I always find it fascinating to watch popular advertisements
– the crass, the tasteful, the pretentious - all of them. They say a lot about contemporary cue-reward
systems. Two ads – one by Deepika
Padukone for jewelry and another by Katrina Kaif for a watch [which is practically equated
to jewelry] were quite interesting.
In the good old days, these sort of ads would have the
father majestically wiping away a tear as he blesses his much bejeweled daughter
during her wedding. But there seems to be a shift in point of view, obviously the target is to bring in the
young woman herself as a buyer.
How do
you get a modern young woman to buy hefty necklaces? With a message that resonates with her need for
empowerment perhaps? In the watch ad – the voice over [mildly defensive] reinforces
that it is her decision to marry and subtly says buy the watch for your own
sake. In the jewelry ad the voice over
celebrates a young woman’s love for her mother as she buys ornaments for her, while the images of Deepika trying on the jewelry bombards subtly
saying you would look good in this too.
Ultimately the ads cleverly find a way to re-purpose or
subvert the need to be heard, the need to stand out to celebrate traditional behaviour. Still I’d any
day take these ads with their pseudo messages of empowerment than the openly
demeaning ones.
