Golden Mean is the Golden Rule

It is opined that "old is gold", atleast for those who honour the old ways. Seasoning is something that is synonymous with experience. Perhaps that is the reason why most of the jobs still have seniority as the most important attribute for promotions. Further, vintage articles have an inherent value attributed to them. This is more so when these articles become rare and, speaking colloquially, get coated with the patina of a bygone era.

Nevertheless, the present generation—our "demographic dividend"—tends to treat atleast some aspects of the old generation with an indifferent attitude at best or with a mild form of contempt in the worst. This is partly because of the friction that happens when the old traditions come to clash with the new ones. What, however, should be kept in mind is that the seasoned individuals have gone through many phases in life in an entirely different scenario, and sailed successfully through turbulent weathers. For them too, adjustment to the new customs is a big hurdle given that their methods of work had proved reasonably well for them in their times.

Change is the law of nature. In the words of a character in an Anita Desai novel, "the wheel [of time] turns and turns and turns. It never stops and stands still". Adaptation is the only [Darwinian] mechanism for survival; the other choice is to perish. It can be seen that this mechanism has been adopted by not just living beings, but institutions too, which behave as organic entities to ensure their survival. Most of my article will focus on the advertising industry and its effects on our minds. Thereafter, I'll try to present my case of why there should be a balance between the views of various age-groups of the population.

I had, long back during my school days, read a Hindi essay titled "Vigyapan Yug" (the age of advertisements). The author had commented, quite satirically, on the omnipresence of advertisement jingles in our times. The traditional methods of promotion through newspapers magazines and pamphlets were supplemented by the information and broadcasting revolutions (read radio and television). Since the 1980s, all thanks to the Information and Communication Technology revolution ushered in by Rajiv Gandhi-Sam Pitroda duo, advertisements have started travelling at a lightning pace. This has been bolstered by the social media, which has now been bestowed with government sanction as valid mass media.

Apart from the means of communication employed for advertising, the methods employed for selling products have been revised. There was a change in the nature of the television commercials to bring innovativeness in the field of marketing. The services of professional animation experts, lyricists, singers with a "different" voice, movie actors, sports persons, etc., have been employed by the "marketing experts", or "ad-gurus". The "kya aap Close-up karte hain" (do you use Close-up toothpaste?) jingle, Vodafone Zoo-zoos, "Ullu banao-ing" campaign of Idea Cellular, "milawat ke khilaaf jung" (war against adulteration) of Sahara Q-Shop are all examples of this. This "marketing" became the mantra because in the age of cut-throat competition brought by the trinity of globalisation-liberalization-privatization and the "free market economy", market forces necessitated that not only do the products need to be of uncompromising quality but the consumers also need to be made aware of the presence of these products (sometimes even at the expense of the quality because the overall selling price of the product could be kept low only if the quality was compromised, given the escalating marketing costs). It seems regrettable that news channels too have been smitten by this bug. Media as an industry (media houses being owned by corporate players) seems solely motivated by betterment of Television Rating Points (TRPs), increasing the sales of magazines/newspapers, etc. Adding to this is the "brand culture" associated with products. Big multinational corporations (MNCs), after establishing their firm hold in the market by capturing a sizeable market share among a particular segment of customers, escalate the selling price of their goods because of their supposedly superior quality and technology. The use of technological jargons as a rhetoric has the purpose of luring the consumers into believing that the product being marketed is the best in its league. Then, there is the pressure of continuously updating the products, even with trivial features, so that there is no perceived stagnation in the product among the consumers.

While criticizing the price revisions done by the MNCs, I do not say that everything is unfairly done. Some revisions have to be done due to the rising costs of inputs that go into the production. However, if the profit margins of the MNCs are scrutinized, one can very well conclude that such a burden on the consumers is unwarranted. What else can explain the fact that the showrooms sell their products during "off-season sale" at 40-50 per cent discount on the marked prices? This is done to clear the inventories. Still, it just isn't possible that these products are being sold at a loss to the company—no company/enterprise is such a philanthropist as to distribute freebies. I've even seen some of the shops place donation boxes at their counters for philanthropic/humanitarian initiatives. Since I've not researched into the veracity of their claims, I will not comment on this front.

Another aspect of this maze is the "managerial class". Most of the better brains of the nation, after passing out from top-notch engineering colleges, are lured by the private sector and the money being offered by MNCs. Thus, they go for a post-graduate diploma from a reputed "B-school". Thereafter, this managerial class acts as a link between the lower level workers and the entrepreneurs in the private sector. This very class is also the one that mans the marketing units of private sector companies. The class composition of B-school students outlines that management education is difficult to afford for lower-middle class people and those from the poor strata of society. Outliers from these B-schools are people such as Chhavi Rajawat, who use their management education to efficiently administer the Panchayati Raj Institutions in villages, thus contributing largely to the Indian society (real India still lives in the villages).

The consumers (I refer to an average middle-class consumer) do not seem to mind most of the price rises—a large fraction of these consumers themselves are accustomed to working in such MNCs, and thus, have a good purchasing power. Thus, the whole money seems to get circulated in a closed loop. The only beneficiaries of redistribution of income are the lower level workers who render their services to the people through these MNCs and the agriculturists who sell their goods as inputs to such MNCs. On the other hand, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail sector hasn't seemed to favourably affect the interests of small and medium traders, as of now.

A positive step by the Parliament—the Companies Act, 2013—has mandated the companies (which are above a certain threshold level in terms of their annual turnover/profits/net worth) to use 2 per cent of the average profits made by them in the preceding three years under Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Another positive step was to mandate the insurance companies to broadcast and telecast the disclaimer clauses in their policies at a slow pace on the radio and television respectively, and to publish them in large font size on the policy documents.

It is not that the advertising industry is always used to make huge monetary gains. Sometimes, social sector initiatives of the government, of NGOs reach a large spectrum of people through this very industry.

Now, I'll revert to the content of my first two paragraphs. We can learn a lot from the older generation. Any decision-maker is able to make a wise decision only after examining an issue from multiple dimensions. The previous generations have given us very good tools of analysis. Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony feels particularly relevant in analyzing the methods employed by the advertising industry. The intelligent amalgamation of technological jargons, marketing offers and the artificially created demand for material consumer products clearly points towards a post-modern propaganda of superstition (superstition earlier used to be mostly associated with religion). The industry has worked in such a manner as to make the consumers feel that buying "more", buying "latest" equipments are not a fad but common sense. This strategy is esoteric, confined mostly to the coterie of individuals who artificially create demand for material things in the name of better products.

It is often said that the best things in life are free [monetarily, that is; else they are priceless]. Happiness is not achieved through material comforts, given that the desire for material pleasures is otherwise insatiable. This can be seen from the examples of great men, who lived a very simple and austere life. A prominent example is of India's former President Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdin Abdul Kalam. Another one, from an age long gone by, is of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The tools (Gramscian) given by the older generation are very helpful in the analysis of an event, the motives behind people's behaviour, the positives and negatives of any action that we undertake, etc. The energy of the youth and the experiences of the senior generation can symbiotically work towards achieving the benefit of all. In this, the Aristotlean maxim of golden mean being the golden rule (corroborated in fiction by the imaginary place Shangri-La in James Hilton's "The Lost Horizon") comes in very handy. Thus, a mean must be taken between the two generations' views.