Re: Sana Safinaz Controversial new ad campaign – What do you think?
I’m sorry but what do you mean by “make them look a little better”? Should they have used a gora chitta model posing as a coolie instead of the dark skinned ones you see in the ad? It’s not like they’re wearing dirty torn clothes so I don’t see what else should have been touched up by the ad makers to make them look better?
And why shy away from the reality? The reality that such a stark contrast does exist between the rich and the poor in the continent. Have we never used the services of a porter like the woman in the ad? Don’t we employ maids and servants? Don’t we have a bulk of the society still living in “jhuggis”? Why portray a fairy tale’ish image of the society when in fact it is far from it?
This uproar reminds me of some of the critics’ comments about Slumdog Millionaire… they complained that a very dark image of India had been portrayed… and people like Amitabh made these comments while sitting in their mansions… yeah guess what, a world exists outside of your palace … poverty is extreme in countries like India and Pakistan… instead of trying to brush it under the carpet, do something about it… Instead of buying a 50,000 ka Sana Safinaz outfit, how many of us will give that money away to the needy? None of us perhaps. Fazool ka rona.