Rajpal's Column

6th June 1999

So what's cool about "ice ice'' baby?

By Rajpal Abeynayake

When a halfway preserved Indian woman squeaks "ice ice baby'' in an advertisement on Sri Lankan television, you know that Sri Lanka is borrowing heavily on the Indian advertising idiom. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry.

It's the culture of Indian advertising that is intriguing, and when it's imported to places like Sri Lanka , it's apparent that this culture is becoming pervasive. It's difficult not to think that there is something inauthentic and culturally amiss about Indian merchandise touting .

But who are we to judge India? When the looking Indian woman says "ice ice baby'' , there may be some natural instinct in any man to smash the television screen. The advertisement seems to give all the wrong messages; more particularly it seems to be inauthentic in the sense that it seems to ape American advertising clumsily. There is also the one commercial in which a man seems to fall in love with a house plant (a mangy cactus it seems), and gets up to stroke the plant . In that particular advert, the man stops short of everything but making love to that peice of vegetation.

There is no doubt some sort of humour in the ad, but that humour is typically Indian. And , Indian humour, without any shadow of a doubt, is different from the Sri Lankan. This is not to be disparaging of Indian humour which is more eccentric than the Sri Lankan. That's of course the polite way of putting it, but, say, an American would opine that Indian humour is, say, cornier than the Sri Lankan. Anyway, never mind the Americans , Indian humour seems to be cornier generally than the Sri Lankan, methinks (The slang-dictionary definition of corny, for the absolutely and fortunately uninitiated, would be something like "silly or unsophisticated.'')

But, it's corny in India and that's fine for the Indians, but why that kind of culturally eccentric humour should be imported to Sri Lanka is a question that's culturally moot. Now, this is not a question that advertising agencies, for instance, should get their underwear in a twist over, as this is not really a question that concerns advertising.

It's on the other hand a question of pervasive cultural influences. Of course, if the Indian experience is considered, India's whole ethos is steeped in a quirky eccentric kind of humour and that's great in India. Indian writers such as Arundathy Roy or Kiran Desai (writing a very funny book called the Guava Orchard) makes capital of this kind of Indian humour . So do even other writers more more staid, such as Shiva Naipaul......

But, when this humour is transferred to Sri Lanka through the advertising medium, it falls flat and is for the most part annoying because Sri Lankans' cannot relate essentially to the corneir humour that's of Indian origin . Indians laugh differently, and one needs to be Indian essentially to get into a situation that evolves that kind if humour. Reminds me of a story in which an Indian was in a ship with a Frenchman.

Before breakfast each morning, the Indian and the Frenchman used to customarily sit at opposite sides of the table. The Frenchman use to greet the Indian with a friendly "bon appetit.'' The Indian thought that was the Frenchman's name, and he returned the greeting by reciprocating, and giving his name "Ashokasinghe Bidrawale." The same pattern of greeting went on for four or five days, with the Frenchman beginning each morning with "bon appetit'' and the Indian returning that with 'Ashoksinghe Bindrawale."

But , as the a pattern of greeting continued, the Indian was not quite sure that this was the Frenchman's name, and he decided to find out. Being quite appalled that bon appetite meant something like '''you have a good meal'', the Indian decided to make amends, and the next morning at breakfast he was bright and early, and greeted the Frenchman with a resounding "bon appetit'' himself. The Frenchman looked pleased, beamed and returned the greeting with a loud "Ashoksinghe Bindrawale.''

That one maybe corny in itself and out of context, but its in some intangible and incalculable way, an attempt to get at the heart of the Indian condition as distinct and separate from the Sri Lankan.

No joke this. The Sri Lankan condition is palpably different from the Indian, though no American or British would cotton onto such a subtlety for instance. But that would only be a subtlety for an American or a British, as a Sri Lankan or an Indian would be able to discern instantly, the variance in the Sri Lankan and the Indian ways and lives.

Though this is not a major cavil or a rub, this is why its so grating when the advertising media insists on foisting the ads with the Indian kind of humour and idiom on we Sri Lankans who can instantly recognise this kind of humour as Indian. Selling through an alien culture would not probably help the merchandiser, but, its more than just a problem of marketing. It's knowing that "ice ice baby'' is not so cool with us guys who don't think much of Shoba De look alikes in any case.

Commentary

Editorial/Opinion Contents