In fact that might even be the only coffee brand that you can recall. Wait a minute, why is Nescafe the only coffee brand you know? Have you ever heard of any other brand, on TV or in newspaper? No, because it is the only brand that has such enticing advertisement on television.[break]
Have you ever noticed how the pretty girl with long curls lovingly scoops out a huge mound of coffee on her spoon? Have you ever tried to make a cup of coffee with the exact same amount of powder? I tried it, and my father’s pithy reaction was that it was more like “coal coffee” than “black coffee”.
Such aggressive marketing that promotes over consumption through visuals is very common in television. It consists of showing large quantities of a product highlighted in a visually alluring manner. The camera lovingly pans over them as soft golden light fills the frame.
The whole effect is so delicious that you feel guilty if you don’t use the same amount. Coffee advertisements are just an example of this aggressive technique. There are millions of other such “visually hyped up” products, including brilliantly colored chilly powder.
These products, if ever used in as vast quantities as shown on TV, will lead to severe ulcer, and not enhancement of taste.
Well, chili powder and other condiments might be easy to regulate based on your taste, but what about the products that hit below the belt? Like perfumes that send scantily clad women crazy? Yes, I am talking about axe and its many companions.
Ever notice how copious the high intensity spray is, like water from your garden hose? Ever notice how the guy practically bathes in the perfume, from head to toe? Ever notice how long the camera focuses on the spraying process, even depicting the ricocheting drops in the air? The speed is slow and dreamy, and again, soft golden light spills into the frame, creating an aura of magic.
If you ever douched yourself in the perfume like that, everyone around you would faint, and not because they like the smell!
Speaking of grooming products, when I was a child, I would put globs and globs of toothpaste on my brush, mesmerized by the bright red gel of Close Up toothpaste that they definitely made a point to show. Notice the bright red of the toothpaste shade? And the shinning “shimmer crystals” or whatever inside it? It’s just toothpaste, but it still manages to shine like a Disney princess’s dress.
Much later, when I was big, broke, and hard up, I was trying to make every penny stretch. When I tried to make every tube of toothpaste stretch, I realized that toothpaste that fills just half, or maybe a quarter of the brush, works as well as the big glob.
I made a few quick calculations: A tube of toothpaste costs approximately Rs 40 and lasts a month. I used a fifth of this tube for 12 months of the year for 20 years. My total cost of toothpaste usage was something around Rs 1600.
We have already decided that one-fourth of toothpaste usage is enough. Hence, I wasted three-fourths of the money on toothpaste usage, resulting in a loss of my parents’ money worth Rs 1,200. I sadly regret it.
The thought now strikes me that I was the only person in the house doing the big glob thing, which means that while I used 4X toothpaste, everybody else used just X, or 2X at most.
This upends my calculations. I am too exhausted to calculate again. But I still vaguely realize that since I used up more than a fifth of the paste, I wasted more money than 1200 rupees, not counting the perfume douches and the coal coffees.
I am reeling in shock right now. I think I need a relaxing shower with streams and streams of shampoo and then I will go out and have a nice day to recuperate.
I can just feel my good temper returning with the thought of the dollops and dollops of fair and lovely that I am going to slather on my face soon. Yes, I have my revenge on the advertisers now!
Sewa is currently doing her Masters in Sociology at Western Illinois University, US.
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