AdLand’s warped reality

It is a dangerous science reading too much into the world imagined by the advertising industry. If aliens were to land on earth and catch a five minute ad-break they would conclude human teeth are white and straight, credit is easy to come by, and drinking soft drinks causes people to sing and dance.
We accept the ad industry sells us a fantasy, but that shouldn’t mean it loses touch with the real world. Middle East advertising asks consumers to suspend their grip on reality. The industry appears to have drawn up some very strange rules.

• Maids must be invisible. No family will be seen to employ a maid.

• In the home, housewives must wear brightly colored abayas. Black is too gloomy.

• Buying a new car clears all traffic from the roads. Drivers must head immediately to a twisty mountain road.

• All houses will be decorated in an ultra-modern style. All homes must have been built within the last five years.

• Applying for a loan is a sign of success. Debt is to be celebrated.

• Indians/Indonesians/Filipinos must not appear in crowd shots.

You can only imagine what the curious aliens would make of this. For those of us that live here it suggests a region terrified of admitting it is multi-cultural, old-fashioned, financially irresponsible, and clogged with traffic.