WHEN ADVERTISEMENT BECOMES A NUISANCE

WHEN ADVERTISEMENT BECOMES A NUISANCE 

Excessive emphasis on capitalism has brought in disgusting degenerate advertising culture in its wake which is eating into the vitals of the nation and eroding character by softening men. Virility is vanishing and with it virtue as iconic ex-sportsmen transform themselves into advertising stars whose sole job is to earn money and remain in public memory at any cost, thereby spreading in society what in scriptural terms is called 'avidyā' (spiritual ignorance). 

Character is the bedrock on which civilisation is built and self-restraint is the seed of character. These advertisements are a nuisance as they work against self-integration by artificially inducing desires in man which scatter concentration. 

There is a particular popular Bengali ex-sportsperson who by his advertising of brands from cement to books, rice to what not, is getting on my nerves. I can now fully see how these third-grade students who shirked academic duty when in school but being gifted in sports excelled there and amassed riches, failed to build up character enough to understand how what they are doing on screen goes directly against the interests of the nation as they are setting up wrong examples for millions of idolising youngsters to follow. But what of it? Perhaps, such things irrirate me, not you who might be revelling in it, being oblivious of what the national imperatives are in the view of Swamiji who was by self-admission and popular acceptance 'Condensed India'. 

Anyhow, these are my observations by way of a deal of irritation that I feel when I witness such cheap selling of soul for the sake of bags full of bank notes. If the on-screen presentation be humble, manly and uplifting, then it is still deed well done. But as it is, it is a display of pride and what I earlier said, the untranslatable 'avidya' of a specific kind which infects the mind of man with lower vibrations. So, I detest it and this write-up is its reaction in literary self-expression, the boundary struck to keep these buggers out of play.

Written by Sugata Bose