Ad Breaks In An Indian Dream: Cementing Social Control
By Colin Todhunter
12 March, 2013
Countercurrents.org
If you ever get the chance, try to watch satellite TV in India, especially the English language channels which are aimed at the creamy layer of Indian society. The more you watch, the wearier you will become. It's guaranteed. The lying, cheating commercials are almost carbon copies of the lying, cheating commercials in the West, in terms of the products and the shiny Coca-Cola lifestyles they promote. The advertisements and the game-shows that interrupt the commercial breaks are exponents of the kind of self-seeking materialism that now all too often passes for news and entertainment.
We now live in a kind of steel reinforced concrete box that, when opened, contains a model hand which pulls the lid shut to prevent light from entering and scrutiny of what goes on inside. Boxes can be quite intriguing, normally containing something that can be looked at. Not this one; it has iron fingers to close the cover. Why be aware of the world's ills and challenge anything (1) when you can live in the dark, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok and shop 'til you drop? It's a consumer ‘paradise' where unfettered desire is a virtue and obsession is the faith. The advertising industry oils the hand that closes the box. Welcome to the nightmare. There's no intrigue. And we are all invited.
Someone please save us from that insipid boardroom inspired nonsense that has found its way into everyday parlance – ‘thinking outside of the box'. The myth of an open society and filtered down the funnel for mass consumption in a society that attempts to close off genuine intrigue and critical thinking at every opportunity (2) (3).
“There is much more to it than what we watch on TV – it's about the type of world we want to live in,” you may like to tell anyone within earshot. They might not be impressed, though. They might actually like the type of world we live in and feel that infotainment and the type of murderous corporate sponsored globalisation (4) now happening is the best thing since sliced bread. They might just find enough time to take their deeply buried head out of the sand and go away to rest it in some gas oven after listening to you. The truth can be hard to take (5).
If or when you do finally switch off the TV, take a glance out of the window and ponder where on earth do advertising agencies get their fantasy-land steel and glass skyscraper screen images of a shiny, bright India from. Probably Singa-shoping-mall-pore.
But this is to be expected. Advertisements deal in fantasy and create a thirst that can never be quenched. And for those who crave, it's an expensive endeavour. Billions are spent on telling us that somewhere at the end of the rainbow there is a pot of gold. Billions more are spent in pursuit of the lie. As day fades to night, the rainbow disappears, and illusion gives way to the starkness of reality – there is no gold.
There is nothing that can make teeth whiter than white, skin smoother than smooth, and hair shinier than shiny. Wearing the appropriate designer label cheap labour exploiting product will not miraculously turn us into bright, young things. And – believe it or not – drinking the right type of GM-laced, pesticide ridden cola will not suddenly make us God's gift to men or women – despite what the happy, smiling product endorsing faces say. But, in return for selling their souls to corporate capitalism, these faces want us all to keep on chasing the dream and living the nightmare wherever we live: from Chennai to Chengdu, and from Mumbai to Milan.
And it's relentless. The American Academy of Pediatrics has reported that young people see 3,000 advertisements a day and are exposed to 40,000 different ones per year. It's a similar story in India. From the TV to the billboards, ordinary folk are being subjected to the life-changing wonders of brand-named alcohol, coloured fizzy drinks and labelled clothes. Luxuries that we cannot do without. The necessary, must have, must be seen to have, lifestyle products, all because they are endorsed by ideological enforcing, product endorsing ‘role models' (6) such as Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Ashwarya Rai or the get-out-of-jail- free, Thums Up swigging Salman Khan (Thumsup is a soft drink in India, now owned by Coca Cola).
If we do not possess these products, we are failures. If we do possess them, we will feel even bigger failures because by that stage we will have bought into the lie and will be wanting the newer, brighter version of whiter than white toothpaste which we acquired when it was newer and brighter than the previous bright, new version. There is no pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow, just a bag of rotten teeth.
It's a precarious world we live in, based on hollow myths and promises. But don't tell anyone; it may shatter if people look too hard. It's a fragile invention and because of that, the label on the outside of the box probably reads ‘Handle With Care'. Maybe it also reads ‘Do Not Disturb' as people bask in their emptiness and watch global TV with eyes wide shut.
Somewhere over the wide golden sands of Marina Beach in Chennai there is a rainbow, and somewhere over the rainbow there is the corporate devised promised land of a new tomorrow. But it's just the same old lies recycled and sold back to us at a profit. Chase it and you will go full circle and will eventually end up back where you started from – standing on Kamarajar Salai (South Beach Road) at dusk wondering what is the point (7) (8).
“No escape from the mass mind rape
Play it gain Jack then rewind the tape
And then play it again and again and again
Until ya mind is locked in
Believin' all the lie that they're telling ya
Buyin' all the products that they're sellin' ya
They say ‘jump' and ya say ‘how high?'
Ya brain dead, ya gotta f***** bullet in ya head”
Zack de la Rocha, musician, poet, rapper – Rage Against The Machine.
Notes
1) India's tryst with destiny goes awry ( http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter200712.htm )
2) The war on media freedom ( http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-war-on-media-freedom-undermining-the-independent-alternative-online-media-eu-to-manipulate-internet-search-engines/5321104 )
3) The importance of trivialisation in cementing social control ( http://www.globalresearch.ca/hegemony-and-propaganda-the-importance-of-trivialisation-in-cementing-social-control/5307023 )
4) The Battle for the corporate control of India ( http://www.globalresearch.ca/predatory-capitalism-stealing-wealth-stealing-food-the-battle-for-the-corporate-control-of-india/5308903 )
5) Why we don't care ( http://www.deccanherald.com/content/317498/why-we-dont-care.html )
6) Celebs promote anything, as long as their bank balance swells ( http://www.deccanherald.com/content/294360/celebs-promote-anything-long-their.html )
7) The dull pain of poverty ( http://www.deccanherald.com/content/197443/dull-pain-poverty.html )
8) Ripping up the social fabric of India ( http://www.globalresearch.ca/from-bollywood-to-hollywood-ripping-up-the-social-fabric-of-india/5302874 )
Colin Todhunter Originally from the northwest of England, Colin Todhunter has spent many years in India. He has written extensively for the Deccan Herald (the Bangalore-based broadsheet), New Indian Express and Morning Star (Britain). His articles have also appeared in various other newspapers, journals and books. His East by Northwest website is at: http://colintodhunter.blogspot.com
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