What's on tonight?

It’s a little past nine in the evening, and I’m home after a long day at the office. This is my favourite time of the day. I’m unloading and unwinding. I have my feet up on the coffee table, and I’m flipping channels without really paying attention. Until…

“Baap pe mat jaana!”
I hurriedly press a button on the remote to diffuse Dolly Bindra and exit the Bigg Boss house, only to find another channel detonating on my TV screen. Three politicians, a social commentator and a career ranter are trying to be heard above their own din (sounds like the opening line of a classic joke, doesn’t it?), but the differing points of view leave no room for reasonable debate.

 

I press the button again, and see a commercial for an insurance company unlike anything I can remember seeing in this category. Two of the most explosive batsmen India has ever produced are speaking introspectively about the consequences of losing form.

In the clamour of opinions, in the race for viewership, in the wake of ‘anything goes’ content, the honest sincerity of this spot really stood out. It’s quiet, reasonable, sincere, thoughtful, thought provoking, and different.

It’s real.

Not ten quasi-celebs locked up in a camera-laden house real. Not expose love rats through hidden camera sting operation real. Not bickering broad-based political debate on news real.

No, it’s you and me real. When the commercial ended, I beat a hasty retreat again as the channel unleashed some sari-clad multiple gold necklace festooned saas and her blighted bahus on me.

It really is an idiot box these days.

Flipping through the channels once more, I found refuge in another commercial. This one had two lovers parting, then coming together, then parting, then coming together several times for a cellular service provider.

And then it hit me. I was doing the exact opposite of what I usually do. Channel surfing to avoid the programmes, and watching ads instead.

Is it just me? I don’t think so. Content is becoming crass, and commercials are becoming classier. Content is getting vulgar, and advertising more aesthetic. Content is more dumbed down, and advertising just that little bit more intelligent.

Witness the motorcycle commercial where Aamir Khan tells us we can all do the stunts he’s just performed, or the delightful new soft drink commercial featuring his nephew’s shadowy hand. Another of my recent favourites is a denim brand for women, which says shape matters more than size.

All of which is excellent news for people like me. But the folks who create content for television are going to have to work a little harder. Because if they don’t, one of these days you’re going to sit down with your family for an evening in front of the telly, and discover that the only wholesome family entertainment you can all watch together, is one of my ads.

The good bit is it will be over in thirty seconds. The not-so-good bit would be your kid, pestering you to buy whatever brand I was advertising for weeks after.

(The author is Executive Creative Director, Dentsu Creative Impact