Advertisements are meant to sell products and they could be humorous, witty, serious...Hell, it could be a tiny feature in itself. But sometimes they can be downright ridiculous. Now the ideal, mature thing would be to not read too much into them but then again...In my case I am riled up about a very specific ad. The advertisement was meant to introduce a watermelon flavoured gum. So, the scene is set such- there is a nakabandi, and the traffic police is looking for helmetless bike riders. Our protagonist, this smart, young fellow rides up and realizes he cannot afford to get caught. Sooo...he pops the flavoured gum and voila! He spots a young kid eating a melon(melon flavoured gum, kid eating gum...see the connection?), fashions a helmet out of the watermelon skin and drives through the nakabandi with the traffic police gawking at him. Smart, right? I beg to differ. What the advertisement does not show and people won’t tell you is that if that young man were to be in an accident, there is a strong chance his head will be squashed....like a melon.
Then again, I am sure the makers did not mean to, but when you create advertisements like these, I get the distinct message that government campaigns for safety are an absolute waste of time. Hell, the safety industry is a sham. Ride without helmets, drink and drive....everyone is destined to die eventually. Alright, I probably got carried along.
My point though is that our sense of survival is sort of dulling. Not the smartest observation but gives me something to think about. Every other day we hear about people losing their lives while they try to travel on train rooftops. Did they miss the safety posters glaring down at you on stations, or nor hear the irritatingly repetitive announcements pleading with you not to ride on rooftops cause it is dangerous, that is played before every train journey begins and then again between stations, or on platforms? What could possibly be more precious than your life?
But, let us give these disillusioned supermen the benefit of doubt. But how does it make sense travel so when the trains are not splitting at the seams from carrying almost thrice the number of passengers than was intended. I know we all feel like the superstars in our lives but do we really believe we can defy death by simply being our awesome selves?
Or is it that our sense for survival, our instincts is dulling because we have begun leading comparatively comfortable lives. What will it take to shake us out of our apathy?
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