ADVERTISING

Advertising is a process of man’s creative thoughts and dedicated efforts to promote an unnecessary item of utility or beauty in a morally objectionable and sensually stimulating manner. Industrial revolution led to abundance of products suitable for human consumption. Those products and processes brought revolutionary changes in the perception of man about comfort and happiness. As the number of products increased over the years, fulfilling the desires and needs of millions of humans across continents, some manufacturing units felt the need of promoting their products uniquely aiming at their target customers. They wanted to attract a diverse range of customers towards their products and sell them in more numbers in a short period of time than their passive competitors. 

Since man is a creature of imitation and stimulation, who largely copies and gets encouraged by contemporary circumstances and forces, to do something passionately, competition further got intensified after the emergence of hundreds of firms making similar or unique products. The more the competition in a particular region or in a particular segment of products, the more the efforts of the manufacturers of those products to promote and sell them extensively, over a period of time. Sales target is the latest word symbolizing the speed and power of advertising. Salespersons and end customers are the hopeless and helpless victims in this mud of commercialism.

I think the concept and pursuit of advertising developed rapidly during the last 80 years as the hunger of entrepreneurs and businessmen increased for more and more money and related false prestige. Ad became the most desirable and inevitable means of communication and impact in the field of trade and commerce in almost every state of the world now. Creative folks, copywriters, visualizers, audio specialists, painters, voice providers… the number of creatures required to devise innovative ideas and plan a sequence of activities to promote and sell a particular product or service also increased in course of time as the domain of advertising expanded rapidly in proportion to the expectations of customers and competitive spirit of entrepreneurs. We call it cut-throat competition. Whatever you do, you must be able to sell your product or service to the maximum number of your target customers. For that, you are ready to do ‘anything’.

There are admirable artists and intelligent technicians in the field of advertising in every part of the world now. They are wonderfully coming out with different types of ads to promote their products and services. Words, images, moving pictures, sounds, scenes, dialogues, music, contexts, target audience or viewers …are perhaps a few ingredients we observe in different soups of advertising now. 

I think radio, print, electronic media and celebrities are attracting the highest amount of investments now from promoters and sellers of different products and services. Their product must stand out. This is the view of majority businessmen now. Since an ordinary man runs after those, which appear and torture him more than necessary, out of his foolishness or stupidity or helplessness, the number of ads increased. Ads became so omnipresent today in our familiar places of human habitation that we can compare them to oxygen. We see and feel them everywhere. They chase us until we sleep. They are unbearable nonsense now for millions of readers, radio listeners and television viewers. We developed such impression about majority ads now because many are selling quite unnecessary and harmful products also to us, promoting them in such a way that they are inevitable products in our lives. If we don’t buy and use them as modern living beings, the contemporary society treats us like uncivilized idiots or old-fashioned nuts. We developed this kind of mindset and culture now because we are living for others but not for ourselves. 

We buy many things just like that being influenced by what others are talking about them or just being influenced by an ad we came across somewhere. Though we think that we are educated and intellectually admirable people, in fact, our generation is the worst kind of lot compared to our ancestors. We appreciate avoidable and detestable ideas and items and neglect vital and the best needs and facets of our lives and professions. When the folks of a generation are essentially crazy and shallow, advertisers naturally desire to sell their useless and harmful stuff to every stupid rogue in their access. Unfortunately these unhealthy trends of advertising are prevalent in most of the states now across the world. 

Governments are promoting such advertising agencies and products and services in our societies to make and keep us as brainless and shameless subjects of their jurisdiction forever. Advertising is a devil now for me trying to make me insane in as many ways as possible. It is ruining my balance of mind.

According to me, some of the characteristics of a good ad are:

1. It must briefly explain the benefits it can provide to a user of it, in the short or long term. The least number of words and visuals should be used for communicating this much of information honestly and simply.

2. It should never try to present a bad or harmful product or service as a useful and beneficial item of consumption presuming that a whole race, region or nation can be fooled and looted publicly through the sale of that product.

3. A person or group of people belonging to a distinct social, cultural or financial status should only promote a product or service with the aim of promoting that one among completely similar consumers in that region.

4. The language used must be grammatically correct, culturally suitable and appreciable, logically sensible and morally acceptable. Language does play a vital role in influencing a society in every age.

5. An ad should focus on discussing and highlighting the facts related to a product or service exclusively and nothing else more than that. Thinkers think a lot and talk a little. An ad must be like a thinker.

6. An ad must be made in such a way that anybody can watch it anywhere absolutely without a sense of shame. It must never have such qualities which force the target customers to watch it secretly or uneasily always.

7. A celebrity should never promote any product or service because a celebrity is one whom many take as an idealist and well-wisher of humanity. Idealists never provoke others to buy or use something based on their endorsement but educate others to that extent that they know what to buy and use on their own.

8. An ad must educate and awaken a race through everything presented in it. Highly educated, visionary and intelligent folks of a society are supposed to make ads to sell highly beneficial products and ideal services to their people. If they prepare ads to cheat a society or a race indirectly, they are worse than cannibals.

9. Before working on the idea of making an ad to promote a product or service, each entrepreneur should answer the following questions honestly within himself or herself, “If people do not buy my product or service, without an ad, why should I make and sell such worthless item of utility or pleasure at all? Am I fulfilling an existing need of the contemporary society through my offering or making others buy it somehow because they don’t actually need it?”

10. An ad must not be prepared to promote any deity, abode of worship, scripture, religion or cult. It’s like a God telling others that He is God. It’s like your mother telling that she is your mother. If you fail to assess the worth of a God or your mother naturally, by what they possess and represent, which can be understood by anybody easily, they are not Gods and mothers at all or that you have no capacity to understand and appreciate them. Such brainless idiots and unethical rogues do not change because of an ad. Ads should not target idiots and rogues.

11. An ad must not be prepared to promote a person or society. If you are promoting Mahatma Gandhi through ads, it means there are no people in your society who actually like and follow idealists on their own. If you are promoting idealists and social reformers in your nation, it means there are millions of worthless scoundrels everywhere. Remember that nobody changes without self-criticism and self-awareness. Many say that somebody or something influenced or changed them a lot but it is a beautiful lie. If you changed to the better, it is your worth. You are naturally an extraordinary person. An event or person awakened that wealth of virtues in you. It is your greatness. You are attributing it to somebody or something else because you are a saint. Others can never change you but you yourself only always. God installed many wonders in you. You often take time to know and feel them.

12. An ad must not disturb one’s peace of mind or balance of life but in fact it must promote it in all those experiencing it. The role of an ad must be that of a kind and efficient doctor but not that of a loafer who talks nonsense with you always. If an ad is harassing you continuously, why should you watch it at all?

13. An ad should not promote any country. When everybody is comfortable and happy in a country, others naturally like to see such people and explore those places. We should accord more priority to creatures than places in a country as tourists. If we are exploring the beauty of a temple in a country, neglecting the plight of beggars all around there, we are psychopaths. We should not visit any other place as long as many are suffering around us. When we have no capacity and interest to change the lives of others around us in our place of living, we have no moral authority to visit other places as tourists. We are actually misusing our time and money this way. It’s like leaving your mother on a deathbed and spending with a prostitute using the hard-earned and stolen money of your innocent and helpless mother. Only bad countries promote tourism to earn money from sheep. If there are many beautiful places and extraordinary people around me in my country, why should I go to another country to look for comforts and happiness? I become a tourist when I am not happy at my home. When I cannot change my home in my lifetime, I cannot change myself visiting other places also! As such, tourists are the most foolish and stupid lot of this world. They go to other places because they could not change their homes!

14. An ad can be considered great only if it can influence a large base of viewers or listeners positively within a short period of time and bring an extraordinary change in a region. Humanity is the best quality supposed to be possessed and expressed by human beings in this world. An ad should awake humanity dormant in others.

15. An ad can be considered the worst one if it does not discuss anything related to a product or service at all but only quite irrelevant and illogical matter about it. It means it is a 100% useless product or service.

16. An ad should never insult anybody or anything visible in this world because God made everything with a purpose. One should not promote one’s item of utility criticizing similar ones in the market, directly or indirectly. Ads should avoid comparisons and contrasts altogether. Let consumer do it after knowing only facts about your product or service. If you are playing the role of your customer, you are taking him or her as a brainless sheep. It means your products or services are so worthless or harmful that only such idiots and nuts choose them!

Now let me partly examine the current scenario of ads and ad makers based on the assumptions and ideas I presented above. I may discuss partly related themes and issues also in this process.

1. Is there honesty in ad makers and ads now? Yes. Some ads tell you precisely what they can do to change your life or inspire you towards doing something good. They use very few words and visuals to educate you. Ads given by voluntary blood collection units, charity trusts, philanthropists, social activists and reformers, visionaries, scientific organizations involved in the pursuit of educating and awakening their familiar societies through science are some of this order. They carefully choose highly suitable language to their context. They add humble, honest, simple but inspiring visuals in it. Some ad makers do not use language at all. They communicate their message powerfully through images, moving pictures or absorbing background score only. They are stars of advertising.

2. Many of the ads we are actually reading or viewing today are actually presenting a wrong product or service as a right one. Some examples are: Frozen foods, candies and potato chips. In fact, we can see a variety of products when we go to a retail store, which belong to this category. We should cook and eat fresh foods only but we are depending on frozen foods due to our bad lifestyles. Children and adults get almost nothing tasting different candies regularly but we are doing it. Potatoes cooked and consumed are good for health but what is the use of spicy fried potato chips packed in those air-filled loose packs? They are selling millions of these fried spicy items to us every day. We can consider them ‘time pass items of consumption’. Instead of consuming fresh coconut water, boiled milk and eggs, sweet rounds made of groundnut kernels and pure jaggery, slices and pieces of fruits or fruit salads, we are spoiling our health consuming a variety of bad foods and drinks available everywhere around us. We see many ads promoting these products in books, television and online. Are not they bad ads because they are introducing bad foods and drinks to us regularly and making us accustom to them somehow? 

3. Many ads feature quite unrelated people these days to promote a product or service. Mahesh Babu fights against a mob of fighters driving a tractor ferociously in a wet piece of land. The idea of the company is to promote this tractor presenting it as a weapon of struggle against villains. Is Mahesh Babu a farmer in his real life? Can he fight with a tractor in his real life? Then the head of Jr. NTR becomes cool after applying Navratna oil on his scalp. He got many worries in his personal and professional life. He gets rid of them applying this oil. Is this how this Telugu actor relaxes at home in real life? We can see many of such ads now. They are paying a lot of money to these film stars to act in these ads. These companies think that their products are anyway negligible and so adding present noted actors and actresses to these ads is to attract viewers somehow. It means they are indirectly admitting that their product is worthless and because nobody sees it if it is presented directly, they are deploying the status and glamour of noted folks. Do such ads really add any value to such products? Does any farmer buy a tractor only because of seeing Mahesh Babu in that ad or because when he really needs it? If I want a bicycle, I certainly go to a bicycle store and buy one after knowing their prices, ranges and my financial capacity and needs. It means I do not buy something just because I saw it in an ad but almost every company is spending millions of rupees for these ads just believing that advertising promotes their products. If they make quality products and sell them at reasonable prices, many buy them voluntarily and become their loyal customers in course of time but many companies do not understand this fundamental truth about human psychology. They are spending more money for advertising and less for the quality and reliability of the product. A farmer should act in an ad featuring anything related to his course of life and profession but many ad makers do not follow this principle. They think that ad can be made in any manner and viewers see it anyway. Making ad attractively is their goal but not relevance of the subject and inputs used in an ad. This is the richness of ad makers nowadays. They spend a lot!

4. Observe the language used in many modern ads. Most of those words do not suit grammatical rules. The modern ad makers defaced and ruined the beauty and integrity of many regional languages and English as well. They create nasty language adding different unrelated words illogically. We can call it fashionable language, which lacks sense and essence to the core from the perspective of a grammarian. Better than the best…is just one example. Many ads are made using words born out of disorderly and objectionable marriage between English and regional languages. Tagline culture is a permanent disease of the present advertising scenario in India. NOKIA states ‘Connecting people’; Reliance says ‘Karlo Duniya Muttimein’ and a beverage company says ‘Open happiness’. You can understand the madness of various company owners and promoters seeing these taglines somewhere around their brands. Only NOKIA is connecting people or what? Many other similar service providers are also doing the same! Reliance network is very poor in many parts of India. It means they are unable to make Indians also close with unmatchable network facilities. Then how can they bring the world into the hands of their service users? Is it not absolute lie? Does anybody get real happiness consuming a bad drink made of useless ingredients? Does that company want Indians to derive happiness consuming such nasty drinks only? What is the culture of these companies in using these taglines? Are they telling lies about their products taking Indians as fools and stupid rogues? Taglines represent the low standards of a company because we can never assess the standards of a product or service reading a tagline. There is a lot beyond that. We can understand it only after using it for a period of time. Tagline culture is one of the worst infections of the world. Tagline is like a rag on a dead body!

5. Many ads we see today do not discuss the realities associated with a product or service at all but quite unrelated and illogical points about it because there is really nothing useful in it for an intelligent and healthy consumer! Pepsi and Coca Cola are the biggest examples for this phenomenon in the world now. They spend billions of rupees across the world to promote their useless and harmful beverages. They spend most of that money for ads involving regional and national celebrities of films and sports because they do not have moral values at all. What is the contribution of these beverages to our health? Do we benefit from carbonated water? Do we benefit from coloured water with artificial essence? Is not water many times better than these dirty drinks? Pepsi and Coca Cola are earning in billions every year in many nations across the world selling quite useless and harmful beverages to millions of mad people. Thus consumers prove that they are brainless sheep and filthy pigs. Ads featuring useless products contain meaningless language and visuals associated with a nasty celebrity who just loves money and nothing else! Most of the foods and drinks we are consuming now in India belong to this race of stuff. We are buying and consuming them regularly because we lost common sense and intelligence years ago. We buy dirty and harmful products only because we are essentially sheep. If a sheep drinks muddy water, all other sheep also do the same leaving fresh and clean water just beside that place. In this scenario, our rulers are like shepherds. They ensure that sheep always think and behave like sheep only. They allow such companies to sell such products only for us. India is the best example for this phenomenon. A company can make and sell any product in India if it can bribe MLAs, MPs and ministers to the fullest. After they get bribes, they want income in the form of taxes. They spend that public money (which is accumulated through different taxes) for bringing paid viewers to their public meetings and their privileges as peoples’ representatives. India is the best dustbin of the world from this perspective. Any nation can throw any kind of rubbish into India. Indian rulers want immoral money abundantly, nothing else! They seldom use their intelligence, hard work and vision to do something great for Indians.

6. Can we watch every ad comfortably and happily sitting with our parents and siblings at home? There are some ads watching which we feel uneasy in these contexts. Ads on condoms and those meant for improving bodily pleasures belong to this category of ads. They promote those products also differently to attract customers!

7. It is quite unfortunate that celebrities are promoting many harmful products also in India. Shampoos and toothpastes are just a few of this class of ads. Almost every shampoo damages hair to some extent if it contains avoidable chemicals. There is no surety that herbal shampoos do not cause any damage to hair. Only those directly collected from nature nurture our body to a great extent. Soap nuts are in fact good for our hair but how many celebrities are talking about it. They are all endorsing shampoos and hair dyes massively because they get a lot of money from those ads. They are not bothered about the health of customers at all. They have no moral standards as celebrities of fools. Almost every company promotes its toothpaste as a different and highly beneficial one in comparison to those available in the market. Are there that many ingredients in our scientific world or nature which make one particular toothpaste that widely different from others? Almost every toothpaste we are using now damages our teeth to some extent. All of us must use margosa or some other twig to clean our teeth regularly. There are many other traditional powders and substances which keep our teeth and gums healthy always. There are many other factors which help retain the beauty and quality of our teeth. How many companies are making products minding these basic truths related to dental healthcare? They want to somehow sell their products. Celebrities are their brand ambassadors. If a celebrity uses one toothpaste, I too use it! What a logic! 

8. Almost every ad is directly or indirectly misguiding the human race towards an ignorant and stupid way of existence now. An ad maker must be able to devise such concepts and use such language which can mislead customers easily. A child licks the cream on Oreo biscuit taking it from his father cleverly. In fact cream is bad for children. They spoil their stomach and teeth but ITC somehow wants to attract innocent children towards their cream biscuits. This is their corporate social responsibility! A boy offers part of dairy milk bar to a girl sitting in a bus stop saying that his mother advised him to start a good day offering Mithai or something of that order. Is there anything at all related to Mithai in it? What ingredients do we use to make Mithai? Can we call a dairy milk bar Mithai at all if we have a little knowledge about Indian culture and tradition in this regard? The ad makers of this item consider us nuts of India. So, they present it as Mithai to us! Then, we all know about the effect of Fair & Lovely in India. Almost every foolish and stupid girl and lady thinks that this white paste can change her complexion to fair or very fair order. Have you ever seen a girl of wheatish or black colour in these ads as models? Fair & Lovely is one of the highly deceptive brands in India promoting dirty culture among girls and women. These folks are giving scholarships to some girls every year from the money collected from millions of foolish females. It’s like collecting one lakh rupees from a thousand nuts and giving 1000 rupees to 10 fools out of it as gifts. Then Shah Rukh Khan advises us to use that other cream of this brand to make male faces fair and handsome. I don’t know if Aamir Khan is also promoting such products or not now because I am unable to watch television much these days. These celebrities are still so poor that they cannot survive without this money arising out of their acting in such ads. They want to take Indians a few years back in their perceptions about life, beauty and culture. We have such celebrities in India now. They are hard-core businessmen, who promote a dead body also as a wonder of this universe if they are paid well. Most of the celebrities we have now in sports and film arena are wrongdoers to a great extent. They don’t deserve our affection and admiration because they are misleading us deeply acting in bad ads regularly. I consider these ad makers and performers in them as creatures worse than cannibals because the latter kill and eat another creature out of their hunger and intuition. They provide us peace of mind within seconds killing us instantly but these celebrities are ruining our thought process and lives forever telling lies shamelessly.

9. In fact very few entrepreneurs are making and selling such products and services which benefit humanity at large. We should be drinking real mango juice, coconut water, lemon juice, carrot juice, beetroot juice and such really fresh and healthy beverages in India if our entrepreneurs are thinking and worrying about our health. They are selling flavored beverages, which do not contribute to the strength or health of our bodies or minds at all. The same is the case with hard food items also. Most of the dates we buy and consume in India in packed format are of lowest quality. We are eating and drinking very low quality or harmful foods and drinks only in India extensively because our entrepreneurs have neither fraternity nor patriotism. They want to earn money cheating us regularly. Lays and Kurkure packets are just two examples for it. They are harmful to our health but we are giving them to our children also regularly. They fill air into those packs and put a few pieces of that spicy stuff in it. They want to cheat us selling a few spicy pieces packed in a big and attractive cover. There are many products of this order in our little, medium and big shopping units in every part of India. Many of us buy and use them without questioning ourselves as to why we are consuming them at all. We lost common sense and questioning attitude now. We do many things like machines and brainless sheep. We eat bad foods and drink avoidable beverages to spoil our bodies and minds. We resort to hospitals at the eleventh hour. No food inspector or government checks the quality and rationality of a multitude of products being made and sold in India now. In fact we don’t know with what substance certain foods and beverages are being made. This is the intellectual status and culture of millions of Indians now. This is why many big brands are entering India now. They realized that they can sell any garbage to Indians if they pack them beautifully. If Pepsi and Coca Cola can do much business, selling coloured and useless water to millions of Indians, why not other companies?

10. Ads deeply penetrated the domain of religion and spirituality also in the world now. If I don’t promote Lord Krishna through an ad, many may forget Him slowly. If millions of Christians do not contribute billions of dollars to the promotion of their religion and Lord Jesus, the world may forget those identities soon. Muslims have anyway their Jihad format of promotion of Islam. There are innumerable cults in almost every part of the world promoting a shallow idiot or rogue as a representative of God. In India, every state has about 100 demi-gods and goddesses of this order. It means not only main religions but also different cults of faith are promoting their respective deities through ads of different formats and nature. What a crisis to these deities also now! Lord Ayyappa blesses those with black dresses only. Lord Venkateshwara expects all His true devotees to come to His Tirupati abode of living and get their heads tonsured. What a devotion of Indians. If they wear black dresses and donate their hair generously, God would be pleased with them and so blesses them with salvation. What an idea! Gods are expecting different kinds of gifts and gimmicks from us to bless us. What a culture of Hindus, who often present themselves as the leaders of spirituality in this world? They became crazy actors and nasty actresses in the pursuit of religion now. They don’t like listening to truths being spoken by a simple saint in a part of India now but a cult with valuable assets and millions of similar stupid followers. They call them Abhyasis in Hindi and some other regional languages of India. They call it Satsang if some of these criminals and sinners gather under the leadership of their main cheat. I saw hundreds of sinners in such cults till now. They did not change at all. They are hard-core materialists. They do not donate even one rupee to a beggar but millions of rupees to their cult because they are all essentially mad idiots. They lack the basic understanding of God and spirituality. They are addicts to group culture and related public show tactics. They sit and meditate collectively for minutes on scheduled dates in those ashrams. They act beautiful roles in these places of collective gathering. They think that their guru (spiritual master) transmits spiritual power into their bodies only during those special sittings. We cannot attain salvation alone meditating God because He accepts applications from those recommended by these spiritual masters only. They are authorized representatives of God in this world. Since we are all sinners, these saints remove our sins just like that! These cults promote their intense mad activities and thoughts through ads in different ways. Some of them asked me to join their cult. I said I am happy with Lord Krishna. He is in me. I worship Him without going to His temples. He is omnipresent and omnipotent. Then why should I go to a particular place to please Him?

11. We see intense promotion of persons in politics, films and business segments more than others. The Congress party is the biggest example for this scenario of wide advertising in India. Starting from Jawaharlal Nehru to Rahul Gandhi, the loyal and immoral politicians of this party are hell-bent on promoting heirs of their party commands only. We see different national institutes and schemes being named after them. JNTU, IGNOU, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport are just a few examples for this trend of advertising in Indian politics. We see their photos and books in various bookstores. We see a lot of people directly or indirectly talking about them. Vast stretches of lands, in the capital region of India, were exclusively allotted to the deathbeds of these politically prioritized folks of this party. Are there no great statesmen and visionaries in the Congress segment of politics in India after independence except those related to Motilal Nehru family? If so, how many of us are talking about Gulzarilal Nanda, Lal Bahadur Sastri, Morarji Desai and P V Narasimha Rao now in comparison to Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi? How many institutes and organizations in public sector are named after them? Are we respecting intellectuals and visionaries of India or just some that belong to a particular family? Then how can it be considered an admirable format of democracy? In the film industry also, we see the photos and details of main actors and actresses only on posters, screens and other media of promotion but not the photos and details of those who are promoting these actors and actresses extraordinarily doing excellent creative and technical work behind the screen. Is it not injustice? How many of us know the faces of junior artistes, cameramen, choreographers, editors, lyricists, poster makers and so on? Are not they beautifying a film? They are remaining unknown to us always. Film industry is thus promoting some artistes only always, neglecting others. Most of us know about the CMDs and main executives of a company through their websites and conferences but not about millions of employees working in them. This phenomenon is prevalent in almost every field related to the involvement of human beings. How many of us remember the faces of those that built our beautiful houses and offices; national highways; railway stations and tracks, airports, ports, parks, clubs, zoos and so on. We are promoting rich and influential persons only in many contexts but not real contributors to our comforts and happiness. It means we are living happily and comfortably exploiting the hard work and intelligence of ordinary creatures around us, almost every day and night. We never gave place to them in our history.

12. Most of the ads we see certainly disturb our peace of mind and balance of life. We keep moving from one television channel to another when ads are on during breaks because we are thoroughly disgusted with them. We think that most of them are quite unbearable nuisance. Most of these ads are, in fact, misleading us towards immoral thoughts and avoidable lifestyles. After seeing a wide variety of ads, promoting a multitude of products, made by many companies, in various parts of a nation, we feel confused on what to buy or not at all! It’s like keeping 20 varieties of curries and soups before our innocent and honorable guest along with a little amount of rice or rotis. He or she may feel like eating all of them but his stomach does not permit it. Likewise, we may feel like using all those products being enticed by their greatness as described in those ads but we buy very few of them only based on our personal choice and financial status. It means many ads are just nonsense for us. Because they are showing them, we are watching them helplessly. Let ads be anywhere; on and along roads, railway stations, buses, periodicals and in almost every imaginable place of human habitation; we are not interested in them at all. Ads became so nonsensical and pervasive in India now that we are treating them as reflections of garbage everywhere! I think ad makers must celebrate this reality. They are using such language and concepts to attract us. We cannot see our favourite God also for hours together even if He sits in our house. It means we don’t like anything or anybody if they chase us continuously. Many companies think that their sales are increasing because of their ads and promotional activities but I believe that all of us do not stop buying our desired products even if all sorts of ads are banned in our nation forever. Our needs compel us what, how, where, when and why to buy something. We choose something among many alternatives available. Millions of Kirana stores, hawkers, footpath businesses and such other products and services in unorganized sector are also doing huge business every year without spending even a single rupee for advertising. It shows that companies are spending millions of rupees every year for advertising since they lost standards and values required to be possessed by sensible and sensitive entrepreneurs. This is what we can call publicity mania. If a company promotes its condoms distributing them freely to some brothels, another company distributes its nasty drinks freely to some folks along roads for some days. It is a vicious web of mutual impact and madness. It is a network of crazy idiots spending huge money to sell something through their dirty ads. You see or don’t see them; they throw their ads into your life artificially!

13. I don’t like some countries and regions promoting their places and culture through ads to attract internal and external tourists. The Government of India is promoting its tourist attractions through its ‘Incredible India’ slogan. Incredible has both positive and negative shades of meaning. It may be either extraordinary or unbearable. As an insider, I strongly feel and state that there is 90% ugliness and suffering in India but not peace and prosperity. The Government of India removes beggars from main roads and such many noticeable areas when events like commonwealth games are taking place in some part of it. This is what we call false prestige. We spend billions of rupees for meetings of political celebrities and nationally highlighted sports and games but not for the poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa served those poor Indians. Mahatma Gandhi lived and worked for all Indians. Social reformers and voluntary organizations are striving for the betterment of India. Are we promoting these legends and philanthropic units of service through ads? If we work honestly for the happiness of others, they remember us forever. Such personalities and service units do not crave attention and publicity. Virtues and standards do not need ad makers and ads but vice and wrongdoers only in any part of India. I believe that any nation has no moral authority to attract foreigners or its citizens towards tourism sector to earn money as long as there are many citizens suffering due to various issues in their motherland. Unfortunately, this is what is happening in almost every nation of the world now if there are politicians in it. I think Somalia is not promoting itself now to attract tourists because there are pathetic poverty, bony infants dying of hunger and thirst, horrible circumstances and tragic deaths everywhere. How many rich nations and their politicians are worrying about these issues of their respective nations or other parts of the world? What is UNO doing in this regard? It is playing a nominal role. Are not millions of people consuming liquor, smoking cigarettes and dancing in clubs spending billions of rupees every day and night even in this environment of world order where many of their brothers and sisters are dying regularly because of hunger and pain? Is this what we call advancement of science and technology? Is this what we call humanity and universal fraternity? Leaving dead bodies in our front yard and dancing madly in our back yard! What a culture we have across the world now. I think those are the greatest ads, which make us see and feel the ugliness and tragedy of human life on this earth planet. But, how many of us have time and interest to see such ads? How many of us are willing to change to the better being educated and enlightened through ads made my great humanitarians and visionaries in the field of advertising? We are thoroughly accustomed to seeing deceptive ads and buying harmful products but not watching insightful and ideal ads and becoming kind and visionary individuals.  

14. I think that only 2% of ads are being made and presented now across places for the cause of humanity and universal fraternity. Billionaires are earning money cheating and misguiding people and spending part of that money for others under the slogan ‘corporate social responsibility’. I grab 1000 acres of land from a poor tribe in my familiar region using political and financial pressure. I build a big business unit there. They become poor and helpless very soon. They work in my factory for low wages in pathetic conditions. I build a temple, a water supply unit and a small medical unit there as part of my corporate social responsibility. I am a great donor now in the eyes of external observers. This is the rampant industrial culture in India now. They promote their company as a great entity showing those few ads related to CSR initiatives and activities in that vicinity. Among this many industrialists and businessmen of India, who are spending a lot for advertising for wrong causes to promote themselves, how can those 2% ads of social reformers and visionaries stand? Evil forces are suppressing idealists in this land now.

15. Most of the ads we are watching now are the worst of their kind because they hide bitter truths and reveal beautiful lies through their language, visuals, characters and settings. ITC earns a lot of money through its cigarette brands. It is ruining the health of millions of Indians. There are many liquor companies in India. They are also working hard to spoil the health of millions of Indians. Doctors and hospitals are flourishing in India now because our governments are encouraging such companies and products in India which ruin Indians continuously in some way or the other. Various kinds of gambling are prevalent. Road accidents are rampant. Debauchery is pervasive. Our governments are happy promoting related products and services on this holy land of India. So, who can save us from this turmoil? I have no hope. We are choosing bad leaders because we became bad as citizens about 50 years ago. It is a cycle of suffering and pain caused and promoted by us directly or indirectly. We can understand India and businessmen in India better if we see 100 ads of different companies. They educate us about the immorality and anarchy prevalent in India now. We have degraded a lot as Indians. We are forgetting our culture and tradition continuously. We are not following the virtues and standards prescribed by our saints and religions.

16. Some ads insult people of a section or status directly or indirectly or similar products or services in that region of promotion. When we go to a retail store, do we prefer butter milk made locally by an honest and ideal woman or packed item made by an MNC? This ultramodern Indian culture is a result of globalization, privatization and liberalization. Poor people buy certain products and rich ones entirely different ones. There is a clear divide between one class of people and the other. Rich people become so exploiting the poor and the innocent. Rich people create bad and poor people in every nation. Be it a politician, businessman, industrialist or farmer…the rich promote such trends and culture which they prefer. They are least bothered about poverty and tragedy in their motherland. Lack of patriotism is the cause of all these human diseases and disorders now. Let 100 people die before me because of accidents, smoking, drinking or diseases…I should earn money building bad roads as a contractor; I should make millions selling my brand of cigarettes; I should become a billionaire promoting my brand of liquor and my brand of corporate hospitals. If you closely observe ads, you can trace this divide of the society distinctly. Some ads are for the poor and some are for the rich. A big brand struggles to somehow suppress the growth of a small local unit. Advertising is mostly in the hands of the rich. They cheat and mislead the poor more than the rich and the educated. It means our entrepreneurs are opportunists and hypocrites to the core.

Some more observations and comments about ads, ad makers and the field of advertising:

1. In the advertising field, those who can devise innovative lies and creative ideas to entice and cheat people are more respected and rewarded than those who love standards, values and virtues of the motherland concerned.

2. I believe that 80% of the ads we are seeing today in print, electronic and other places of public visibility are aimed at drawing our attention among a multitude of similar phenomena and distractions around us.

3. Every company is spending a lot of money now for advertising knowing that there will never be reliable data to decide how many of their target or other audience really bought their products being influenced by those ads.

4. Most of the ads feature girls and ladies if the product is something related to enhancement of beauty and overall look. Ad makers want females to be objects of public show. Majority girls and ladies invest a lot on beautification.

5. Mahatma Gandhi appears in many places in our regions in the form of statues, on books and currency notes but how many of us are following the ideals believed and practiced by him. We are insulting him this way daily.

6. Many write their names on trees, rocks, walls and many such other imaginable places of accessibility and visibility to share their story of love with others. How many of us take them seriously? It is tragic facet of advertising.

7. The primary goal of almost every ad is to motivate and make others buy a product, which they may not need at all. Creating more and more desires and needs in human beings is the objective of ads and ad makers now.

8. The mania of advertising is like a deadly infection. Majority firms and persons spend a lot on advertising, not because they strongly need it but because being influenced by the contemporary trends of ads and culture.

9. If a company is spending huge money on advertising alone every year, it means the products it is producing and promoting has no worth at all. Carbonated drinks, spicy foods, fancy gifts are some of this worst lot.

10. Shallow and worthless politicians spend huge money on promoting themselves. We see their photos everywhere because they have no worth of their own at all. Worthy people don’t crave artificial promotion.

11. The means and ways of advertising became so bizarre and nasty now that there is no common sense and logic at all in them. Ad makers turned lunatic and sadistic in this setting. They paste ads on genitals also if we like!

12. Advertising made human beings and many other creatures into pitiable entities of living. Many formats of ads lack humanity and kindness. One example is ‘some folks standing or walking, carrying ad material, along roads’.

13. Ads made our lives and professions so restless and imbalanced that we often feel like fleeing to some deep forest or valley where visuals and sounds of ads do not disturb us at all. Ads are chasing us like ghosts everywhere!

14. We can partly understand the tradition and culture of a nation or region watching the ads being made and presented there by native or foreign ad makers. Ad makers try to reach the hearts of viewers creatively.

15. If every entrepreneur, in every part of the world, stops spending on advertising completely and starts focusing deeply on the qualities and reliability of the products and services on sale, we can see a better world soon!

16. If there are no stringent mechanisms and policies of regulation on advertising in a nation, those people degrade rapidly in every imaginable way. India is the best example for it. Here governments love money, not people.

17. Advertising is a world of fancies, illusions, dreams, lies, avoidable desires and imaginations. Ad makers struggle a lot to awake these hidden demerits in their target audience and make them live in that crazy and fantastic world.

18. Celebrities are the worst lot in the sphere of advertising. They should actually guide their admirers and people from darkness to light but most of them are actually throwing them into a mire of dirt, stupidity and nonsense.

19. A nation should ban all kinds of ads in their land to make people alert, discretionary and intelligent. If there are no ads, everybody buys goods after personal judgment. They develop loyalty depending on quality only.

20. Most of the models acting in ads do not have self-esteem. They act according to the instructions of ad makers for the sake of false prestige and money only. Persons with values seldom earn money exhibiting their bodies!

21. If there are more visuals and sounds in an ad than the actual product and discussion of its merits, it means there is almost nothing in it which is beneficial to us from any perspective. Identify dirty products this way easily!

22. Ads before films, between television serials and in live telecasts are like an unnecessary mediator between two passionate and young lovers getting ready to hug tightly after a long time. We bear with him for some time only!

23. Ad makers lack common sense, kindness and vision. They think that a million viewers and listeners are anxiously waiting to see their ads. The fact is they are making ads to be hated and scolded by them continuously!

24. If any product or service won the hearts of millions of people within a short period of time, without ads at all, it is one of the greatest inventions or attractions of that time. Mouth publicity is the greatest ad of all times.