Irresponsible Advertising

Pepsi ad depicts child labor? (via rediff): "PepsiCo India has said that its controversial advertisement allegedly depicting child labour has been off-air since the third week of September.
On Friday, Uma Mamidupudi, a child labour activist from Hyderabad, had filed a public interest litigation against Pepsi in a city court for glorifying child labour. "

Mtv's 'Mtv Housefull' commercial shows a disabled boy hurrying to a movie and not getting tickets. It is all shown in a vein of humor (?). I think Mtv should remove the Housefull commercial too (if it is still on air). You can not make fun of disabled people. No.

Don't the writers at the ad agencies and these Hindi music channels (Mtv and Channel V) think before writing something so insensitive? Sometime back, we had a kid die after trying to bungee jump, after watching a cola commercial. We have precedents. And yet these guys don't relent. It only shows how callous, insensitive, and lame most of our ad makers are.

Take advertising of IT training institutes. I wonder if the copywriters ever bother to research a bit. Today's Hindu (Bangalore edition) carried a front page solus (carries a 100% premium)ad of an IT training company. The copy reads something like "Work on Enterprise Computing projects rather than PC Computing projects." What nonsense? So, in Enterprise computing you don't use PCs? Or Can't one create an enterprise software product using a PC that's not even connected to the Internet? Why do these writers choose to be insufferable? Ok, I have been there and I know it is not easy. Budgets are low. Client is not ready to pay for the creative, and so on. But hey, good work is credibility man. And it is a goddamn FP Solus! I'd give my right arm to write for a FP Solus. And today you can learn about anything under the sun using the Internet. I wonder how many copywriters (especially from small/medium agencies) do it. If you are a copywriter working for a small agency and you want to make it big, follow my advice: Use the net. If you are asked to write a brochure for industrial pumps or enterprise computing or Cryogenic engines... think no further. Google the damn thing.

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