even we don't trust ourselves now

The latest cosmetic rage in India is bleaching creams for men. Plenty of brands spend a lot of money to convince you that if you are dark, you will not be attractive. One company has roped in Shahrukh Khan to peddle it's whitening cream. You can see one sad boy stealing his sister's bleach, and then Shahrukh Khan tells him that why use womens bleach when you have your own. And lo, the dude, with obvious dark stuff painted on him, suddenly turns into a white, 'handsome' man with his chick by his side.

The love for all things western can be seen in the fairness cream ads as well. One cream claims it is better because it has "American lipids." Last I checked, there was no compound called American lipids, and if they mean that the lipids are made in America, I doubt that claim as well, because I am sure most of the lipids that are in America are probably made in a third world country.

Then there is another ad which says it's product is certified by the "American Testing Center." I am on the internet, and I just googled for it, and there is no such American Testing Center. I wonder which America they went to.

The point is that in order to sell wares, Indian FMCG companies are getting shallower by the day. There is an extremely shallow ad in which one man is talking loudly in his cubicle about his branded clothes and shoes in a funny accent. One young lady, very impressed by his brands, looks at him but then turns away in disdain because the glasses he is wearing aren't branded. The tag line is "If you don't have a brand, you have nothing."

I thought this was shallow, till I saw this ad for a fairness cream in which they paint a Caucasian (white) man dark and then he puts on this cream to be white again and of course, he gets his girl who had rejected him earlier for being too dark.

This leads me to believe that materialism seems to be driving out morals from our society. Today's kids know more about brands and Bollywood than anything else. We truly seem to going to the American way, at least our cities - greater affluence but more dumbed down youth. sad, just sad.