The art of advertising, face washes & rat poison!

Once upon a time or long time ago (choose any one), a face wash (gel or foam based cream) used to be for cleaning the dirt and sweat off ones face, yes and that was until the day an advertisement said “eureka! We just added some mystic micro granular stuff ” and the new face wash was now for deep pore cleansing and scrubbing. A year later, it was proclaimed that the new face wash had become the “new improved face wash” and so now it also had the properties of exfoliating, pH balancing, skin brightening, anti darkening, anti pimple, anti wrinkles, anti ugly and more. Then just when I thought that this was it and I should buy one, I saw a TV commercial that declared that they had used some path breaking new technology and made an “advanced face wash with beta extracts” and therefore this face wash was antipollution and anti-radiation too…I mean what is it, a face wash or some nuclear holocaust gear and what in the name of almighty is beta extract!

Well, I would only say if this trend continues, soon we will have a face wash that will even block the cosmic rays from outer space…maybe block a few bullets too or better still those ICBM missiles that North Korea has been planning to attack Guam with. And then the Yanks would simply say “Tora, Tora, Tora! There comes an incoming from Pyongyang, everyone quickly apply them- face washes!”

Another peculiar TV advertisement I saw many years ago was the one that said “This rat poison not only kills the rats, but also after consuming it the rats will leave your house and go outside to die”…wait did you just say that “the rats would go outside and die!”…phew.

Anyways, the ad probably played on the consumer psyche that the rats dying at inaccessible corners of the house could fill our homes with a foul stench. For once, let’s believe the advertising to be truthful to its every word. Now try and visualise how it would all happen- a rat after consuming the contaminated food would start feeling dizzy. Soon realising that it had been poisoned it would make a last quick announcement to the other fellow rats “Hey! Folks looks like my time is up, you all have been wonderful umm…rats! and now I will just walk out of this rat hole and wait at the porch outside for a lift from Yama, the lord of death”… like really!

Lastly, since I am foodie so let me also mention about one of my favourite foodsThe Burger. Apparently, Burger Companies spend up to 6 hours in clicking and perfecting advertisement shots from the most attractive angle with studio lighting, food styling (all that extra cheese and puffing) and photo editing for burgers that in reality take not more than 3 minutes of kitchen time to prepare at the stores…Food for thought, would you bite it?

PHOTO FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY