ver the years, advertisers of product and service categories in India have developed their own language and modus operandi of communicating to consumers. So deeply entrenched is this language - both in the minds of advertisers and consumers - that at some point it becomes an unspoken rule.

Consider these examples: the intelligent child wears spectacles; a housewife has to be in a saree with neat, long hair; a working woman with short hair in a salwaar kameez or, if she is liberated, in trousers; the sexy girl hopelessly attracted to a man because of his deodorant; words such as nikhaar, saundarya, pesh hai and keetanu can be heard in toothpaste, detergent and beauty cream ads alike. ... more