Today’s Deceptive Media

When my 5 year old kid sits in front of TV and watch his favorite cartoons and advertisements, I really awe what message does these media guys are portraying to the little minds who are keenly following each and everything they observe. I was just watching an advertisement of Glucovita Volts which shows one child playing with his remote controlled aero plane, which he accidentally sends into wrong direction and toy aero plane smashes neighbor’s window pane. When the child saw the annoyed neighbor coming to scold him, he started running away and right at that moment, on the screen, BOOM!!!!! comes his mother, proudly appreciating his child by depicting the lines, “Mera Beta Sachin, Na jane kab isey instant energy ki jarurat pad jae, is lie mere paas hai GLUCOVITA VOLTS”. The child is shown gulping and chewing one tablet of Glucovita and running at a very fast pace with which the agitated neighbor cannot cope up. C’mon Glucovita guys, are you trying to convey this message to the kids ki “Bachho aap kitna bhi galat kaam kar lo par don’t worry jab bhi instant energy chahie ho, gluco vita volts ka use karo and apki mummy bhi isme apka saath degi”. Where are our manners? Don’t we teach our child to go and say Sorry for his/her mistake or do we support him to simply dart by taking instant energy boosters……..

The story does not finish here. There is this recent commercial of Center fruit which promos that the candy comes in vibrant colors and after eating them kids can enjoy having different color tongues. The promo shows classroom video in which students are writing their examination and meanwhile one of the student’s faces the difficulty that his pen does not have ink. He asks help from the teacher but the teacher instead of providing any assistance, rather scolds him that NOOOOOOOOOO you will not get any other pen, you have to manage on your own and anyhow you have to write the exam. The other students also hide their extra pens so that they don’t have to share them. The troubled student bends beneath the desk, gulps one Center Fruit and his tongue goes blue color then what happens next is a total shocking thing……….That fellow writes his exam with his blue colored tongue. I was really perplexed seeing that weird advertisement. What impression does it will last on our juveniles? They are our Tare Zameen par and if they are being shown these faux visuals, our future peer group will decay.

I know friends, most of you might be having the question that “Hum to apne bacche ko TV dekhne hi nhi dete hai”, but dear all, in today’s nuclear family concept, after getting hands on everything in a day like going to school, studies, attending any evening classes, playing with friends, mostly every nine out of tenth child finds comfort and entertainment in watching his favorite cartoons. According to a recent survey, television viewing activity ranks the highest in media consumption at 97%. Yes, we can definitely work on fixing their time slots of watching television but I am really thoughtful…………………

How can we control the business ravenous people, who do not dread to deliver immoral messages and making today’s media totally deceptive?