Vulgarity In Advertising - An occasional example

Vulgarity In Advertising - An occasional example

There are enough and more of "double-meaning" advertising that one can observe on television. A lot of tasteless stuff has become the norm. Grossly exaggerated claims are also not something out of the ordinary. But downright obscene or vulgar ads as well as ads which cross all norms of decency have been somewhat limited.

Here's one such that I noticed on TV during the India - New Zealand one-day match the other day. Apparently, when a "smart young man" carrying "the right mobile" goes shopping, the shop-keeper (another "sweet young lady"), who had just chased away a previous customer with a curt "No change", gives our "smart young man" a couple of condoms, on the pretext of "No Change". Since I don't remember the precise brand which has come up with this advertisement, I'm not naming the same.

Here are my objections to the above ad:

• Obviously, visibly indicating a direct interest in a sexual one-night-stand, bordering on "solicitation" - To the best of my limited knowledge, this ought to be violating half a dozen laws of the country
• This is a very direct, "in-your-face" ad targeting young adults - Is it appropriate to air it during the break of a cricket match, which is viewed by millions of children? Please don't tell me that they don't understand. They understand these things much better and much more quickly than many adults.
• The ad is highly sexist and demeaning. Just imagine another advertisement depicting the converse. Let us suppose that a male shopkeeper offers a couple of those special pills / "Copper T" to a sweet young female customer on the very same pretext of "No change". Would it not have caused a huge furore? We'd have had the usual gamut of Barkha Dutt / Kiran Bedi / NWA / Suhel Seth / Rajdeep Sardesai / Arnab Goswami / Jayanthi Natarajan / VHP / Bajrang Dal / RSS / BJP / College Students / Self-proclaimed opinion makers crying themselves hoarse about the ad and how it outrages the modesty of women, how women are treated like sex objects, how "Mother India" is insulted, etc. Why is it that something becomes objectionable when it pertains to women but there is total silence when it comes to men????

Wonder what the so-called self-regulatory mechanism of the ad world is doing about this ad?

Regards,

N

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