The title of our blog is obviously a take on 'the good, the bad, the ugly', with a different word and a changed word order. Wanna know why? Well, our theme deserves it! Guessed the theme? Yes, today let us talk of advertising.
Well, as part of the Additional English syllabus, I had to teach an essay (actually a talk he gave at an advertising convention of all the places!) by the Pulitzer Prize winning author, Herman Wouk. A blistering attack it is on the advertising profession, obsessed with selling at any cost. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is sacrosanct for this profession, says Wouk. It trivialises the language and its usage in the process, he argues.
My Commerce students, weaned on syllabi that glorified sales, used to find the essay intriguing, while the Arts students, reared on Psychology and Sociology loved it when I would explain the critique of consumerism hidden behind the so-called science and art of advertising. Science students could not care less!
In a way, such a response by the young shows the silly and the bad part of the ads. Multiple examples can be easily remembered. Be it the actually not so 'fair-n-lovely' ad or the 'pan masala' ads, these ads that cater to the ugly, to the beastly in the human race such as egoism, competitive spirit, oneupmanship, quasi-racist perceptions based on the skin complexion are always handmaiden of/to the capital-driven market oriented status quo.
For the S.Y.B.A. Additional English course, I had to teach English in/for advertising. I used to explain the entire verbal, audio-visual structure that would go in to the making of an ad, whether the mode be print, audio/visual, or the internet. Next, I had to make them create ads when I would get in the ethical issues.
To prove these, often I used the Amul ads as my examples. These ads, whether in the print form in a magazine or up the billboards, always combine a great wordplay with an ethical vision. They form the good of our title!
That faith, that belief of mine in the socially relevant, verbally creative Amul ads was yet again validated when my brother, Parag alias Raju, sent me a superb Amul advt. It rebuked gently the excesses of the cricket (and baiting) crazy nation which was almost in mourning because of the loss of the cricket cup!
Instead, the ad celebrated the rescue team that saved the miners cooped up in the collapsed tunnel for seventeen long days. As usual, brilliantly using puns and ambiguities, it has a lovely message that I am sure is the much needed sugar coated pill!
Pratima@The internet, the atomic energy, the AI, and the ads, all truly dangerous, are actually tools. Through our use, we make them the silly, the good, the bad or the ugly!
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