What is it about male underwear that so fascinates Indians?
Perhaps, we ought to put that question to Rupa, Macho, Lux Cozi, Dollar, Amul Comfy, Bigboss—all of them flood the screen with TV advertisements of men modelling their garments. And, mind you, these are not just any men, these are film stars. Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Vicky Kaushal—maybe you’ve heard of them?
Watching TV commercials can be so instructive. Here is a cultural phenomenon worthy of Roland Barthes, the French philosopher.
In these ads, the men either look cool — Ranbir Kapoor in the Rupa vest ads— or try hard to look sexy for the benefit of the woman who is shown lusting after… not them, but their underwear. Watch the Macho commercials with Vicky Kaushal or the lady cuddling a Lux Cozy and singing, “Yeh mere deewana pan hai…’’
Why are male movie stars required to sell chaddis and banyans?
Possibly because the ads appeal to the ‘female gaze’— presumably, they buy underwear for the men in their lives more than the men do for themselves. How is that for amateur psychology?
Interestingly, men cannot feast their eyes on female undergarments—although there have been a few TVCs for those, they are rare and quite decorous.
Women and men not into male underwear must make do with sleek, curvaceous beauties on four wheels: cars. Skoda, Tiago, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Jeep, and Renault are on the road, performing all sorts of moves to drive them crazy.
Another sociological phenomenon: previously, vehicles were adorned by female models to entice the male gaze. The end to that is a small victory for the gender neutrality of cars.
If there are cars, then there must be tyres, right? So television is flooded with advertisements for tyres; Apollo, MRF, and Ceat are the three most popular brands on TV.
Film stars, by the way, don’t sell tyres, cricketers do, so please welcome Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. What do they have to do with tyres?
You tell me.
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Home improvement
Next question: What is Jindal Panther TMT, one of the main sponsors of Tata IPL 2023? From what we saw in their ad — a new variety of said four-legged animal or Hardik Pandya’s gym workout. Wrong: it’s a steel bar or rod used in construction work. Pandya is there to demonstrate its flexibility (like his and the panther’s). And he, does prowl about on the cricket field like one, eh?
Bars, rods, and wires have become the most unexpected TV ad stars—V Guard is hot, hot, hot these days. Only goes to show you can promote anything especially if you tag on a celebrity. Among the many products, Virat Kohli is selling nowadays—sometimes with his IPL team Royal Challengers Bengaluru —is Kei cables and wires.
He also promotes American Tourister luggage, Hindware sanitary fittings, Blue Star AC (Garmi ki chutti) and more. What of his wife, Anushka Sharma, you ask? She appears in Godrej’s hair colour ad.
Wires, cables, steel girders and bars are all leading us to… a house for Mr and Mrs India. That means there are TVCs for cement, like Ambuja cement. But more than that, there appears to be a frenzy for house paint—there’s Ranbir Kapoor for Berger Paints and Mahendra Singh Dhoni for Indigo Paints (he also sells ceiling fans). There’s Nerolac and Asian Paints —remember, the Deepika Padukone one where her director thinks her wall looks better than her?
With all this hardware being sold on TV, advertisers obviously, believe that home is where the wallet is for consumers. This is the best explanation as to why the Ashirwad TV commercial is not for jewellery, minted elaichi, wheat flour or wedding finery but for a water tank.
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A victory for the nation
While there are many advertisements for coolers and air conditioners and soft drinks on account of it being summer, the personal care and cosmetics department has seen better days. There are some soaps and deodorants, Denver ‘perfume’ endorsed by actor Varun Dhawan and ‘Raymonds’ for the ‘complete man’.
But all those fairness creams? They have disappeared. Once upon a time, they were whitening the skin of actors like Shah Rukh Khan. Now, kaput. This is a huge victory: the ad campaigns and the products were a blot on the face of the nation, no less — they endorse and promote the idea that fair is beautiful.
The exception to this is Patanjali with the ubiquitous Ramdev regularly on the air selling his ‘aloe vera’ cream.
Now if only we could see less of Kamla Pasand (‘anokha swad’) and other surrogate paan masala products brought to you by top male Bollywood stars: Amitabh Bachchan (we’ll come back to him), Ranveer Singh, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn. These commercials appear with everything from the Indian Premier League to the news and entertainment channels. Whatever the contents — sweetened elaichi, for instance — the packaging is that of paan masala, so no point trying to fool us.
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Top-billed ad stars
Who is the most saleable TV ad star?
It’s between Ranveer Singh and Amitabh Bachchan that man for all ages and all products.
Both actors sell anything that comes their way. For Bachchan, it can be detergents, jewellery or Muthoot Finance. For Ranveer Singh, it’s ACs (Lloyd with Deepika Padukone), online travel (MakeMyTrip with Alia Bhatt) and Pepsi. And much more.
In the times of IPL, Virat Kohli is right up there with them. As for female ad stars, it’s probably Alia Bhatt. Viewers are seeing lots of her—in the Frooti ads, Make My Trip, and with Ranbir Kapoor in the Rungta TVCs.
Last words are reserved for Indians and their digestive systems. This is their prized possession — no wonder many products are advertised to help them digest and er, evacuate: Hajmola, Eno, Gas-o-fast or Softovac.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)