Warning: This isn’t about a product. It is about US!!
Since when have we fallen for pretty faces only and stayed married longer just for that...?
These days we are selling practically everything under the sky... and even above it!
Right from the fairness cream ads to the marraigeabilty flyers you can catch in Bhopal : there is just one message flying - " Whatever you are , you’re just not good enough".
My friend runs a beauty shop (deals in jewellery, designs and clothes etc) in Mumbai for the past 5 years now. Ask her how she could survive this long she tells me- " Simple! Just dont cure people of insecurities ever. Tell them it is a gradual process and the changes so subtle that people will never be able to tell. But what they are building in terms of persona and image, is so right for the future when they will be admired as naturals- a ’ magic’ which is lost if the changes are glaring overnight. ". So this way you keep loyal customers coming to you month after month (sometimes years together) just in the hope that they are taking baby steps (oh so well thought and smart) towards that ’diva’ they are likely to resemble when there year old kid graduates law college and fights thier divorce appeal.
And you have all types coming in here...
You have the 35 + ladies in a seemingly good marraige rushing in on Friday evenings to get pampered for a weekend out (aimed at wooing the ’husband’ back- You have to do all this to keep a marraige going -huh??!!). Cut to the next weekend eve; the reason is now ’the new office hearthrob, who’s also my new boss’ and they are planning a nice cosy weeked - getting to know the teenager in them!
Then you have the 15+ getting ready for the school ’un-official’ prom nite ( Mother Superior wouldn’t allow this in school , you see!)
The 25+ lasses are a wee bit different... Just a good sal hike - ’ Needs to show , ain’t it??’
... Just so many reasons ...
Anybody who can say " I do this because I just feel like looking into the mirror and gaping for hours together and saying - You’re the Best " - This one takes the trophy!
So it’s not about the ads and those weird concepts and reasons that the big guys want you to relate to ... It’s just you .. Oops ! Just US!
This means a lot of cost cutting - no ads like the one that embarrased the English lady from Egypt.
Lets have ads that are more creative and not de-genaritive , naive and over-exagerated like the soaps on Star + which seem to say there is nothing you can always be happy about.
Lets do it for ourselves and not so somebody approves of it ... Let’s first talk about Free Minds before we talk of a Free Society!!
So ... hmmm ... Nothing more from my end. Hope this makes my point!
P.S : I am not leaving my name here (The ladies at my friend’d shop vent here at time - hehehe)