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Monday, March 10, 2008

Misguiding Media

(ladkiyaan) dikhne mein to pyaari hain, yeh khushiaan thodi bhaari hain x 3
kaheen khushiaan bhoj na ban jaayein
isi liye life ke har kadam par ING Vysya life insurance ke saath apna farz nibhaayein

Ing Vysya life insurance: mera farz (tag line)

TRANSLATED AS

they (girls) might be lovely to look at but these happinesses are a bit burdensome x 3
just so these happinesses don't become burdens
take care of your responsibilities with ING Vysya's life insurance at every step of your life

Ing Vysya life insurance: my responsibility (tag line)

Yes, it's true that the above-quoted is the text for an advert for an India's leading insurance company: Ing Vysya life insurance. It has been running on various TV channels for a few months up until now when Govt. stepped in (finally) to ask all TV channels to stop airing the advertisement immediately:
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) to ask all TV channels to stop airing the advertisement immediately. “We have also asked the ASCI to take action against the advertising company for making such an advertisement,” a senior ministry official said.

Life insurance firm ING Vysya is behind the controversial advertisement, which has the following tagline for the girl child: “hai to pyaari lekin bojh hai bhari (though loving, she is still a burden). An insurance cover for the girl child, it says, would lighten the burden. The ad has been on air for the past few months.

A video of the ad:



I wish I had the liberty to utter profanities here. Insane. Well, at least the Govt is waking up.

12 comments:

Laksh said...

Roop,

Keep up the great work! That ad really riled me up. Checked out the link you left at my blog. Will go through your archives. Am thrilled to see what you are doing out here. Good Luck!!

Shadows of life said...

What the heck!!!!!!!!!
its a insane ad, how can any one distribute/produce it?


V

Roop Rai said...

Laksh: Thank you. I'd look at your blog too. Really enjoyed your writing style. :) I hope u get riled up more often.

Vimmz: paisa paisa paisa !! :) paisa runs the world.

Alankrita said...

I cannot imagine how the heck in "modern" India they can put up with this crap.

Rajiv Rathod said...

Hey,

Lets not be too cynical here.
As a consumer i found nothing offensive against the women in that ad. Infact it is not specific to women at all ... 'khushiyaan bhaari hai' ... perhaps they mean that happiness can have its flip side as well ... it does not say "ladkiyan" bhoj hai ... infact the last part how do you know if the baby is a girl or a boy ...

Roop Rai said...

Rajiv: Thanks for your comment. Really. Because I was thinking of tackling this objection all evening. You're not the first person to say it to me. Husband said the same. Will answer tomorrow in next post. Thanks :)).

Alankrita said...

DOnt you think it is subliminal... "Khushiyan" could have included a guy in a few of the images.. you know it could have been a son's wedding.. not the daughters....

Rajiv Rathod said...

Well the marriage was definitely of a son and of a daughter ... in any case if you guys are taking this as a wrong one ... i do not understand how you can stand those of hdfc, max new york etc ... in hdfc the guy is talking to the lady about not forgetting how to cook and how to clean up because HE has retired ... isn't that offensive ... Max newyork shows the guy chilling out and the women serving him with food and tea ... isn't that offensive as well ... (btw i have again no issues with either of the above ... i believe they are just expression of responsibility being a relief rather than a burden) ...

Roop Rai said...

sorry bud, didn't get a chance to reply sooner. I see your point, but like i said here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_t33eW8Y7U)
.. ad is ambiguous ... and that certainly is a problem for me.

Shailendra said...

i go by rajiv's comment. He is right. It's only in you mind. Afer reading through the post i watched the clip so many times but i think khushiyan are bhari not the girl child.
Three men at different stage of life. One needs money to go to manage his future life not for the girl child. may be money for honeymoon ( who knows)
Second father needs money to send her daughter to foreign for higher degree program. If education till graduation was not burdon then why now. he needs extra money to send his child to foreign not the girl child.
Third father gets a baby and now extra burdon of responsibility of child is on him for which he needs planning and off course money too to plan things further . If it was boy then also money is needed. So you cought wrong video to blog about.

As far as govt. is concern why it blocked the ad i wuld say govt. has no mind of its own. It does what people like you and me wants it to do. Whether its right or wrong it has nothing to bother about.

Roop Rai said...

ugh i misquoted the link in my previous comment. it is here:
http://unwantedgirlchild.blogspot.com/2008/03/misguiding-media-contd.html

and i'll only repeat what i said earlier, S. as far as i understand, the ad is ambiguous. yes, it's only in 'head', but it's in the head of a lot of people, which is not a great idea. ING should be more responsible.

Thanks for your input :)).

Roop Rai said...

still didn't work, did it?

let's try using html

click here