Monday, December 25, 2006

English names and white models

While going past the new airport road flyover the other day, I noticed an ad for a daycare center. The children in it were white! Increasingly, clothing ads in the print media too are featuring white models. I see the same thing in the film songs that come on TV- white models thrown in again, for variety. Also, its mostly white women, not men!

A year or so ago, I was on a conference call with a Asian American developer in Nashua, NH, and he wanted to know which building I was calling from. It has an Engligh name-like the rest of the high end apratment projects in Bangalore do. He asked, "Do you people always have all these English names ? "
Perhaps the color of your skin is instantly correlated with higher education, culture and class, making it an effective advertising tool. We have always been obsessed with our social status anyways. But deep down, it is driven by an awareness that we need to be more global, to fit in with the rest of the world.