Plastics, plastics everywhere!

Advertisements, advertisements everywhere,

Nor any program to watch!

This would have been Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem if he were a 21^st century Indian couch potato. Almost any channel you watch, there will be an advertisement to annoy you. Even if you are lucky and a program resumes, before you understand what it is about, next advertisement appears.

You enter a phase where you are too tired to change the channel and you end up watching the advertisements. When I was going through such a phase, I noticed these ads:

• 2 boys are asked to brush teeth, one with Pepsodent toothpaste and the other with Colgate. Then the dentists (junior artist actors) do a test and say that Pepsodent is a much better product than Colgate.
•  2 boys and their moms are shopping in a grocery store. Boy1 tells mom to pick the Horlicks pack because he cannot reach. Boy2 picks a pack of Complan all by himself. Mom1 frowns and Mom2 explains Mom1 that Complan is better because it increases height.
• Within a month, Horlicks comes up with a new ad where 2 boys are returning home with their moms after shopping. Mom1 asks Mom2 about Boy2’s exam result. Mom2 says he has not scored much. Mom1 says that Boy1 has scored 1^st in class. Then Mom1 finds a pack of Complan in Mom2’s shopping bag and explains Mom2 that Complan will just make you taller but Horlicks will make you taller, stronger and sharper.
•  Where do I begin to start about Cola Wars? Pepsi and Coca-Cola have really gone beyond limits with their ads ridiculing the other. Some ads have been banned too for the same reason.

This is among a specific set of ridiculous ads that convince you that Dabur is the best toothpaste, Bournvita makes you a superman and Thumps up quenches your thirst like no other. These ads make you feel like the owners of those companies are kids fighting with each other using plastic rulers.

This reminds me of a movie called Mean Girls, where there are a set of girls called Plastics (hence the title) who always find faults in others to show off that they are the best.

This not only happens in movies or ads. We can see cases like these in everyday lives. An employee tells his boss that another employee is not good just to show that he is better. Happens between siblings when parents favor one among them all the time. (Now there are many people who tell that for parents all their children are same but it is not like that everywhere. For many children, bullying starts at home. Survey has shown that parents bully the fatter child more.) 

The question is- why so many people are having this misconception. Why is it so difficult for them to understand that ultimately they are living in a make-believe world where they believe that only they are perfect? The only thing they are good at is they are confident or to be more precise, over-confident. They have this illusion that they are the best. So when they socialize, if they find someone who might be better than them at something (which is quite possible), immediately they tell their peers something bad about that person so that the listeners get distracted from what is good about them. Basically such people are foolish (evidently), mean, insecure and very clearly jealous of almost everyone. They have this outer thick layer of pretension or show-off trying to be accepted by the so called society. In fact their brain might be quite different. The worst thing is there are too many people like this.

All I have to say to these people is-

• No one is perfect. You have flaws. Accept that.
• You are among the most annoying people in the planet. People are just too sweet to tell you that.
• Calling someone dumb does not make you any smarter, nor does it make them any dumber. If they are excellent in something, they are going to beat you in it anyway. You cannot stop that.
• The moment you comment something about someone, the instant reaction of the one listening to you (if that person is not like you) is “What this person might have commented about me behind my back? It is best to avoid this person”.
• If a person agrees to all your comments, that means, that person also comments on you behind your back.
• Everyone has got equal amount of qualities and flaws. Suppose someone is better looking than you, then he/she might be less intelligent than you. If someone is more intelligent than you, he/she might have a bad voice.
• Love yourself for what you are. Don’t change yourself for other people. Life isn’t about pleasing everybody. If someone cannot accept you for what you are, then they are not worthy of having you in their life. To change for others is to lie to yourself.

Have I missed anything?

  

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