Not in so many words!

As I watch more and more TV these days, whether I'm waiting at a dentist's or at a restaurant or in a line at the billing counter, I find myself waiting for the programme/ song to end and for the commercial break to begin..
Why? Since I'm never too tired for a tirade, let the rhetoric begin...

Small is beautiful, Less is more...

"eppudu occham annadi kaadanniya, bullet diginda leda annadi"

This being the presiding rule of thumb in today's life and media, and sometimes where the bullet isn't just a metaphor, the fifteen seconds/minutes/days of fame has to be the most aspired for ambition in most lives today.

From reality shows to being a participant of the numerous dance/singing/idol/stunt/talent competitions, it's not the title or the award but this that they all seem to really want.

And amidst all the players involved, the TV channel, the programme producers, the participants/actors, the so called judges, the Phone networks, the one player that seems to be making a direct impact and influence on the audience and gain from all this is the ADVERTISING sector.

Most ads today do not market their products or the brand image of the company but market a way of life that one should aspire for.

Since, the entire picture isn't possible, in most cases not immediately and in some not ever, the product becomes the sole goal for instant gratification.
A car company says they mean joy, a clothes brand sells appearances and in a country where we still have B/W TVs and six hour power cuts, there are advertisements to lure the working middle class families into high quality, digital output viewing, and its not TV any more but an experience to vie for.

The best advertisement in this category award certainly to our Mobile phone service providers whose service is shoddy at best and non existent ten kilometres out of the city precincts, rendering even the best 3G equipped phone useless.

Then there are ads that play to your other feelings, making you smile and also making you proud.
Ready made slogans about your rural counterparts, that no one, not even they themselves can paint in such bright and happy colours, and what is the best method for them, not to use a particular product but for the best method to live in this so called modern world and to emulate this frenetic pace of life that is headed nowhere.

Celebrities using their personal lives as attention gaining magnets, and ad makers bring in more children, attributing to the cute factor of an ad, ensuring it lasts longer in our memories, thereby guaranteeing that even if I don't really like the product, I will remember the product and try it out!

The newest trend also gaining interest and becoming a theme contender for most ads, is going Green.
And to their benefit, most of the people who go with the flow on this one, are ill informed and are so apathetic to the state of nature around them, that just by buying this so called green friendly product, they assuage their peer guilt.

And then come the entertaining advertisements, ads that we remember for the music, the style, innovation and the visual quality meaning not only the graphics but also the locations and the models both!
Again, providing the product maker/seller a solid hold on to people's subtler emotions therefore creating more sales.

A rough categorization now in place, I stop to marvel, not at myself, but at the reach of these teeny tiny videos, media that we are exposed to such an extent, that we cannot help but be influenced, and carried with the flow.

Then why is there a sense of being manipulated or is it just me being paranoid?

I am not sure what the statistics suggest but this player makes money, gets attention and also manages to entertain, unlike the shows themselves.

And this last factor being the part why they manage to influence people into buying what they are selling, not just the physical commodity but also the ideology that they are propagandizing!

Nevertheless, whatever the reasons, this portion of media is more powerful today than all our news channels and serials and everything on TV put together, because, they are precise and easy to digest, and what's more come with a delightful after taste that too with a flavour of your own choice and making.

And I'm certainly not complaining..at least not much!