Offensive Ads-1

I understand that advertisements have to be dramatic and eye-catching if they’re to serve any purpose but some ads clearly push the envelope too far.

What do you think of this ad? Take a look.

This ad makes me see red, blue and green–and in no particular order. There’s so much wrong with it, I don’t know where to begin.

Now this girl is so touched when a cop calls her behenji (sister)  that she instantly fishes a rakhi out of her pocket–it is rakshabandhan day– and ties it on his wrist. Oh well, I suppose there are all manner of idiots in the world , and every fool must surely have her day.

But look on. The most intriguing part is the cop’s reaction.

First he tries to fish out money from his own pocket as ‘gift’ which the girl waves off like a good sister does. Then he gets all emotional and gives her his cellphone number–to call him just in case she ever gets into any ‘problem’. Because everyone knows how girls who venture out of their homes get into ‘problems’ all the time. And that you have a slim chance of the police ever coming to your rescue, should you ever get into a ‘problem’–unless your brother is a cop, apparently.

The implication is that the police do us a favour when they do their job. After all, they can very well choose not to do it at all. They only have to look the other way. And you would probably be well-advised to get the police to bestow this favour upon you by making use of a humble rakhi.

This reminded me a little of Asaram’s pearls of wisdom as to how the Delhi gangrape would not have come to pass if the victim had fallen at the feet of the assaulters, calling them bhai and begging for mercy, instead of fighting them like she did.  Apparently, there is a lot to be said about women going around appealing to the brotherly instincts of all men–cops and criminals alike. If it works, great! They told you so! If it doesn’t, well, too bad, but at least you tried. Heh.

And oh, notice how the ad ends–a couple of hoodlums are shown whistling at the girl even as she is talking to the cop! The cop shoos them away with exaggerated bravado, with the girl all the while giving him a grateful look. The message is that goons care two hoots about the presence or absence of police–what’s there to fear the police anyway when all they ever do is wave them away jovially as if the harassers were a bunch of naughty kids!