India in the grip of 3G: What an idea?!!

The Idea 3G advertisement sums up the way technology has gripped the Indian middle class. People to people contact is a thing of the past and the coming together of phone, mobile, internet and wireless technology is seen as the power of the finger. So much that technology is seen as the answer to problems that plague society in India. But 2G or 3G, can this be true?

Many people in India know 2G because of the Raja spectrum scam and the 1.76 lakh crore apparently being lost in the haphazard sale of the spectrum space during the 2G spectrum space allotment to companies. On the other hand the 3G sale brought in huge amounts of money to the government. As 4G waits to come in, companies are trying their best to sell 3G in big volumes to make up the amount they have invested in this technology. As part of this, 3G is being made into the common human’s core accessory without which nothing is possible. The integration of internet into our lives is fast and furious.

Idea mobile has become famous for its advertisements which are seen to evoke serious thoughts of nature conservation and public good. The latest in a series of advertisements is the “Ab biwi se 3G” (Now, from wife to 3G) advertisement doing the rounds in a variety of TV channels. The plot involves Abhishek Bachchan (a Bollywood actor and son of Amitabh Bachchan) and a friend, watching city life and wondering why we have such a large population in India. Their conclusion is that when electricity fails, couples get into the act of child making! As a solution to this, the actor offers Idea 3G. Now whenever electricity fails, the wife and husband in each house can still watch TV through the 3G enabled mobile which gives strong video streaming for uninterrupted watching of cricket matches and serials, chatting with parents and playing games. This in his opinion will solve the problem of population explosion in India. It is shown with the image of a dusty closed down vasectomy clinic.

As in many previous Idea ads this one is also naïve in its presentation of facts in a different way. The other day I heard two groups debating whether technology could do away with physical classrooms and buildings and make online learning stronger. The same argument of how technology would save resources came up. But the resources needed to keep technology up and going is relegated to the background. The same takes place in the Idea ad which seems to suggest that when electricity fails, technology will save the day. But 3G obviously does not run on solar or wind power. This means that more electricity is drained to keep the show running!

The Idea ad can be debated in the church while we rue the fact of lesser people to people contact, lesser numbers in church, lack of interest in public programmes and such. It also leads us to think how technology is changing and will change us further in the future. The culture of fun and frolic will replace serious discussions which should take place in church and society. TV viewing which was a family ritual in itself will be replaced by individual bed viewing which will challenge our ability to think and act in a responsible and sane manner. We will place technology between relationships and facebook each other instead of sitting and talking over the table. Technology and companies that make use of it will be seen as the new saviour in our lives and in the future of our country. Guess this is where the church can help by formulating a policy on technology and the church and how people should use technology in their lives.

Jesus s(h)aves!!!

Advertisements have become such an integral part of our lives. It is another thing whether we like it or not! Many will feel the bite while watching a movie and getting interrupted by hundreds of advertisements asking, luring and begging us to buy a particular product. It is another matter all together that we end up paying for the exuberant bills associated with award winning adverts. Like it or hate it, it is here to stay. A testimony to that is the advertisement industry which is worth billions of dollars world wide and crores of rupees in India.

The good side of an advert is that it is the product of hard hours of burning the midnight oil and waiting for that one creative burst of energy which will bring forth something so unique and eye catching that it will lead us straight to the product. Many such products then lead to a replacement of identities and truth itself. We replace in our minds natural products from nature with products that are manufactured by companies in real time and in our minds as well.

The other side of an advert is that it is made so that it helps a product sell! Nothing else matters pretty much. It is true that there is an overall view that adverts should try to tell the truth but much overlapping blurs what truth is. So we advertise everything. We advertise our child’s baptism, our wedding, our success (our enemies advertise our failure :)), and eventually even our death is advertised.

The new Gillette ad doing the rounds now has women in India vouching for how smooth the skin of their boyfriend/husband is after such a smooth shave and how they prefer this over against a beard or stubble. The ad blitz even came out with Women Against Lazy Stubbles (W.A.L.S.). So much that even a bearded priest like me, strokes my chin to see what it would feel like after gliding a Mach 3 blade through the unruly beard. I wonder what kind of pressure boys/men feel to get that perfect smooth skin? After all they have to be presentable and acceptable to their girls/women. The video showing the depressed man with a stubble changing into a confident person after the shave does get one thinking. Should I or shouldn’t I?

I guess religion is also going through the same phase of high income adverts. Jesus saves is a very old slogan which has been in use in India. So much like the Mach 3 comfort one will feel. Posters and banners hanging from trees and posts, bible verses on walls, preaching on TV, we are all into the s(h)aving business. So much that Jesus is portrayed like a young, shaven, confident man, asking us to jump into the bandwagon. But what about the bearded Jesus we are all so used to? Maybe not so confident and seemingly much ordinary than the macho, all knowing young man. Also every bit vulnerable and a bit more attached to ground reality rather than being a high flying, super man capable of doing anything and everything at the flick of a switch. Hmm…following Gillette…should we then run high flying adverts saying, Jesus, the best a man can get or just leave Jesus as Jesus, with stubble, beard, et al.?

Walk when you talk

What an idea sirji? Indeed, what an idea. Walk when you talk. The Idea mobile advertisement is probably getting the attention of a substantial part of television viewers in India because of its positioning with what is a reality in India. In a country which may have close to 57 million diabetics by 2025, walking is definitely one thing which could turn the tide.

Go to any doctor and whatever your ailment you can bet that the doctor will tell you to start walking for at least 20 minutes a day and then increase that to 40-45 minutes. “Start walking. It’s good for you”, is a familiar piece of advice that many can hear in both glossy, vitrified-tiled, air-conditioned hospitals and sweaty, fan aerated and cemented clinics.

So everyone is walking. Be it old men and women, with low priced canvas shoes and sports shoes worth thousands of rupees, and younger women and men competing in waving hands and marching ahead, early in the morning or in the evening, India is walking. Reebok, Adidas, Puma and Action are smiling.

As a priest, I can’t help thinking of whether my congregation members are walking and if they are, shouldn’t I too? Because it is one of the best times to talk to them. Talk one on one and also to a group. The only thing is that I can’t stop. Because I have to walk when I talk!

Idea mobile has hit the nail on it’s head. Just like they did with advertisements which suggested that they were the way to get India’s schools to the villages. Positioning ourselves near a reality, makes us a part of the reality. So far as we can even use the reality to our benefit. Just as we use the reality of God and concepts like poverty and education to our own benefit. ( Idea even has a site for us to enter the time we have spoken on the mobile and then that is converted to the calories we could have lost if we had walked while we talked. See http://www.walkwhenyoutalk.co.in/home.html )

It is thus a reality that Indians are walking and walking more than ever. Idea mobile has thus positioned itself next to this reality and in the process stands to gain out of this reality. Whether the two (a mobile and walking) have anything to do with each other is another matter. Whether the mobile service provider wants to engage the problems related with walking and education also stand unanswered. For the time being, many of us who watch television will be humming…walk n talk, walk n talk, walk n talk…walk when you talk…what an idea?

“Dubara mat poochna…don’t ask again…” (part 2)

To understand a nation and its people we have to look at the various culture industries and its tributaries. This is because the culture industries reflect the length and breadth of the people. Marx had other notions, placing the culture industries in the same conduit of economic forces in society. My blog yesterday put advertisements into perspective, each into a separate category. Categorization is problematic but unavoidable as well.
Advertisements form a part (some say the part that powers the media) of the media, which in turn is a part of the culture industry of the nation. So, advertisements reflect how society is moving forward (or backwards as some would like to say). To the run up to the independence day we can extract some meaning from these ads, which lead us to what India has developed into and what still remains unchanged despite all other claims.
India has been an oral culture (things have changed over the years). We do not necessarily write down what we have on mind (there are exceptions now), but we like to share it never the less. This is done through poems, songs and stories. Priyadarshan, a Malayalam director cum producer who then ventured into Hindi cinema was asked whether India could get rid of its song sequences in movies. He replied in the negative saying that songs and their cinematisation are what makes Indian cinema Indian. The vicks ad leads in this direction. We like verbal repetitions and therefore a catchy one-liner for the ad.
India despite being a country of diversity has been able to come together at times of war, calamity and sports. This is due to the patriotism which still exists in the minds of the public and how it is twisted and used by the media. Amul, the taste of India gives us an identification that we might be North Indian, North East Indian or South Indian, but we are ‘Indians’. So patriotism may have its low ebbs, but it comes back into the picture when it matters.
Globalisation has made changes the world over and similarly in India. Its negative outcome has been to sow doubts in our minds about what is good and bad. Coca-cola could be one of the companies who use marketing as a way of re-inventing concepts in the minds of the people. Doubt causes a void and the company tries to fill this void. India in this sense goes through a questioning of concepts syndrome.
In the midst of change certain things remain unchanged. Two of these are patriarchy and caste and class discrimination. The ads of Bajaj Pulsar and the like are full of male idealisms of power, strength, class and uniqueness making out the male species as ‘the’ species in the world today. What we use reflects what we believe in. Caste and class discrimination follows the same route. We may have come a long way, but certain things remain rock solid and stubborn.
What we have seen above is an India which has evolved from an oral culture (not entirely), with its patriotic sense but changing concepts and ideals, and having managed to continue with the discriminations that continue to haunt the world today.
India is trying to build a new image for itself. More participation in the affairs of the country (as being asked by Rahul Gandhi and other young political leaders) is being mooted and encouraged, but we also face a very impatient population of more than half of India, the youth. The picture is murky for the time being and therefore we cannot make grandiose statements about India as we climb the podium for the all important independence day, not yet anyway.

“Dubara mat poochna…don’t ask again…” (part 1)

Human beings of today resemble guided missiles, going to a programmed destination with self destruction on mind. Our thoughts are tutored and prepared through image and brand recognition brought about by colourful and creative advertisements using the audio visual medium. My thoughts go in the direction of advertisements which are a substantial part of the budget of any company, selling whatever product. It’s an expense spent without any hard feelings or second thoughts as the returns are usually positive and assured.
Without beating around the bush I would like to examine quite a few advertisements, old and new and bring out some points for discussion.
1. Ad jingles- cute one liner lyrics which are given a nice and catchy tune and which will be recalled easily. Take the case of the very old vicks tablet advertisement, “vicks ki goli lo, kich kich duur (door) karo” (have a vicks tab and distance the irritation we feel (in our throat)).
2. Patriotism- advertisements which attach us with our country and therefore build up a responsibility in us to buy it. An example is Amul, the taste of India.
3. Re-writing accepted concepts- we are pushed to question ourselves and then our doubt filled mind is replaced with a product. A clear example is “thanda matlab coca-cola” (cold means coca-cola), suggesting that everything else is not, and “boond boond mein vishwas” (trust in every drop), Kinley water, meaning that other water cannot be trusted.
4. Tickling the male testosterone- in a patriarchal society the manliness of man is brought out to maintain the concept of ‘men are strong’, ‘men are stylish but still men.’ The Bajaj Pulsar motor bike which is accompanied by the slogan ‘definitely male’ and the ‘Raymonds suiting: the complete man’ are instances of this. Men are thus bound to the product to prove their manliness.
5. Conforming to age old discriminations- India’s caste, sex and class discriminations to name a few and its India shining or India progressing symbolism don’t go together. But take a look around ourselves and we are proved wrong. The Happy Dent white chewing gum ad shows people who can be identified as servants or slaves in clan based, landlord India. The apparent servants then eat the chewing gum and smile to give light to the masters (sahibs) and mistresses (memsab or memsahib). The one word punch is ‘muskurale’, smile. So one would wonder what an advertisement like this is doing in the so called modern India. But old habits die hard and the same goes with our attitude. Don't complain about your situation, smile and bring light to the lives of others, preferably the rich.
6. A fast paced, different and smart India- Finally there are the advertisements like Surf: dhaag ache hai (stains are good), ‘what an idea sir ji’ (Idea mobile) and clorets mouth freshener: ‘dubara mat poochna’ (don’t ask again) which are an impression of smart but impatient India, the India which will go to any extent to get things done. The India which would like to get its hands dirty, do what the government is not doing and be so smart that it would be suicidal to ask again or clarify.

To be continued……….