Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Coca-Colonization
I nearly slipped of the chair when I saw the new Coca Cola ad featuring Aamir Khan as a NRI in an arranged marriage coup.
There is a bit of the drag queen and double role masala as well, Aamir is the NRI and also the the ever vigilant, sharp and knowing it all - Bhabhi of the family. She serves Coke and no big guesses makes the NRI turn a pyaarasa (loving) Indian home boy.
Another Ahmedabad based cool drink company Rasna with global plans, has thespian Paresh Rawal, once again as an NRI suited and booted fails to recognize his poor country bumpkin cousins at the airport, holds on to his blonde girlfriend and acts the typical up-started Gujrati-Patel NRI returning home.But one glass of Nimbu Pani (lime Juice) he turns into a Gujju style Bhai with his Kurta and Pyjama, at the feet of his old grandmother.
Even products now recognize that middle-class India suffers from two cultures - the Non Resident Indian culture and the In-Resident Indian Culture.
The NRI is supposed to be hip-hop styled overly done dude coming to India, awkward in the presence of the ever prying Indian family. But salvation comes in the form of home coke and nimbu paani.
Once more they realize how comfortable it is to feel at home, in India. Coca Cola has colonised the world, even the shifting transnational diaspora so much that it is a part of every home, from Atlanta to Ahmedabad every one has coca cola. Talk about changing with the global times.
If commercials are partaking in wooing diasporas- the new-rich uncatered to audience, it shows how brands travel between various countries adapting to local cultures and appealing to citizens. Moreover what is most noteworthy is how "Coca Cola" and now "Rasna" has imaged itself as a "cultural commodity" , so even when one shifts from one culture to another, coca cola anchors and roots them right there.
PS: Take a look at the Indian Site of Coca Cola and you realize how the site is mean to appeal to the accusations recently made on them by the Centre of Science and Environment.
There is a bit of the drag queen and double role masala as well, Aamir is the NRI and also the the ever vigilant, sharp and knowing it all - Bhabhi of the family. She serves Coke and no big guesses makes the NRI turn a pyaarasa (loving) Indian home boy.
Another Ahmedabad based cool drink company Rasna with global plans, has thespian Paresh Rawal, once again as an NRI suited and booted fails to recognize his poor country bumpkin cousins at the airport, holds on to his blonde girlfriend and acts the typical up-started Gujrati-Patel NRI returning home.But one glass of Nimbu Pani (lime Juice) he turns into a Gujju style Bhai with his Kurta and Pyjama, at the feet of his old grandmother.
Even products now recognize that middle-class India suffers from two cultures - the Non Resident Indian culture and the In-Resident Indian Culture.
The NRI is supposed to be hip-hop styled overly done dude coming to India, awkward in the presence of the ever prying Indian family. But salvation comes in the form of home coke and nimbu paani.
Once more they realize how comfortable it is to feel at home, in India. Coca Cola has colonised the world, even the shifting transnational diaspora so much that it is a part of every home, from Atlanta to Ahmedabad every one has coca cola. Talk about changing with the global times.
If commercials are partaking in wooing diasporas- the new-rich uncatered to audience, it shows how brands travel between various countries adapting to local cultures and appealing to citizens. Moreover what is most noteworthy is how "Coca Cola" and now "Rasna" has imaged itself as a "cultural commodity" , so even when one shifts from one culture to another, coca cola anchors and roots them right there.
PS: Take a look at the Indian Site of Coca Cola and you realize how the site is mean to appeal to the accusations recently made on them by the Centre of Science and Environment.
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