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.
