Whatever happened to the good ol’ of days of Incredible India. Why are the new executives turning India into a caricature of itself. Is this the age of Birdie Num-num. Is India truly the weirdest place on earth:

Without passing any real judgment, I’m curious to know who the target-audience is for this commercial (i.e. do people who chew HappyDent in India watch this and say, ‘ha, check out the manservants hanging from the ceiling, I think I’ll have some gum’ or, is there an underground Cirque du Soleil-movement in India that I’m not aware of…)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the commercial isn’t interesting or, for that matter, might not influence my choice to chew HappyDent the next time in India, but do Indians in India really go for the kitschy-colonial, pseudo-mocking tone of the commercial? Is the consumer base for this stuff so far outside the culture they can appreciate the humor of human light bulbs? Is it possible that an ancient civilization becomes dumb with age and smarter with Pepsi:

Unlike the HappyDent commercial, I have no problem with this other than its lack of humor and also, its vague and somewhat misguided message (from an ad-marketing perspective, it essentially says people who drink Pepsi are disconnected from reality which, I’m guessing, is not the brand-message Pepsi was hoping for). Those things aside, I have no complaint, question or concern because, really, elephant-stacking has no cultural connotation whatsoever and thus, in my mind, is only bound by the limits of creativity and one’s audience. The same goes for the ongoing battle between Fox and Microsoft for the hearts & minds of village-idiots everywhere:

So, what’s my real issue, if any, with the HappyDent commercial…

Well, (to me), it seems as though the pre-Raj, white-teeth manservants are thrown into the mix just to add hyperbole (kind of like Fanta-characters and their assorted siblings), and maybe that reminds a bit too much of Baz Luhrman’s ultra-hyperbolic Moulin Rouge (which integrated, quite randomly, meaningful aspects of India into its kitschy yet soulful settings to create the otherworldliness of Bohemia). And maybe, just maybe, I think that type of approach only works when either the audience regards the subject as inherently meaningless…

Thus, therein lie my questions: Do Indians in India think an “illuminated” half-sadhu, half-manservant hanging from the ceiling for his fat-master is meaningless? Is India going through a dashboard-Jesus phase in regard to cultural iconography? Is British-born McCann-Erickson Worldwide (the agency which not only created this ad, but also the above-shown X-Box commercial and advertisements for Breakthrough’s HIV/AIDS-awareness campaign in India), missing the mark or tapping a new vein of Indian pop-culture/cultural consciousness?

Or, am I just a stodgy, dodgy stick-in-the-mud who prefers subtlety over slick:

I’d like to know the answer.

(Note 1: Turbanhead first posted on the above-shown XBOX 360 India ad here; see the new XBOX 360 India ad here)

(Note 2: If interested in seeing the new McCann-Erickson Breakthrough ad, go the site, click through “Our Work” and then watch the clip for “What Kind of Man Are You?”)