Adil Najam
I am as excited about Pakistan’s Test cricket victory against Australia as the next guy. Maybe even more.
But this huge (quarter page) advertisement on the front page of today’s (Sunday’s) The News is just plain bad taste.
That it is an ad for Pepsi – a major global brand, but also the official sponsor of Pakistan cricket (over-sized Pepsi logos are the most prominent thing on the official clothing of Pakistani cricketers), makes it only more so.
It was obviously made in a hurry. But I, for one, wish it had never been made. Whether Pepsi does so or not, let me apologize to Ricky Ponting. This, as they say, is just not cricket!
I do not know what was the thought behind this Ad?
If they thought this was funny; it is not. Only early today I had a chat with my 7-year old explaining to him that making fun of other people’s names is not funny, because we would not like it if others make fun of ours.
If they thought it was a commentary on Pakistan cricket and a show of support for Pakistani cricket; it is not. Despite the exciting victory we pulled off, no serious cricket fan will claim that Pakistan is the better team of the two. There is much that we should try to learn from Australia, even in this Test: their fight back till the very end, for example! The argument I often give to my 7-year old is also valid here: imagine what might be our reaction if Indian or Australian or British newspapers started carrying Ads like this about Pakistan each time we lost a game or something bad happened in Pakistan (and those, unfortunately, happen all too often!)?
But that is not the point. The point is that this Ad has no point. At least no redeeming point.
All it does is insult. And not just Ricky Ponting. It insults the brand integrity of Pepsi, and even more the brand identity of Pakistan cricket (since Pepsi is its official sponsor) and of Pakistan and Pakistanis in general (the green background is not accidental, nor is the bouncing kangaroo). It presents and projects us as a mean, insensitive, gloating, and petty people. Some of us may, indeed, be that. But I am not prepared to be ‘branded’ in that light; and certainly not by Pepsi.
Maybe I am over-reacting. And clearly this is not the of the problems we face. But sometimes it is the small things that pinch hardest, because they become metaphor for all the big things that are wrong. I just wish that whoever made and approved this Ad had read Mian Mohammad Bakhsh’s Saif-uk-Muluk:
Dushman marey tey khushi na kariye sajjna vi mar jaana
(Do not gloat when an enemy dies, your friends too will die)
Editor’s note: Here are some examples of bad advertising; of good advertising; and of advertising nostalgia.
wait wait wait…you haven’t seen the ANOTHER ONE they made! There were 2 of these. This ones even yuckier!
Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xeNX7e7rw5HjE fjY733tEw?feat=directlink
Why can’t we just be happy for having won, without gloating. Specially, since we lose so often ourselves, I would think we would have better grace than this. And who the hell is Pepsi and what gives them the right to present this ugly picture of Pakistani attitudes.
@Hina Safdar.
If this has been done in an op-ed or by GEO or by Adil Najam or some blogger, it would have been OK and maybe even cute or funny as satire. But coming from a global giant like Pepsi and using Pakistan’s colours from the sponsor of Pakistan cricket, this is really really poor taste. As post says, think what happens when such things are said about us or our country or religion. How do we feel.
Personally, I am not a fan of Australian behavior and they have often insulted Pakistan too, but that is no reason for us to stoop to that level too.
Pepsi got carried away with Teams success :P
I find it creative and it could be considered as Satire not insult.
I also think this is in bad taste. Maybe if this was a political cartoon in a newspaper it would be OK. But from a global company like Pepsi, this is just bad form. Bad show, Pepsi