Research Questions
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.5 Analysis of Indian Print Advertisements
2.5.2 The Amul Advertisements
Chapter2 Literature Review
49
malls, products, dreams and ideas strongly influenced the Indian consumer. India began to be filled with global advertising networks. Moreover, Indian advertising began to develop worldwide.
Chapter2 Literature Review
50
The wording of this ad can be read on one level as: “Marad [h]ona toh aisa hona", what in English means “If you would be a man, be like this”. There is the space between words ‘Marad’ and ‘ona,' what verbally sounds like the word Maradona. It is very interesting and involving. It is known that Maradona is a football legend, the best player of all time. Consequently, the above ad promotes Amul product as the best one in the world with the slogan: “Butter hona toh Amul hona”, what in English means “If it is butter, it should be like Amul”. Amul butter was advertised while Mardaona was in India in 2008. In addition to demonstrating the footballer`s excellence, ‘Marad’ in Hindi implies a broader sense of masculinity.
It means that it refers to Amul`s dominance over the market, comparing with the dominance of men in a patriarchal society.
On the (figure 2.18) advertisement a pun of the words 'bread' and 'bred' announces that Amul is a native of India. From this advertisement, it can be noticed that Amul is completely an Indian company, what alludes to the idea of nationalism and ‘swadeshi.' Also, the words ‘foren’ and ‘foreign’ present bi-lingual pun, because in Hindi ‘foren’ means quickly. Therefore, this ad strives to promote the butter as a quick and irresistible product. Both the text and the illustration are aimed at establishing Amul butter`s supremacy over foreign competitors.
Figure 2.18: Amul Ad
Chapter2 Literature Review
51
The ad (figure 2.19) presents a pun on two following words: “Canned and Khanned.” Three Bollywood Khans aggressively promoted canned cola drinks.
Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan were brand ambassadors, making the product very popular. It can be compared with Amul milk brand. “The popularity of Amul is backed up by the catch-line “Popular Khana” and, thus, the point of the advertisement is that Amul requires no brand ambassador like as Pepsi, Coca- Cola or Thumbs up clearly do” (Ganguly, 2013). Finally, advertisers use a pun on the Indian word ‘Khan’ that turns into ‘Khana,' what in Hindi means food.
Amul advertisements exploit the humorous advertising mode of products and contemporary public memory. The product catch-lines are frequently changed that is also a noticeable feature. The reason being their reaction to societal changes and their leading role in the contemporaneity of a traditional brand. It was noted that the late 1900s were the time when advertisers were likely to use female presence. It was done to provoke and strengthen unconscious and subliminal desires. Moreover, to sell the product not related to the product women images are used in some advertisements. So, the initial period was a time of informing advertising. For example, the early newspapers provided such information as details of ships` arrivals, births, deaths and the sale of household stuff.
In the nineteenth century, different special services, new products and discounts took their places in the ad. Thereby, advertising started developing. The
Figure 2.19: Amul ad in India
Chapter2 Literature Review
52
intense growth of commerce strongly increased it. The advertising departments of such newspapers as The Statesman and The Times of India prepared advertising layouts. Indian pre-independence period is characterized by advertisements about shops, clothes, entertainment, four-wheelers, traveling, liquor, hotels and tea for Britishers in India. The post-independence era focused on advertising consumer goods, ignoring luxury goods. Indians strived to buy products that saved their time and labor.
The policy of liberalization gave impetus to the prosperity of the business culture all around, what resulted in enhancement of creative standards of advertising agencies, stimulating advancements in their functioning. Intensive promotion of foreign products and rise in advertising expenditure actively have influenced the Indian culture. For instance, it can want for soft drinks that have no nutritional value. The Certain parts of advertisements were created via strategies that were aimed at the alteration of established cultural values. It results in long- lasting changes in the roles of children, men and women in society. Moreover, in today’s India, the identity of role functions within the family and home is also changing. Therefore, advertising is still significantly modifying Indian concepts of personal cleanliness, beauty and worth. Thus, advertising is an autotelic artistic medium that implements short stories and interesting ideas to make sense of different order (Ganguly, 2013).
It can be concluded that in Asia Pacific region India is becoming a center of a global advertising creativity. The spread of satellite TV has resulted in the intensive advertising development. During the last few decades, the total spending on advertising has enormously increased. Last year accounted for US 1.1 billion.
Moreover, multinational corporations also have used local agencies, trying to catch their ability to understand and adjust homegrown customs, cultural characteristics and trends. For example, Hindi and English were mixed, forming Hinglish that is broadly used in the advertising lingo. Big amount of international companies prepare their ads in English, what allows them to be understood in such a diverse country like India that has so many languages and different dialects.
Chapter2 Literature Review
53