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Of Marriages & Products

by Heta Trivedi| Ahmedabad, India
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
tags: asia, consumer culture, culture, fuzzy sets, making sense
I love our Big Fat Indian weddings. The colourful mandaps and the phera-chori, the mehendi and the mithai, the glittering bridal nathni and the bridegroom’s shehra, the kanyadaan and the bidaai – all of these are exciting yet intimate moments shared between family and friends.
Does the rest of India also love it? Perhaps it does, both in real and reel life. The two-decade long obsession and popularity with the elaborate Indian wedding is easily apparent in Bollywood movies and satellite television, attracting audiences by the millions. The import of this is not lost on the image-makers branding the Wedding as a luxury product to be consumed in vast proportions.
One often sees advertisements using the backdrop of the Indian Wedding against which to position their products. From sarees, jewellery, suit materials to bank insurances, from lifestyle accessories to food items – Indian weddings have them all.
Let’s do a flashback scenario in a stereotypical context where a young couple is shown nodding to the formalities of the insurance policy. It is almost impossible to get anyone on a rational platform today, leave alone explain benefits! It is, after all an image driven society! Today, many related products with or without any matrimonial implication ride on the Indian wedding as a backdrop. The question is not whether these ads are successful or not, but how marriage as a sign helps connects people to products and brands.
Other products like the fairness cream; – e.g Vicco turmeric or the Raymond suitings too have explored the wedding themes. For example the jingles of “banno teri ankhiyan” that were played in the oldest Vicco ads were an anthem in those days and all one could remember were around twenty women applying haldi to the bride. Also, the Titan ad showing a young girl playing piano for her sister was designed along similar lines. More than the brands, the jingles; the context; the gaze; the expressions have not been forgotten.
A recent survey shows that there is an increase in the new age ‘live in’ relationships. Well, our advertising certainly seems to be replaying the good old stable institution of marriage. One wonders if marriage has become as much of a ‘product’ as are the brands themselves. Either ways, the brands are laughing all the way to the bank! Marriage anyone?
© Heta Trivedi 2012
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz3o1PS7IFo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BRYGTqouuE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvx8pB9Ivoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZq10WlFQlk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3jEffr4mWQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg_As8OycpY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOeUssxuz5U
And brush up your wedding vocabulary:
Phera – Rounds taken by husband and wife around the sacrificial fire
Chori – Structure made of wood or steel under which the rituals of a Hindi wedding take place
Banno teri ankhiyan – a famous song in Hindi language that is sung during weddings
Haldi – Turmeric