"mummy mai bada to ho raha hoon par badoonga kab" translates to "mummy I am growing up (age-wise) but when will I actually grow-up (height-wise).
Another lame kid worried about his vital stats.
In a weird race to promote their health drinks, Horlicks, Bournvita, Boost and Complan are coming up with atrocious ads that suggests that if a kid consumes their product, he/she is bound to be a constantly-charged up all-rounder or taller or stronger or sharper that his/her peers. They're using stats as a tool to promote their drinks without anyone questioning them about how they carry out these trials and how do they normalize the various groups for genetic variation for tallness. It is really sad that there's no one to question their methods and consequently use the self-generated information to promote their product.
I dislike all other ads as well but this ad by Complan really make all my body hair (oh so many) stand in irritable attention. The Stupid kid talks as if he's keeping a tab on his height:weight and genetic aspects and is disappointed with his growth which should be greater.
I think Complan ads of the yester-years, when we were kids in the 1980s and 90s weren't abhorrent where a cute little brother sister duo would compete to do difficult physical tasks and if the little sister wasn't able to, the bro would jump in and help her, with the song playing in the background "yeh hai badta baccha dekho kaisi kood lagaye, yeh hai badta baccha kapda chhota hota jaye" the ad was also shown in English and the song went something like this "He's a growing boy, look how he's shooting up. He's a growing boy his clothes are just not keeping up." and the boy hold out a cup of Complan in his hand and says "I'm a Complan boy" then his sister jumps in, elbows him gently and says "I'm a Complan girl". So it was about boy-girl equality in out son-possessed society and also about the happiness of parents watching their children grow up. Now it seems like they're competing with everything around them. I hope we don't have a Complan ad in the near future with kids trying to outgrow trees. I won't be surprised!
This is, in one way, another way of promoting lame ideas into our megalomaniac society. Everyone should be that tad bit taller, stronger, sharper and last but not least, to possess white skin.
I'm not against kids consuming health drinks, I'm against these companies promoting their products the way they are. It's doing no one any good but only adding to the muck in the heads of the nouveau-riche Indian citizen who's already bombarded with a plethora of advertisement convincing him that something is wrong with his height, his hair, his colour and his body and that all these "faults" can be mended using particular products. It's a shame because companies do nothing but cash in on the thinking of the public. They'll survey and find out what the common thinks and what the common will buy if the product is projected a certain way.
Therefore before I say the they suck (the companies), I'd say We Suck!
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