DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

Okay, I agree I am little late on this topic but hey, blogging wasn’t exactly my first priority in my holiday list. Anyway getting back to the Amul Macho Ad and the controversy around it, for those who haven’t seen or heard of the commercial, this is what it’s all about –

A newly married woman entering a ‘dhobi ghat’, the camera lingering all over her with the glimpse of other women eyeing her inquisitively. Regardless of their stares, the woman opens up her bundle of clothes and no guesses here the very first garment she pulls out is the Amul Macho underwear belonging to her husband.

She then starts brushing it, and through her (crazy lip twitching) expressions, it is clear that she visualizes that her man is still wearing it. The women surrounding her also are drawn in by her fantasy, so much so that when she raises a bat-like object the women cringe at the thought of her ‘man’ being thrashed like that. The ad ends with the newlywed stretching the underwear in her hands, while the voiceover concludes, ‘Amul Macho. Crafted for Fantasies’.

Now though the controversial commercial was cleared by the Advertising Standards Councils of India (ASCI) on the complaints of being ‘indecent’ and ‘obscene’, there are many who still feel such advertisements would only encourage others to follow the same path.

On a personal front, I think the Amul Macho commercial is quite amusing and it plays with one’s own sensibilities. Agreed, it borders on a fine line between humor and crude humor but come on after shit that gets thrown our way, thanks to the Hindi Film Industry and to some extent certain television shows, I think “Crafted for Fantasies” is quite bearable. But then I also have to add that my mum doesn’t think on the same lines as me.

According to her, the commercial is cheap, portrays women in a “lusty” manner and is no-way suited to be aired during prime-time television viewing. Which I also agree to, to a certain extent, I mean just the other day my 6 years old nephew went around the house asking “Yeh toing toing kya hai?” and while I laughed my ass off, clearly my family members weren’t too impressed.

But I guess that’s what the basic aim is behind all product promotion activities – Brand Recollection, be it the good way or the crude way. And the guys at Saints & Warriors (ad agency) did exactly that for their clients.

Another thing that I found a little comical is in their letter to Amul Macho executives and the agency on the account; ASCI said “As per their (CCC’s) decision, the complaint has not been upheld. The CCC concluded that the advertisement was not so obscene as to give rise to grave or widespread offence.”

Now what the heck do they mean by “so obscene”, can somebody be nice enough to let me know how one could measure obscenity, vulgarism and the likes?