Tuesday, May 02, 2006
How bad is the ad?
"I am on no one's side because no one is on my side" - Treebeard , LOTR
Of the million things that zoom past us in the day to day life, the ones that matter most to us are those which have a bearing upon us, once in a while a few things interest us which are removed from our immediate considerations, they entertain us with latent humor or hurt us, perhaps un-intentionally.
The case in point is the "Hari-Sadu" ad. To an extent I appreciate the ad, like everyone I value good humor too, however we live in a "media proliferated" world, wherein a media event takes a lot lesser amount of time to get circulated than what the society takes to, assimilate the resulting hyperbolic implications.
For instance the ad by naukri.com and the boy whose name was 'hari' , the boy would have watched it like everyone, may have even had a hearty laugh but when goes back to the school the next day something odd hits him; he is being slotted into the vile character "Hari-Sadu" because he shares a part of that name, soon this becomes a means to take a dig at the boy on and off and he is an instant hit as sitting duck in the school and amongst his classmates.
While all of this is not a matter national security it still needs to be handled with care for there is no reason why a school going student should bear the brunt of a creative stunt pulled out by an ad-maker to cash in a few extra dollars. Here is situation where someone is profiting by a process while some other person is suffering as consequences of the same process, will that not be immoral?
This ad is like one of those stones flung into the sky to prove one's skill and creative abilities but every stone that goes up does come down, and the stone could hit anyone, perhaps a dear one or a family member, should we ignore the pain the stone would cause when it hits because the stone was well crafted and glossy or the throw was skilled and professional?
I am not of the view that such ads be stopped but I am certainly of the view that the ad-makers should be more sensitive with regards to social implications their creative works pose.
Having said that I have only come half way through, the other half lies in members of the society appreciating the media in a less sensational way and as a matter of fact. We take the media a lot more keenly and sometimes get carried away in the orb of sensationalism, the lesson is to observe restraint and not to be effected at a personal level. The boy who filed the notice should have gotten more support from the family members in taking a more mature stance.
"I am on no one's side because no one is on my side" - Treebeard , LOTR
Of the million things that zoom past us in the day to day life, the ones that matter most to us are those which have a bearing upon us, once in a while a few things interest us which are removed from our immediate considerations, they entertain us with latent humor or hurt us, perhaps un-intentionally.
The case in point is the "Hari-Sadu" ad. To an extent I appreciate the ad, like everyone I value good humor too, however we live in a "media proliferated" world, wherein a media event takes a lot lesser amount of time to get circulated than what the society takes to, assimilate the resulting hyperbolic implications.
For instance the ad by naukri.com and the boy whose name was 'hari' , the boy would have watched it like everyone, may have even had a hearty laugh but when goes back to the school the next day something odd hits him; he is being slotted into the vile character "Hari-Sadu" because he shares a part of that name, soon this becomes a means to take a dig at the boy on and off and he is an instant hit as sitting duck in the school and amongst his classmates.
While all of this is not a matter national security it still needs to be handled with care for there is no reason why a school going student should bear the brunt of a creative stunt pulled out by an ad-maker to cash in a few extra dollars. Here is situation where someone is profiting by a process while some other person is suffering as consequences of the same process, will that not be immoral?
This ad is like one of those stones flung into the sky to prove one's skill and creative abilities but every stone that goes up does come down, and the stone could hit anyone, perhaps a dear one or a family member, should we ignore the pain the stone would cause when it hits because the stone was well crafted and glossy or the throw was skilled and professional?
I am not of the view that such ads be stopped but I am certainly of the view that the ad-makers should be more sensitive with regards to social implications their creative works pose.
Having said that I have only come half way through, the other half lies in members of the society appreciating the media in a less sensational way and as a matter of fact. We take the media a lot more keenly and sometimes get carried away in the orb of sensationalism, the lesson is to observe restraint and not to be effected at a personal level. The boy who filed the notice should have gotten more support from the family members in taking a more mature stance.
