TV Advertising in India

While watching the semi-final and finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL), I was reacquainted with the TV advertising in India. In the West, we feel rather blasé about advertising and mostly can't have too little of it. Except for the biggest showcase of them all -- the Super Bowl. In general, one would agree that Western advertisements are largely function and relatively very few of them are memorable, as say the Taco Bell Chihuahua or the Slim Mac vs Bloated PC. As an observer of consumer psychology and of marketing in general, I made some observations.

The Lighting
First of all the bright lighting and consequent filtering is ubiquitous, as if we are watching the advertisements in an idealized world. This lighting may be called the Latin Soap Opera lighting, but it has very direct importance -- to make the persons look whiter than they are, and therefore more of an authority figure. Patriotic as the Indians are, they always take their cues from the fairer-skinned person.

There is also an unmistakable glow on screen that makes one feel as if they are talking to a deity. It reminds me of flowers and other shapes in psychedelic videos that puts you in a trance and makes you smile and engage.

Everyone is Happy With You
This may be a remnant of the long socialist era, but ALL advertisements show large groups or crowds, and everyone is happy. It is ironic that with the increase in materialism, people are becoming increasingly lonely, but the advertisements portray camaraderie and communal good. The message this may send is: Buy this product, and everyone will be happy, including you. Something that's called a Bandwagon effect to influence the audience. This works because the market is small and not fragmented, as the next step is still pretty basic.

Another way of looking at it is that the advertisers are simply mining the patriotism and nationalism India never had any shortage of, just that the booming economy seems to corroborate it. There is enormous mileage in this approach. Complicated and concerted movements of hundreds of people are a hallmark of Communistic countries. I find it amusing that socialist propaganda ass

High Drama
An Indian advertisement is full of high drama. They don't sell you life insurance by telling you that the breadwinner may die an untimely death, so you better get some backup. Too understated for the Indians. Instead you get a long scene where you're given enough to believe that the breadwinner has been murdered by an intruder, as the housewife returns to a clearly affluent house.

Volume
Everyone knows that the volume goes slightly up during the commercial breaks. We know the volume will go up by 20% or so, and are ready to compensate for it by hitting the mute button, or using functionality that adjusts for it. On Indian TV, the volume may well go up 200%, because no one is regulating that. There has been too much growth in this industry in such a little time, and regulation, as is usual, is slow to catch up. It's a seller's market all the way.

Every culture has its own norms of what is subtle and what's hardball. My observation is that advertisements in growing countries are a whole lot funnier, edgier and entertaining than their counterparts in the developed countries, perhaps because all creativity has been exhaustively mined. Think of the campaign to get Americans to buy toilet paper. The ad campaign had a memorable line, spoken by a child to her mother: They're nice people mommy, but their toilet paper hurts. So it was then in the US, so it is now in India.

Cricket in India

For weeks now the country of India has been awash in the madness brought on by non-stop cricket. Everyone is whoring to get their face on TV. To be associated with the glitz and over-the-top extravaganza that is more entertainment than sport. I can't recall any other sport being afforded such status for such duration anywhere anytime.

It wasn't always so. Before the 1983 Cricket World Cup held in England, there was little cricket on the TV. Few people understood it, and few watched it. The Indian team lost most games anyway, and no one wanted to watch their team lose. The country was socialist and with the edict of self-reliance, there was just too much for everyone to do on a daily basis to allow for obsessions.

The Summer of 1983
That all changed in the Summer of 1983. Late one evening in June 1983, someone told us to tune in to Doordarshan, the only and state-run TV station in India at that time. West Indies were five down, and it appeared that they would lose the final of the 1983 World Cup, and that India, with their rag-tag two-bit outfit, would actually win. Till that time, the only sport India ever won at an international level was field hockey. It was late in the night when the game finished, and I don't remember how it ended. That changed everything. The socialist country had beaten the best in the world at the most hallowed ground. Not once, but twice.

Until that time, most children played other sports for recreation. I didn't even know how to play cricket, and I was not alone. Buoyed by the euphoria of success (As wrote Emily Dickinson -- Success is counted special, by those who ne'er succeed), every parent was buying cricket gear for their children, and the children were hitting some balls. The mood didn't last though, as West Indies toured India and humiliated them. But the deed was done. A whole country turned to a sport, productivity suffered as everyone was glued to their radios for any game of cricket involving India. Grade schoolers ran home during the lunch break to catch some action, were late and received punishments. A whole country, poor and backward, fed on the collective euphoria for a long time.

Endnote
Despite the madness, there is little infrastructure to support new players. The league cricket system is ludicrous. There are not enough facilities and there is little money unless you can make it big on the international level. The advertisers have made money and spent money on themes related to the national gratification brought on by cricket, but very little money has been invested in generating a system to produce better players -- a system where a determined person with talent can succeed. I have seen many talented players give up, and go to the dogs. And that was where the families supported the perilous path of becoming a sports person. Unless that changes, I will remain skeptical of the hype associated with cricket in India.