……..Of Misconstrued Priorities
By Kavita
Source: screenshots from (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5t9oNZBUxE)
Please find me one self-respecting urban teenager who’ll jump with joy at receiving a lump of ancient looking gold jewellery for her 18th birthday!
That is the first thing that struck me as I watched this ad by LIC of India.
Add to that a mom who admonishes her husband for giving the gift, …..wait…..did you give a sigh of relief thinking that she corrected her husband and stood up for empowering her daughter with a solid education instead of the gold? ...my poor optimist!!! Alas!! That wasn’t to be. She toes her husband’s line and simply suggests that a lesser investment would have been better.
Well, let me restart.
I’m talking about an ad by LIC of India
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5t9oNZBUxE)
The plot is this; the ad shows a family of three. The opening scene sees the dad working on his table. Mom in the kitchen making tea. And the daughter on the sofa typing furiously on her mobile. A common enough scene in any middle class Indian family.
The daughter reminds her dad that it’s going to be her 18th birthday soon and that she would love for him to gift her ‘something substantial’ instead of the usual teddy bears and robots (due credit to you LIC, your attempt at gender “non-stereotyping” didn’t go unnoticed. Bravo!!).
The dad rises to the occasion and gifts her a gold set that must have surely cost a fortune. Enters mom with the chai. She smiles sweetly and gently admonishes her husband at his spendthrift ways. Surely the daughter doesn’t need so large an investment at this stage, a minor one would have sufficed, a pendant perhaps, instead of a complete set? The daughter meanwhile tries on the jewellery, is ecstatic having received it and the Mom is placated with a pendant (as per her suggestion). All in the name of an investment for the daughter’s ‘golden’ future! (pun intended).
Way to go baby girl, my heart swelled with pride when you mentioned a ‘substantial gift’. I almost mouthed the words- “send me abroad to study” or even “buy me my own vehicle so I could be independent”. But you settled for jewellery, that you probably won’t wear in the near future?”
“Dear LIC, ads are powerful messengers. They are reflective of society. They also have the responsibility of setting trends and precedents and veering perspectives towards being progressive and modern. They are watched by millions, among them are impressionable minds who subconsciously model themselves on what people in the ads do.
Sorry to say, your ads feature people who seem stuck in a bygone era where moms were ‘docile, always in the kitchen’ creatures. Where dads are the designated bread earners with the sole responsibility of taking decisions that affect the entire family. Where daughters have only one future-marriage, and if the family must plan for her, it must plan for her wedding and not for her education.
And what kind of role models does this particular ad present?
To millions of young girls her age in rural India who might have harboured dreams of breaking the glass ceiling, here is their urban counterpart who’s happy her father made an investment like the one he did, even if there is a half-hearted and feeble attempt by her towards the end saying that “she isn’t ready for marriage”, which promptly goes unnoticed by everyone.
To everyone with a daughter, the dad is the role model in that he plans for the wedding of the ‘yet-to-be-adult-girl’ and doesn’t even consider an education based investment. Several heads must’ve nodded in agreement across drawing rooms in countless Indian towns and cities, his gesture must’ve won hearts and similar decisions by the audience must’ve got justified.
To every woman watching the ad, the mother is but an extension of their own lives. She’s a role model because she didn’t stand up for her daughter, like they don’t either. She didn’t suggest that investment be rather made for the daughter’s education, but merely for a different piece of jewellery. Those kinds of decisions are a dad’s prerogative!
If these are the role models LIC throws at the unassuming population who watch such commercials with “awww...what a beautiful family and wonderful caring dad” sentiment, we are in for trouble!
The need for an investment for the future isn’t being debated here. What is being suggested is to change the narrative:
- To showcase parents taking collective decisions for their child’s future.
- To showcase teenage girls who dream of education and planning their future goals and talking about being economically independent.
- To showcase mothers supporting decisions taken by their daughters, infact who inculcate such mindset.
I rest my case!
By Kavita
