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MTV
ad raises a stink
“In
the world of advertising each ad is targeted at certain group
of consumers. As long as it can catch the fancy of that target
group, others don’t make a difference to the creative
team or the company for that matter. If the ad appeals to
the target audience then it is successful," says the
ad man and theatre personality Bharat Dhabolkar, when questioned
about the whimsical and very  childish
Fart ad of MTV.
Initially
this ad, complaining about the gas problem of the channel,
had appeared in print media. As the stomach problems worsened,
it started screaming down the hoardings, wherever possible.
A language that is normally not permitted to be used in society
and is put to use only either by very small children unknowingly
or by teenagers amongst their peer group as a sign of defiance.
What prompted the creative director of this ad Cyrus Oshidar
to go over board with his creative skills and how did he present
this idea in the boardroom? We wouldn’t know because
Cyrus was unreachable.
However
Vani Tripathi, film and television actress, finds this ad
to be crass and a violation of Indian norms.
"It is extremely gross. I think that I’d go by the
sense of humour even if it is cracked but handing down this
and then call it creativity is perverted. There has to be
some accountability towards public and one can’t cross
the limit," she fumes while adding that this ad speaks
of the corrupt language of society.
Well
you may use such corruption on the sly but no one farts in
public. It’s an affair conducted in private. But its
public display is an act of embarrassment to one and all.
It can draw guffaws not laughs. Ravi Gupta CEO of B4U refused
to comment on this case of bad gas but categorically states,
"I would not go for this kind of advertising for my channel."
Incidentally his channel too targets the up-market youth.
Dhabolkar, too, agrees that he personally would not use such
language. "It’s very childish. It can not be put
on the hoardings and other places."
It may
not be vulgar but somehow, social acceptance of this is very
difficult. The kind of language where you use every variation
available to explore and explain an upset stomach, stinks.
According
to Roshan Abbas, host of Family Fortune on Star Plus, irreverence
is synonymous with MTV . "You love it or hate it but
this channel believes in it.  The
choice is yours, but stuff like this is screaming for analysis.
If this attitude one feels is the reflection of today’s
youth, then where are we going? In India one has to be more
sensitive. Such language is not to be commercialised,"
he says. An ad is supposed to hit you in the eye and mind,
not in your face and guts. "Why go overboard with non-brainy
stuff?" Roshan adds.
Public
media has to have some public accountability. Ethics are subjective,
but there is always a take off point to defy them. "They
(meaning MTV) have no set of ethics," Roshan feels. But
the youth is not all about crude language and gross display
of one’s ‘knowledge’ in public. However, when
some collegians were questioned, they opined, "Youth
today is cool but not perverted. Please spare us."
Neelam
Gupta
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