We moved from the US to India expecting to get our desi on. You know, get back to our roots, gain some cultural sensitivity and all that jazz. Yeah lofty ideals, for sure. But what makes it harder is that India seems to have a little identity crisis going on.
You don’t have to look very far. Drive down the road and you’ll see a bunch of billboards. Nothing new there, right? India has always had a thing for billboards. Remember those guys precariously perched on a makeshift scaffolding while painting bright orange faces of Tamil actors on movie hoardings? (Yup, I’m that old). But now things are different. All of a sudden there’s a bunch of white people smiling down from billboards, selling us stuff.
Take Amazon India billboards, for instance.
The women’s clothes are advertised by the girl next door. If you happen to live next door to a Swedish super model.
It’s not just Amazon, which has the excuse of being “international.” I came across a bunch of clothing sites which have white models on their websites.
There’s Jabong. It’s an Indian site for Indians to shop at. Except, their homepage looks like this:
Essentially, Jabong seems to be a career site for models who didn’t make it big in Eastern Europe.
On a side note: Dear Jabong, “View Women” and “View Men” doesn’t really come off as family-friendly shopping. You’ve perhaps heard of the porn ban in India? Yeah, you might want to contact your web page designer asap.
And it goes on…
And for the love of kurtis! Even “ethnic wear” has models who look distinctly un-Indian.
On a second side note: Is that really a saree? Really? (Yup, I’m that old).
Then, of course, there’s seasonal collections for seasons which till 10 years ago didn’t exist in India. Like this Autum-Winter collection on Amazon.
Autumn in India? The crunch of Fall leaves and the crisp evening air? The smell of apple cider wafting through your kitchen? Pumpkin picking and a salted caramel latte at Starbucks? Ahem. In India, Fall = Summer minus the need for air conditioning. So, retailers, don’t try to sell us a new clothes based on wannabe weather changes. Or if you have to, try the Monsoon collection and the It’s-Hot-as-Hell collection. And, really, this polka-dot-dress wearing girl looks like she should be sipping an espresso in a cafe in Paree, not roaming the streets of Bangalore.
But, seriously, why is the message we’re getting that foreign = cool. And, more specifically, white = beautiful. (If the excuse is that these are international brands, where are the black and Hispanic models?)
I want my kids to be comfortable in their own skin. Their “role models” are anyways airbrushed and Photoshop-ed. I get that advertising is sell you an aspiration, but should the mantra really be, “Aspire to be American.” Oh, waitaminit! My kids are American. And, guess what? Some Americans are brown!
So, here’s a message for the ad world: Get real, people. We live in India. The message to our young people should be: Aspire to be uniquely YOU.
Whatever shade you come in.
