Tuesday, January 27, 2009

east and west collide

a sewing project kept me in the room for most of the day yesterday (btw- he is done and i think turned out pretty well) so i got exposed to a lot of indian commercials while watching CNN's indian sister station IBN.

maybe it is the jetlag, maybe it is the head cold i'm getting but i found the 6 or so commercials they play over and over both amusing and extremely interesting.

garnier is apparently a big brand for women's beauty products over here. not only can you get a moisturizer that will lighten your skin up to 2 shades fairer but you can also use their "fall fight" shampoo to keep your hair from falling out. not sure why "hair fall" is such an issue here but they promise 5 times less hair in your brush.

in another, an oily face teen attempted to put her nose clip on only to have it slide off onto the floor. no problem! just wash your face with clearasil and then you and your buddy can rock out at a concert with nose jewelry securely in place.

the most confounding to me was the "hidden secret" cookie commercial. here a woman and man dressed like the cover of a grocery store romance novel have a cookie baking lesson that would make a porn star blush. i mean, i'm american, i know sex sells...but in a society where women don't show their legs or cleavage it seemed beyond over the top.

after seeing these over and over (and over and over) i couldn't help but wonder how difficult it is for women here. to straddle the fence of modesty and influence of the west seems an impossible task to me.

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