Those 2 irritating ads - do copywriters get paid for this?

As you would've gauged from my earlier posts, I drive to work. Of course since my blog is obscure, I will pardon you for not knowing that bit of trivia. To continue, I drive to work which is quite afar and it takes me about 2hrs 45 mins approx. everyday to and fro from work. That gives me a lot of 'me time' 'think time' and a lot of 'radio time'. Yes, I do listen to a lot of my own CDs, but like many other things in modern life, some things are mindlessly and thoughtless taken for granted. The radio comes on as soon as I switch on my ignition. Do I want to change from the non-stop yadda yadda yadda that goes on in the form of entertaining Radio Jockeys? Yes, I do. Do I do anything about it? No I don't. Do I have the right to crib therefore? No, but I do it anyway.

Well, so I am subject to a lot of radio commercials as you would've guessed! And there are a plethora of them, however for some reason these 2 ads have been playing ad nauseam for I think almost 2 weeks now. And it irritates the hell out of me. Why? Well listen to this:

Irritating Commercial One:
FVO (Female Voice Over): "First rains!"
"First baby sounds!"
"Love reminders!"
"First anniversary!"
"Now smile without worrying about the lines! With Pond's Age-defying cream!"
Well this may not be verbatim what this inane ad says, but I think I've got it right about 98%. So what gets my goat about this ad? Oh well, the very fact that some silly copy writer has thought that life and its spontaneous joyful moments are carefully orchestrated in our display of emotions. So you see, you wouldn't smile if your baby gurgled 'ma' for the very first time, or if the love of your life sent you sweet nothing SMSes. Why? Because for God's sakes you'd have to check in the mirror if those blasted laughter lines were showing. Preen, preen! My God those blessed lines! My baby, my love, my friends, my life would not be the same if people actually saw character on my face including the laugh lines and the crow's feet. We're all meant to be picture perfect, well groomed, with the last bit of eye shadow and mascara in place.

Yes, being women, I do understand the pressure of looking good, the vanity associated with my sex, but for crying out loud, don't tell me when to laugh, and how I could look better with my laugh if I used some silly cream. Soon we'll have cosmetic dental surgeons talking about great looking teeth when we laugh, and so on. We have enough in our modern, urban lives which are no laughing matter. Now do we need some labels and creams too to ensure we laugh out loud or smile on cue? We're truly in the age of the sitcoms aren't we? Everything is canned, including laughter!

Irritating Commercial Two:
FVO: "Slow down! Don't go fast!"
"Don't overtake from the left!"
"Where's your indicator?"
MVO: "Oh God! What indicator? Everyone drives like this! Why did I ever send you to the Maruti Driving School?"
Some mumbo-jumbo about how with simulators and interactive driving sessions, you come out of this driving institute as an expert driver. Armed with confidence.
FVO:"Now let me drive!"

Now here's the thing. In a city like Bangalore (and some of the other Tier 1 cities in India), you have to drive like a maniac to survive. If you were to indeed drive like the way this ad professes to teach you, you'd be a fool and end up in an asylum. Yes, you have to drive without indicators, overtake from any where, jump signals and more. So what the MVO exclaims is actually true. Everyone does drive like this and he shouldn't have sent her to the driving school. Because the lady will become a wreck eventually if she puts all the 'good' teachings into practice. So that's a stupid ad and an irritating one. For if you have to survive on Indian roads, you make the rules, break 'em and generally be the king or pauper of the roads. If like me, you stop at signals, you'll only be honked at incessantly, window tapped and abused for following regulations. If like me, you deign to raise a hand questioningly at someone who's driving on your side of the road, but coming in the opposite direction, you would be made to feel a heel and a nincompoop and an imbecile. Yes, that ad is a stupid ad.

Maybe the copywriters should get a taste of the real situation and write real ads. We don't believe in these anymore marketers. You need to do better. Much better.

So while I laugh out spontaneoulsy at some silly oaf on the roads trying to squeeze out from in between two gargantuan trucks, the copywriters of the world need to take a drive down 'reality', cause reality does bite!