{"id":133675,"date":"2014-11-26T14:00:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T08:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=133675"},"modified":"2014-11-30T11:51:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T06:21:03","slug":"sri-lankaa-offensive-commercials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankaa-offensive-commercials\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka&#8217;a Offensive Commercials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Gamini Dissanayake &#8211;<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_133674\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Gamini-dissa.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-133674\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-133674\" alt=\"Gamini Dissanayake\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Gamini-dissa-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Gamini-dissa-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Gamini-dissa-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Gamini-dissa.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-133674\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gamini Dissanayake<\/p><\/div>\n<p>An annual visitor to Sri Lanka over the past eight years, I have been watching how kids are ruthlessly exploited in over 70 percent of all advertising and commercials.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, we had McDonald\u2019s commercials here like the one \u2018Are we there yet, mommy?\u2019 about 20 years ago. Some of us are familiar with the infamous McLibel Trial in the mid 90s in England and, those myriad protests and charges against Coca Cola, Tobacco Companies and the Big Pharma.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, I am not sure if any other country can beat Sri Lanka in this game now. I watch very little TV wherever I am but what I saw and heard in Sri Lanka\u00a0 have been increasingly disturbing and saddening .<\/p>\n<p>They want you to have unlimited \u2018fun\u2019 plus nutrition from Prima KotthuMe, the two-minute noodles, pop like Coke, Pepsi and Fanta, cakes like Tiara and many kinds of cookies\/biscuits, candy and ice cream. More ambitious claims\u00a0 are made for powdered milk like Nestomalt [for nutrition, energy and strength], Raththi [for smart intelligence, in this case of a young wife] Anchor to win at Chess, and others.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p7mph-nafCw?rel=0;showinfo\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In one clip, a young white mother is visibly overwhelmed, when her toddler correctly identifies a Cat from a line sketch, thanks to Pedia Pro!\u00a0\u00a0 [Never to mother\u2019s milk, no way] Wean early, go Formula and switch to the mother of them all, PediaPro! Thank goodness, breast feeding mothers, in my village told us that their kids hated\/refused the pricey Formula stuff when they were offered.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, this clip which is an import, reminds us that\u00a0 race and colour are still very much in the mix.<\/p>\n<p>It was my turn to be overwhelmed when I saw a near bill board size ad depicting a bunch of kids in the lobby of a new location of the Bank of Ceylon at New Malkaduwawa in Kurunegala.<\/p>\n<p>It was pitching a Kids Savings plan to its customers who are adults, of course. All the kids in the artwork were white!. The simplest of vision needed to have Sri Lanka\u2019s own kids Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim, let alone Burgher, Malay and aboriginal or Veddah kids in that ad was missing and that was amazing. So much for the kids.<\/p>\n<p>This\u00a0 Philips Electric Shaver\u00a0 commercial sponsored by Dinapala Bros.<\/p>\n<p>begins with a young Sri Lankan\u00a0 guy who has not had a shave or a hair cut in the new millennium. He first tries to shave off\u00a0 his beard with a razor with no luck. He burns himself. Picks up an electric shaver. The clip cuts to a close-up of a clean shaven face, of a handsome, well groomed, white guy with blue eyes, caressing his face as if to say \u201ca man can get his\u00a0 best\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 only from a\u00a0 Philips Electric Shaver. The \u201cstate- of- the- art\u201d tool however, is not for a stupid native. [A new razor\u2019s edge?]<\/p>\n<p>In Sinhala, powdered milk, junk food, candy and beverage ads are\u00a0 pitched as <i>rasa guna piri<\/i> meaning rich in taste and nutrition, like those\u00a0 matrimonial print classifieds looking\u00a0 for grooms\u00a0 insist that\u00a0 prospective candidates be hundred percent clean and virtuous:\u00a0<i>Siyalu Dusirithen\u00a0 Thora<\/i> or free from ALL evil or bad habits.<\/p>\n<p>Paying megabucks for\u00a0 celebs like Bhatiya and Santosh [Koththu Me- fun <i>thamai\/<\/i> nothing but fun] Mahela and Sanga\u00a0 who say something like without Coke, food is nothing or \u2018No Coke, No Meal\u2019, the duo is featured prominently holding Coke bottles on the signs that are hung over the front of\u00a0 many groceries and restaurants all over the country. And Angelo Mathews for Elephant House Ice Cream, and for Milo, to name a\u00a0 few.<\/p>\n<p>When big bucks come through the door, ethical behaviour and moral responsibility beat it through the window. Trite but still very true.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s funny to see how cameras\u00a0 zoom in to the panel of\u00a0 judges of\u00a0 the very popular Dream Star TV series where bottles of pop like Fanta sit longingly staring at them [and us ] throughout\u00a0 the show. You expect them to drink it, but no, not in this one. Look but don\u2019t even touch.<\/p>\n<p>And Maliban, long before they started marketing fresh milk [Delight, I think] they were calling their powdered milk, \u2018Maliban Kiri\u2019 In Sinhala <i>kiri<\/i> denotes\u00a0 real fresh milk not the powdered junk. They would sponsor a [repeat]\u00a0 broadcast of a Buddhist sermon by a late distinguished\u00a0 monk as the day begins on SLBC radio and then bombard you for minutes on not seconds mind you, hell- bent on praising their Maliban Kiri, and cookies.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years I saw only one good article in Sinhala on how harmful the powdered milk is for the human body and that was written by a lady who had earned her PhD on Nurtrition from the prestigious Imperial College in London, England [if I remember right] and carried in the editorial page of\u00a0 the best selling Sunday Lankadeepa.<\/p>\n<p>Recently\u00a0 [in September] I watched a good program in Sinhala on nutrition on SLRC\/ Rupavahini in the early evening. Other channels also broadcast a few good ones on health, nutrition and parenting. But they are slotted for mid morning when almost all household members\u00a0 that matter are out at work. The prime time, specially in the evening does\u00a0 seem\u00a0 like non-negotiable\u00a0 preserve of tele-drama sponsors.<\/p>\n<p>Early this year two medical doctors from Anuradhapura jointly wrote an informative piece on the adverse effects of\u00a0 chemical pesticides on food supplies to an English language daily.It did not deter a scientist [easy to understand where funding comes from in these cases]\u00a0\u00a0 to a retort extolling one of the most harmful weedicides Roundup, which was\u00a0 discussed in some length by French director Marie-Monique Robin in her 2008 documentary The World According to Monsanto.\u00a0\u00a0 [Watch the full movie free on the net]\u00a0 Until recently Roundup was heavily advertised\u00a0 for the \u2018benefit\u2019 of the rice-paddy farmer in Sri Lanka<\/p>\n<p>As I write this piece the daily Island [Nov 14] reports of an upcoming International Symposium on Biodiversity, Food and Nutrition to be held in Colombo on Dec 8. And quotes Dr Renuka de Silva of the Wayamba University\u00a0 \u201cDespite attempts to reduce the dramatic rise in the incidence of non-communicable diseases, a formidable challenge is posed by obesity and other NCDs and nutrient deficiencies\u201d due to \u201cneglect of\u00a0 nutritional importance of the diverse foods available in Sri Lanka and to production strategies focused on few crops \u2013maize, rice and wheat- resulting in reduced consumption of legumes, fruits and vegetables which in turn are associated with negative health impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>True. Add all the best selling\u00a0 junk food, snacks and beverages displayed on the serried shelves of even in some remote rural groceries,\u00a0 Dr de Silva\u2019s findings win hands down. What is missing here is that almost all\u00a0 fruits and veggies sold in Sri Lanka are\u00a0 sprayed or injected\u00a0 with harmful chemicals [mostly pesticides] for them to grow bigger and have longer\u00a0 shelf life<\/p>\n<p>Back to the Sri Lankan media. The commercials are chopped off when for example, Little Star editions are uploaded to the net. In one cookie commercial that I happened to watch with my 15\u00a0 month old daughter, in what looks like a concert,\u00a0 a little girl of about four would not render her\u00a0<i>Tikiri Liya<\/i> [sweet little girl] song until a Munchee cookie was waved at her and shown nibbled by an older girl,\u00a0 most likely her sister while their anxious mother was about to swoon, both standing in the opposite wing of the stage behind the curtain!\u00a0 [A new version of Pavlo\u2019s Dog ] \u00a0To Watch a 1997 clip of this commercial search youtube for Munchee Tikiri Marie [tikiri liya] 1997.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZOCf1mSpVzM?rel=0;showinfo\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is certainly not to throw black paint on all ads\/commercials.<\/p>\n<p>Around 2011 while visiting Sri Lanka, I watched a great 30 second clip for Tokyo Super Cement. After the recent 30 year civil war, a Tamil family [parents and two kids]\u00a0 who seemed to have been trapped in a border village are seen returning to their former village in a\u00a0 mini\u00a0 tractor\/trailer loaded with what\u2019s left of their belongings. Across the road we see a Sinhala family building a new home [with palmyrah trees still\u00a0 in the background] and their\u00a0 young son spotting the tractor runs towards it screaming in joy Kannan! Kannan!!. And we see the two families Tamil and Sinhala happily reunited for a few seconds before the former move on after getting a gift from the latter.\u00a0 A 50 kg bag of Tokyo Super Cement.<\/p>\n<p>The symbol here was very powerful. Cement bonds material things. Construction. Spiritually it can heal and bond\u00a0 the\u00a0 hearts and minds of people transcending all differences. Reconstruction\/reconciliation. The videography was brilliant too. Set in a red sunset, the silhouetted figures begin to disappear towards\u00a0 a new dawn. No more bloodshed.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D9ETWyRXUNA?rel=0;showinfo\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>My thoughts rushed to Deepika Priyadarshini\u2019s 1997 song Saroja: about an orphaned little Tamil girl in a border village. The lyrics by Mahinda Chandrasekara who then was a teacher in Anuradhapura went like\u00a0 \u201c Amidst deafening salvos\u00a0 of incessant machine gun fire, I see your tiny hands shaking when you write\u00a0 my child. \u2026I am the [Sinhala] teacher and you are my [Tamil] student, but forget not we both belong to the same class\u201d switching on the\u00a0 spotlight to a new dimension of\u00a0 an ongoing\u00a0 tragedy .<\/p>\n<p>When watching an international cricket game on TV, one gets justifiably\u00a0 annoyed when commercials become intrusive. Between overs is OK but the moment when a batsman\u00a0 gets out commercials hit you like swarms of locust, most times blocking out the immediate replay which is supposed to show in slow motion how the batter\u00a0 got out.<\/p>\n<p>For over two years running now, this insidious commercial can be seen many times over during a cricket game. Set in a busy wayside kiosk [looks close to a bus terminal in a big city] a young female walks\u00a0 briskly in to buy a reload for her cell phone. In comes a young guy, virtually shoves her to a corner and gets his reload first!\u00a0 For a fraction of a second she shows her displeasure, then watching the guy gets a bonus deal, asks the salesman \u201c Can you get that too, really? But it is the young guy who interrupts again saying \u201cSure, why can\u2019t you?\u00a0 And walks away.<\/p>\n<p>I know something is lost in translation here.The guy says to the girl \u201c<i>Mokada Aney Bari?<\/i> in Sinhala. Certainly not in a refined manner [specially when you speak to a female]\u00a0 carrying with its subtle sexual association. [Wilson Bray Keys examined\u00a0 these in detail in his\u00a0 controversial book on advertising: Subliminal Seduction: Are you being sexually aroused\u00a0 by this picture?]\u00a0 As expected, the reload commercial fades out\u00a0 with the sponsor\u2019s slogan: Mobitel. We Care Always!<\/p>\n<p>This is certainly not an isolated case and will never be. The Sri Lankan women, lest we forget got their suffrage or their right to vote in political elections\u00a0 way back in 1931 along with men. Today over 60 percent of university students are female. [For a population\u00a0 of 21.4 million, Sri Lanka has 15 universities, almost 10, 000 government schools\u00a0 and a literacy rate of 98.1.Plus universal health care and free education ]\u00a0 The first woman Prime Minister of the World [and for three times] first appointed in July 1960 was our own Sirmavo Bandaranaike.Despite all that the way a young woman is treated like in the above clip is totally unacceptable under any circumstance. She was assaulted and then insulted.<\/p>\n<p>The tragedy looks mainly three-fold. [A] One needs only the\u00a0 brain of a mosquito to know that kids get very much influenced by what they see and hear on TV.<\/p>\n<p>Here on CBC we get some good stuff like David Suzuki\u2019s\u00a0 \u201cNature of Things&#8221; on Thursday nights at 8\u00a0 but not\u00a0 in Sri Lanka. You might remember when SL launched TV in April 1979\u00a0 they had Nature of Things in their evening programming soon after. Now like Hiru TV\u00a0 boasts itself it is Tele <i>Perahera\u00a0 <\/i>or a Procession of Tele Dramas from 7 thru 9\u00a0 [raking in bagfuls of big bills from sponsors]<\/p>\n<p>Even\u00a0 programs for kids except for a few like the UK made serial called the Car, abound with aggression and violence.<\/p>\n<p>[B] Little or no ethical and moral concerns seem to affect the sponsors and distributors, publishers and broadcasters.<\/p>\n<p>[C] Regulatory process by government authorities seems totally absent or dead<\/p>\n<p>Back to where we began. It was both funny and interesting, reading the response from Maliban\u2019s director of the commercial Udaya Dharmawardena who had said he had no say over the script since the project was merely handed\u00a0 to him by a PR agency<\/p>\n<p><b>\u201c We\u2019ve come across worse adverts in the recent past, many viewers do not know the extent to which children are abused for the sake of an advert , so this isn\u2019t particularly glaring\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Well said dude. If Andare, Sri Lanka\u2019s\u00a0 legendary court jester were around he would surely have said, your words were\u00a0 worth in 24 carat pure gold, and would have even tried to ram some pebbles [for gold\u00a0 nuggets ] down your throat, all for\u00a0 good \u201cfun\u201d of course&#8230;Udaya, at least you are honest. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>When in Sri Lanka, you hear over and over again that school children are getting more and more diabetic and that 25 percent of big\u00a0 city kids are now obese. Obviously, advertising has done its part successfully, like the clich\u00e9\u00a0 from its jargon goes \u201cexceeding their expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Sure you can buy Dialog or SLT bundles to watch Discovery Channel or may be Nature of Things, but only if you got rich parents. My house sits in a village which has about 300 households. Almost all got electricity, cell phones, TV and most own\u00a0 a motor bike or a bicycle but to my knowledge only four families got those bundles.One girl got through to med school this year.<\/p>\n<p>Let me close this short essay with a quote from James B. Twitchell\u2019s trail blazer Twenty ADS That Shook The World: The Century\u2019s Most Groundbreaking Advertising and How it Changed Us All \u00a0[Three Rivers Press: NY. 2000]<\/p>\n<p>Calling ads the sponsored art of capitalism, and the dominant culture of today,\u00a0 Twitchell wrote\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c As the language of commercialism has become louder, the language of high culture has become quieter&#8230; Our cultural literacy, the wink-wink of\u00a0 allusions to hundreds of years of \u2018the best that has been thought and said\u2019 has all but disappeared thanks to \u2018a few words from the sponsor\u2019..\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":133674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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