The Pug as the Alternative

One little girl and a pug! Both small – but make a great pair. The pug is ‘ready to help’ – anytime. It searches her lost sock. It helps her in fishing. The girl seems to forget many things. But no problem! The pug is there to redeem her memory, that is. It even catches up with the school van.
The pug in Vodafone advertisements (earlier Hutch) has succeeded in catching the fancy of the consumers. There are reports that the breed has become one of the most sought-after pets. Most people did not even know the breed existed before the ads were launched. Now everyone associates the pug with the brand. The breed is almost patented.
Very many questions crop up even as we watch the creative pug-girl-combination ads. You see only the two of them – mostly. No trace of the girl’s parents or siblings. She seems to be all alone in the house. Where are the others? Have they gone on a holiday leaving the girl ‘home alone’ to fend for herself with the ‘ready to help’ canine? Have they abandoned her or something? Or do they have such a great faith in the pug? Where are they?
It may appear like reading too much into the ads; but that seems to be the message: ‘You buy our product (read Vodafone network) and you can be independent. You can even do away with what you hitherto thought as the most essential in life. Our product has it all. It will cater to all your needs, including parenting. So don’t you worry!’
Every advertisement is persuasive. That is why it is called advertisement. But today ads are going beyond their ordinary purview of persuasion. They are cajoling consumers with a new brand of values. They are asking them to be independent. Individualism is glorified. You are made to feel that being independent is the next best thing that can happen to you.
The little girl in the Vodafone ad seems to be comfortable and happy-go-lucky in the company of the pug (the network, that is!). She does not seem to miss her parents or siblings. She is all alone in the house and she is at ease, going about doing her work in the company of the ‘ready to help’ saviour. So the network is the 'formidable' replacement for parents. Hence when you have the network you do not need parents and other people. Sounds cynical? But the harmless pug does not come across cynical at all. He (or is it she?) is as caring, if not more, than any parents.
The message driven home is definitely not as pleasing as the creativity and the imagination that has gone behind the creation of the ads. One may say ads are not to be taken seriously. If it was true there should have been less of them in the media. Media are full of ads and the space and the time they occupy are just increasing by the day. That means ads are taken ‘seriously’, in the sense that none till date has denied the effect they have on the subconscious of gullible mortals, especially the children.
So the pug in the Vodafone ads is as lovable as it is disturbing!
- Melwyn Pinto SJ
melwynsj@jesuits.net