Falling in love anywhere is easy; staying in love anywhere is tough. Yet each country poses its own unique cultural and social challenges to the human race when it comes to love. The west is perceived as a place where the entire multitude is still writhing in the ecstasy of the 60’s. It is not the permissive nature of the nation that gives this impression, it is the media projected out of there, into millions of middle class Indian homes. Thank you cable TV. I am not going to rant about how twisted that makes our slightly prudish minds, I am genuinely thankful to Cable TV. It has opened a whole new chapter of entertainment for me, considering my idea of fun was the outdoors and books. A good combination according to my parents but teenagers needed more than that. Suddenly everything was so colourful and loud, that’s my most vivid memory of 24x7 TV viewing. I remember the Valentine months most. Every show had a ‘valentine’ episode, every product had a ‘valentine’ promise and every channel had ‘valentine’ specials. I am quite sure there was an Ad for coconut oil that promised ‘Valentine Beau’ attracting tresses in a week. Thankfully it aired a fortnight before ‘Valentine’s Day’.
Unregulated cable TV seeped into Indian life around the time of the Gulf War in 1991. Metropolitan cities in India could view live broadcasts of glowing scuds whizzing across Kuwaiti skies, courtesy CNN. Shortly after that came the day time soaps, some of which are still revered by the now 30 + year old Indians. The third momentous entry was definitely MTV, with its brazen attitude, mind numbing graphics and freaky dating shows. You could practically see the minds blossoming right out our skulls.
Things are more or less the same 15 years down the line. There are more channels, more products and more ‘this and that days’, but the marketing blitz for Valentine’s comes in a close second after Diwali. Locally every restaurant and store has a promotion aimed at lovers of all kinds, young, old, just friends, mistresses, crushes and of course teens. Nationally, FMCG and Fashion brands cash in on this occasion. The Indian psyche has morphed itself slowly but surely. We don’t condone ‘love marriages’ yet all our kids are manically buying Valentine paraphernalia every February 14th. We don’t approve of dating among our teenaged kids yet each one of them knows when Valentine’s Day is versus when Gandhi was assassinated. Love makes the retail world go round, money makes the real world go around.
So far the general perception and awareness about Valentine’s Day is limited to the love between a man and a woman. This makes the marketing efforts concentrated towards the youth of India, 51% of India is below 25. So I am guessing it is fair to call this kind of product pushing an ‘advertising frenzy’. If only the awareness could be brought up a notch and India would realize that Valentine’s Day celebrates love, all kinds of love.
I can picture Kingfisher Airlines doing a ‘Senior’s Valentine’s Special’. Any Indian couple over 65 years old, flies to any one of the ten listed romantic destinations in India at half the price. Now, open this promotion to foreigners. Give them Agra for the Taj, Goa for the party, and Ladhakh for the mountains, give them an Indian love experience. China attracts 87 million tourists a year versus India’s measly 2.5 million. We need to hop on the global media bandwagon, make ourselves heard, make ourselves seen, and make ourselves marketable. Let cable TV be our guiding light. It is time to wake up and take stock of every day that means something to somebody and then sell, sell, sell!
Happy Valentine’s Day. Do check out our eclectic collection of ‘love’ images on Photosindia.com. ; )
View Valentine 2008 Stock Photos by PhotosIndia.com
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