey when one tries to see deeper is totally unrelated to the product and hits at our value system.

1. Sabka Dhanda Ek!

The first such commericial is the Coca Cola ad featuring Aamir Khan as a steward in a train. The ad runs something like this: Aamir, the elderly steward, enters the train compartment with a single bottle of Coke searching for the one customer who might have ordered it. The compartment is full with all kinds of people – the rustic farmer, the sauve professional with a laptop, the glossy lady and the retired grandpa to name a few. The train enters a tunnel resulting into a complete blackout and when lights come back, the bottle is empty. Slowly everyone starts belching and that gives away the fact that everyone had had a sip secretly in the darkness. That includes even Aamir. The jingle that follows says that we all are same from inside though we may look different from the outside and everyone should come out of their shells as ‘Sabka Thanda Ek’ (everybody’s cola is the same). A nice catchy jingle except that the ‘thanda’ leaves the subconscious with a bad taste.

Is the ad trying to say that irrespective of the education, profession, gender or age, we all Indians are such shameless people that we will pounce on every opportunity to secretly steal (in this case take a sip of someone else’s cola) and then without any qualms sit as if we didn’t do anything? More so, the ad goes on to suggest that we laugh about this behavior of ours as if it’s a part of life. Amazing, how a company likes to portray its 1 billion strong customer base!

2. Go, go, go, go..

The second ad also is form the same company, Coke (Coke seriously needs to think what kind of relationship it wants to pursue with Indians cause the moral police is on a rampage these days!). It’s of another of its Cola drinks, Thumbs Up. This ad features Akshay Kumar who after a series of dare defying stunts manages to snatch his prize, A Thumbs Up bottle, from a truck carrying Thumbs Up crates! How close to our Indian hearts this ad is! I am sure most of us think it’s ok to just stretch our arms and secretly take out a bottle or two of our favorite cola from a passing truck. Again what is Coca Cola trying to say here? Even our super heroes and role models do not think twice before taking something which does not belong to them and then even boast about it!

3. Jobber’s Park

A job portal’s ad shows that the protagonist is “so happy with his job that he doesn’t see millions of opportunities around”. Well, to me the protagonist is the luckiest man alive and has no reason whatsoever to visit the job portal! C’mon, he is fully content with his job; isn’t that all of us want ultimately? All salaries, overseas opportunities, ESOPs etc are meant to keep the employees happy and loyal so if the protagonist is already loyal and happy, why is the portal trying to ridicule him? It seems that the managers of the portal have failed to understand the underlying basis of why people switch jobs. The ad then, in a way, hints that the portal is not the place where you get jobs that can keep you happy. So, you should try avoiding it altogether! (Talk about spending money to convey that!)