Phony Intentions

Akshay Kumar’s fly and the aphrodisiac properties of a deodorant spray were gargantuan threats to our morality according to them . But strangely enough,the moral policemen of the country have very little to say about the DOCOMO advertisements on air. The ad,which shows a domestic help flicking a mobile phone,“perpetuates stereotypes about domestic helps”,but that seems to be not grave enough a reason to burn effigies and chant slogans it seems. “This advertisement is offensive because it propagates a bias against a certain profession. It’s as bad as showing gay men as effeminate sexual predators. It’s funny how the self-appointed moral policemen have kept mum about this ad,” says human rights lawyer Saptarshi Mandal,associated with Multiple Action Research Group (Delhi).

Advertisements like this,feels Mandal,are greater threats to the society. “The advertisement is very cleverly telling us that domestic helps cannot be trusted. The focus might be the strong network of the phone,but the subtext is entirely different.”

However,across the country,domestic servants associations have picked up cudgels. The Gharkamgar Molkarni Sanghatna,a Mumbai-based association of domestic servants,has objected to the ad.”We find the contents of the ad objectionable. It shows a domestic help,finding a mobile phone while cleaning the house and hiding it inside her blouse. It is insulting,” Eknath Mane,convenor of the association says.

The virtual world too has woken up to the rather problematic connotations of the advertisement. There are online petition pages on Facebook and forums condemning the ad. “I have signed an online petition against the ad. Also we are circulating a mail amongst our friends asking them to bombard the mail box of the advertisement agency (who made the ad) with messages of protest,” says Sayan Bhattacharya,a copywriter with a city-based ad firm.