Monday, October 4, 2010

The Dying Young

In Delhi, a 10 year old reportedly hung himself, owing to shortness in his height and the case as it turns out to be, is disillusionment in dealing with reality. Ad campaigns that made a tour at his school, promoting a health drink that enhances height after a quick fix stipulated time, merely shot their product up by make believe words and eye catchy images at the cost of the kid's life.

It's scary to think of the real face of tomorrow's India. Would an image wrought future be the new face of our country?

News headlines that call out loud increasing numbers of suicides of children and youth across varied economic levels, will most likely be sponsored by value add on childcare commercials and fairest of the fair content, that promises instant beauty at a low price. Unrelated as the ads are to the real life and the pains that go in its making, top brands manage to find their way into a viewer’s psyche, eyeball by eyeball, nudging them to want what the 30/40 seconds lakhs/ crores worth ads display.

Top brands and their allies will continue making and remaking models out of wooden faces. Products will continue knocking at doors of the poorest of the poor and international levels of sales pitching will survive the deluge, deaths, disease and dire situations, in any order of its occurrence. Blame it on intellectual poverty, monetary handicap, immature parenting, peer pressure or any other silent witnesses to such compounding fatal heights; the downfall of image building is a noticed yet ignored malign growth that consumes the life out of the living class.  The ‘actual’ process is a realistic portrayal of items that are blown up lifelike, repeatedly announced, and remade numerous times- Items on the shelf as they become once bought and stored in empty racks, reveal to users to be aware of its uses and limitations. Boxes and bag full of ingredients as they are fill human needs as and when they arise.
Our core desire to be accepted, cherished, and understood, go beyond a good height, great complexion and material assets. To stand tall in times of emotional distress, to support and lift the other out of dark moods and to persevere through attempts to get stronger against all odds makes us beautiful just the way we are.