Have You Ever Wondered That Jewelry Ads Promote Dowry?

Just switch on any regional Indian Channel at home. I am sure within a few minutes you will see a jewelry add. Before a movie starts at a cinema hall or during the interval you are literally thrust with adds from competing jewel houses trying to outwit each other. You will notice a common strain running through all these ads-all of them are addressed to the bride's parents. These ads are produced by a group of ‘emancipated’ men and women working for the likes of Mudra, Lintas or Ogilvy.Yet they use their creative minds to promote an illegal and culturally chauvinistic system-the dowry. Ingenious ways are devised by these geniuses to put the message across. For the western mind the whole concept of dowry may sound absurd. I am quite curious about what Christian who lives in Germany thinks about the existence and indirect promotion of such a system. If you have seen any of the western diamond ads the man (whether husband, fiancé or lover),is seen winning the woman’s heart by gifting her a ring or whatever. Imagine the impact on would be mother-in-laws watching these ads, which are judiciously splashed in between their mega serials. They start wondering how much gold their would be daughter-in-laws would bring in. The parents of the bride on their turn feel that they owe it to their in laws who of course would diplomatically claim that “It is all for your daughter.” I am not claiming that without these ads dowry would vanish. Far from it. But we can most certainly do without these ads, which indirectly celebrate the dowry system. Personally these ads have helped me affirm what I have for long believed-advertisers are among the most socially irresponsible people.