Smart ad! Congrats Airtel!

I have been watching this ad of the Airtel for the last one week, or so. And every time I see it, I end up marveling at the concept. Perhaps, concept, as such is simple—a boss very firmly telling her colleagues to ensure that the project is completed right away.

“But Priya… itanee cum samayme .. . (in such a short time) how can …”

The teams’ protests are just snubbed off … “choice nahi hai (no option)… sorry… you have to manage it.”

“OK!” stammers the team leader.

“We should start now”       

Then the all male team leaves the boss’s cabin, of course, all cool.

Then, leaving for home, she, the boss, courteously greets them: “Hai! How is the going!

“OK!”

Saying, “Kuch ho tho call karna” (call me, if anything comes up) she drives home.  

On the way, she, of course, calls her husband and enquires: "What do you like to have for dinner?" The ad creator appears to be anxious to let us know how she loves her husband.

Reaching home the boss dons a new role— that of a wife and cooks beautiful dishes with all the concern and then being happy of what she has turned out picks up her Smartphone and gives a call.  

Very coolly, the husband says, “Time lagega, bossne  bahut kamdiya” (May have to stay put in office… boss has given a great load of work), and switches it off. . .That’s when we realize that the boss is indeed his wife. 

Well! What for a Smartphone then! He then sees a video beginning to play … wife showing him… one by one, all the steaming dishes she is waiting with for him to join her for dinner… and listen her coyly saying, “Come now,… boss ko bolokee  wife bularai (tell boss that wife called)”

“tumee bolona (You pl tell)” 

With a sudden but subtle change in her tone, she says,  “Jaldee aana! Wait karoongi (Come soon! Shall wait for you)”

And as you watch the smile on the face of the husband…. you realize the magic played by the Smartphone.

And the  Airtel succeeds in communicating  what it wants to say about its smart network.

That is, of course, an aside for me. What is more interesting for me in the ad is: its reflecting the changing scenario of gender dynamics in the country. It’s good that the ad creator, I believe, had shown it all in good spirit.

Indeed, I must say, the director had created the whole scene with passion— a passion for a sensible family life.  He had shown the boss at the office as resolute as any business expects its CEO to be in the pursuit of organizational goals… but back home, as a wife … she, like any other wife, evincing keen interest in what she is doing i.e. cooking dishes with care and concern… tasting them… being thrilled at its turnout… finally telling husband that she is waiting for him for having the dinner … all of it tells us how clear this boss is about her ‘role’. And how efficiently and with ease she handles it!

Tremendous amount of role clarity! … We must also give credit to the husband for exhibiting an equal amount of ‘role-clarity’—taking the orders from the boss with dignity… working on it gracefully… at least no sulking… remember, there is another male colleague of him sitting by his side while his wife, the boss, brushing aside his objections, ordered that they must start working on it immediately… and receiving her phone call equally in grace… ending the episode with a cute and should I say, contended smile …

Wow! What an amazing amount of clarity of role exhibited—both by the wife and husband! And importantly, they have an incredible love (?) and respect for each other—their personalities and role. They appear to be made for each other. A very happy couple! For that matter, what indeed is needed for any one to be happy in any relation is: role-clarity and respect for each other’s role.

Well, there are of course, people who look at the ad as a stereotype.  Indeed, a colleague of mine said it in so many words:  exhibiting the boss as any other woman—cooking food and calling husband for dinner, all this is nothing but continuing with the male chauvinism.

But my only submission is: Pl notice she took to cooking on her own volition… out of her own love … no one had forced her, at least in the ad. Now the question is: why did she take up such a mean job of cooking food(?) that too, after being a boss? Perhaps, that is her value system.  Might be, she believes that cooking food gives her as much kick as ordering in the office as a boss. Who knows?

Either way, it's a pretty educative one.

Congrats creator! Congrats Airtel!