Self-Centre of Attraction

Today8217;s advertisements appeal to the Mr Hyde in all of us while Dr Jekyll sits on the bench. And the best part is, they actually make our grey areas seem colourful. 8216;8216;These ads show that we are finally giving up our hypocrisy and learning to laugh at ourselves,8217;8217; says Prasoon Joshi, creative director, McCann.8216;8216;I am glad there are ads that show more balanced human beings than the stereotypical goody-two-shoes kind of characters,8217;8217; says Anita Minocha, who teaches sociology at Delhi University, 8216;8216;And they are beginning to accept that women and old people have a sense of humour!8217;8217;

Advertisements, essentially a part of the media milieu, reflect the trends in other mediums like TV and films. Of late, our film-makers have been getting bolder8212;Kaante had loads of black humour, Yuva and Hum Tum showed pre-marital sex8212;and we see a corresponding change in ads.

Says MG Parmeshwaran, executive director, FCB Ulka, 8216;8216;Till not too long back, our films and television serials were goody-goody. But with the arrival of the new genre of films that portray the darker sides of life, our advertisements are showing negative emotions too. But it is all done in good humour.8217;8217;

So each of the seven deadly sins finds centrestage in one ad or the other. Never has envy seemed as harmless as in Asian Paints8217; 8220;achha hai8221; campaign, pride as attractive as in the Bajaj Pulsar 8216;8216;definitely male8217;8217; ad and gluttony as cute as in the Alpenliebe ad.

Pratap Sudan, creative director, Grey Worldwide, sees this trend as a natural fallout of globalisation. 8216;8216;Internationally, negative emotions have been used in advertising for a long time,8217;8217; he says, 8216;8216;and with the swelling ranks of the middle class and its consumerism, appealing to someone8217;s selfish instinct works if done in the right manner.8217;8217;

Tulsi Patel, head of the department of sociology, Delhi University, agrees these ads work because they exploit the rising consumerist streak in all of us.

These ads may be fun to watch but sometimes, they can go too far, reminds Parameshwaran. 8216;8216;Many copywriters get carried away and forget that if your ad doesn8217;t help sell the product, it8217;s no use.8217;8217; So do these ads work? 8216;8216;Yes,8217;8217; says Abhijit Avasthi, senior creative director, O038;M, 8216;8216;provided they are pitched well.8217;8217;

Joshi agrees, 8216;8216;If they help build the brand image and personality, they work.8217;8217; But not everyone is as gung-ho about this trend. Says Sudan, 8216;8216;Showing selfishness is ok, but we have to draw the line somewhere. You can8217;t show a selfish soldier because a soldier is supposed to be absolutely selfless. Then again, showing a selfish mom might just backfire if the housewife doesn8217;t like it and decides not to buy.8217;8217;

Whether or not the consumer is buying is another story. But these ads are surely keeping viewers from changing channels during the commercial breaks. 8216;8216;Let8217;s not take a moral high ground here,8217;8217; says Joshi, 8216;8216;We all know they8217;re not serious. They8217;re just meant to draw a laugh and they do.8217;8217;