Welcome to the ad-mad world!

In a social market place, if we can’t remain immune to the instigation of advertisements any more, all we need is individual analysis

It is no more an exaggeration that we live in a world driven by media and advertisements. From the moment we wake up in morning, till we get back to sleep again — our lives are wrapped by mass media. No matter if we are scanning the morning newspaper with a cup of coffee, listening to the radio on the way back from office, or enjoying our favourite serial on TV — we just can’t cut off from it. Worst, even if we attempt to relieve our eyes looking at the horizon, it is sure to get obstructed by some gigantic billboard!      

Welcome to 21^st century Delhi, where human lives and decisions are governed by product, commodities and services — 24X7! In fact, advertisements and advertisers rule the roost today as they are sponsors of every big and small events/ activities across the country. Be it through radio, Internet, mobile phones or some public affairs — they know how to reach you and ignite your interest in their respective product and services. And why not, when every single move in the marketing world is carefully crafted aimed at making the maximum impact towards profit maximisation.  

No wonder, advertisements today are wittier than ever before, each one of them are different and appeal to all our emotions. How can one keep his face away from the ‘Jaago Re’ advertisements which urge all citizens to wake up and fight against corruption? It also inspires people ‘to be the change you seek’. If ZooZoos are a hit during the last two IPL seasons, ‘Hari Sadu’ line of TV commercials by an online job portal had became talk of the town sometime back.

No different are a leading newspaper’s ‘Lead India’ and ‘Teach India’ campaigns that had a country-wide appeal — giving out a call to be the change that we expect in Indian society, an opportunity for citizens to shrug off their indifference and put a shoulder to the wheel. Also, every brand is incomplete today without a catch line, which makes an impression in the back of our mind. Remember a popular bike model coming with the base line ‘feel like god’ or detergent powder saying ‘daag achcha hai’? To me, all of these aim only at adding visibility to a brand personality.

And there are advertisements that go to the extent of fleecing people/ customers as well! I chanced upon a print advertisement sometime back wherein a pen company claimed to offer ‘world’s longest writing pen’. But I was not surprised considering the increasing competition in corporate world and noisy brand-wars. There are advertisements also with lofty promises which instigate people to spend on product and services that are often unnecessary. As far as children are concerned, they have a tendency of grabbing the dialogues, actions etc, aired or published through the media. In situations as such, if we can’t really stay away from the ad-mad world, we need to analyze advertisements critically before being swayed by them.