Bath times become fun times, and India shines

AGKSPEAK

Pears Junior gets it right, and India rights itself, and nothing seems impossible any more.

What I've Liked
What is it about baths and kids I wonder? Right down the ages, it has topped the list as the most hateful task in a child's life. I used to think it was the lack of amenities that made it so unpleasant in the old days. But no, that's not it.

Even in the most well-appointed bathing facilities that today's lifestyle has made available, it still is that time of day that kids dread most. I watch my daughters desperately try to execute this ritual on a daily basis amidst extremely voluble protests and the most inventive of excuses which their kids seem to summon up the minute the "b" word is mentioned!

Which is why I heartily applaud anyone who can turn taking a bath into an attractive proposition to the kids of today. The new television commercial for Pears Junior does just that. With a bright, strawberry coloured translucent soap (I wouldn't blame the kid who tries to bite into it "" it looks delicious, like a really large candy!), and a cheerful little jingle, this TVC makes bathing look like a fun thing to do.

Admittedly, it is the stereotypical "happy TV ad family" but who cares? As long as the kids are singing their way to their bath and the soap promises to turn their "traumatic" experience into a party, why not? Not since the days of the Le Sancy ad almost a decade ago, has a bath looked more inviting to little children.

All put together, a simple ad that talks to kids, with no extra bait hidden in the soap, but just the right insight and creative articulation to lure them into sitting down at the negotiating table to demand their pound of soap for their next bath!

What I've Learned
India Shining... At last!
When the India Shining campaign broke in the media, about two years ago, it was received with a fair amount of scepticism "" to put it mildly. India hardly came through as a nation on the threshold of economic euphoria.

Who would have ever guessed at the time that the stock markets would orbit into extra terrestrial realms? And that semi-urban India would blossom into a healthy rival for its urban sisters as far as spending patterns go.

But all one has to do is walk into any mall, anywhere in the country, and it would be to difficult to walk away without feeling just a tiny bit perplexed at the hysterical spending that takes place within those glass walls, and on high-end products too.

Consumer durables stores in small towns too gleefully exchange merchandise for IOUs. Getting into debt just to watch your favourite soap on a plasma or projection television seems quite the logical thing to do these days.

Perhaps, all those relentless phone calls from the banks offering money is finally paying off, but for a generation raised on conservative spending and wise saving, this sudden throw-caution-to-the-winds-because-tomorrow-will-definitely-be-brighter approach seems a trifle scary.

This is perhaps what can best be described as a "paradigm shift". An optimistic outlook in exchange for the old familiar cautious one. The more positive aspect of this economic liberation is that clearly it is not just the rich who are getting richer. Admittedly the rich are getting richer but those who were considered as the "poorer sections" of society are doing pretty well for themselves too compared to a decade ago.

The day when your maid will drive in to your home for work on her own vehicle definitely doesn't seem like an impossible fairy tale anymore "" she already has her own colour television and, in some cases, a phone connection too, and her son is studying for engineering at the local college.

Even beggars look distastefully at one-rupee handouts "" a five rupee coin being standard alms these days. For someone who has seen the Indian economy drag itself through many successive policy experimentations, today's India, leaping and catapulting into the future, is definitely a sight for sore eyes.

Strangely, on the macro level, nothing is vastly different from the India of a few years ago ""the poverty line remains by and large at the same spot, we haven't made significant improvement on the corruption index, our population continues to rise at the same rate etc etc.

But the "half-empty glass" which India was perceived as, has magically transformed into a "half-full glass". And that has made all the difference! If ever one needs proof of the power of positive thinking, all one needs is to look around and see how everyone's bar of dreams has gone up. Nothing seems impossible to anyone anymore. And this is the confidence that makes India shine.

Email: agkbrandconsult@yahoo.com