Jago to nonsense

Two companies seem to have this social relevance thing all figured out. They are Tata Tea (the Jagoo spots) and Idea Cellular Services. The former’s ads show (a) a voter asking a candidate if he has any experience in roads, bridges, and the rest and (b) an obnoxious young chap telling a middleclass group that if they are not voting on election day, they are asleep. Idea’s ads equate learning English with education.  

The reason why Idea disgusts me needn’t be explained. It’s shameful we have to indulge this racial bullshit in 2008.

But Tata Tea is more subtle. The voter’s ire with the candidate is all wrong. He says the candidate should have experience of ‘running the country’. Actually, that’s only the ministers’ job, and only to a well-defined extent. A legislator’s main task is making laws. Even if he is to be included in a cabinet, he should bother more about policy than day-to-day operations. In fact, the trouble with our corrupted systems can be drilled down to legislators getting out of the law, which we elected them to frame, and getting into ‘running the country’, which we actually pay the civil servants to do.  

And too many statisticians have pointed out too often that single votes cannot count. If the middleclass, as a group, decide that none of the candidates reflect their ideas, or they’d be equally unhappy if any of the candidates gets elected, they are better off treating election day as a holiday. Anyway, I wonder what this tea company wants to be associated with, and why. 

Has someone out there figured out that if we perceive them as wasting money, we will also think they are doing so well that they have money to burn, and this is only possible if their product is exceptionally good (Much like a great batsman mocking bowlers).