The Media Transition

I was born in the great cosmopolitan city of Mumbai in a decade which kids of my age would call the true golden period. That of course has nothing to do with any technological advancement that happened in the time. Yes, we got something called the dial-up, but c’mon, I would say that the 21^st century is the time which truly deserves the internet era badge. Besides, who didn’t hate those cursed modem noises in the middle of the night, putting a damper on the plans?

No. When I talk of the golden age, I talk about the great age of the cartoons. The time when five year olds didn’t have to go through the ordeal known to us as “Oswald the octopus” or “Kipper the dog”. Kids didn’t have to wait entire ten minutes to watch as the octopus walked down to the candy store with his pet hotdog (seriously!! Who wrote that stuff??)  And then ended up being sad because he got only one scoop instead of two. Nah!! We were born in the age of Swat Kats, Ninja Robots, the centurions and most importantly Speed Racer. We didn’t watch cartoons which had enough sugar coating to give you diabetes. If any of those guys ran out of ice-cream, they would find a way to get some, not pet something which should be in the tummy. It’s no wonder children are put-off with the jstuff. I would never watch a cartoon named “Samsher Sikandar Aur Uske Chaddi Buddies” (not making this up). 

When I talk of media transitions, I guess as much as I’d like to continue with the problems in animation world, the thing which desperately needs the attention of some sane people is the advertising industry. I remember the “Mother Dairy” advertisements from near around 1995, the one with the “Doodh, Doodh, Doodh…” jingle. Now that’s what somebody would call a decent ad Or the ads by coca-cola which immortalised Aamir Khan’s and Aishwarya Rai’s faces on dhabha menu’s across the country. Those made sense. They advised you to enjoy a cold drink, to chill. Not like the recent cold drink ads which show people strapped to sofas and getting chucked of airplanes to get a thrill and enjoy a drink or Akshay Kumar running through an entire obstacle course around an area to get a ten rupee bottle of “thumbs-up”.

Yup, that’s what the adverts have become over the past fifteen years, from subtly advising you to buy the product to getting thrown off charter planes. The drinks haven’t become any better, but the ads have gone bizarre. The Pepsi Co' ads for example, with the “Youngistan” campaign tried to rally the youth into purchasing the drink. And dare I say it, the thing worked. Seeing people hold cans the way they did in the ads was a shocker, but I guess they proved a point. People do follow these ads pretty seriously, the people at the ad agencies seemed to have realised this and so does the censorship board, with it displaying disclaimer messages after every ad “This is a graphic generated stunt, PLELASE DONOT JUMP OFF A DAMN PLANE WITHOUT A PARASHUTE!!”. It’s sad really.

The field is really too big with the movies and television shows bringing about a big change in the media to actually cover. The change is just too much. Plots go for a toss in movies and soaps don’t seem to know when to end, even when the main concept story has long been over. Heck, the lead actor goes old, but the show must go on!! , well that is until the show just suddenly goes off air without so much as a good-bye show and is replaced by another one without any difference to those who watch them. Like un-caring zombies people are.

I guess I’ve made my point though. Things are changing and they change because public thinking is changing. Just wish they wouldn’t consider the viewer’s so dense as to actually get impressed with the trends they try to set.