Very few women ride on their colleague’s shoulders, preferring to take a cab home after work. And only one so far has taken a lift on actor Ranveer Singh’s shoulder, the left one, perhaps leaving the right shoulder free for another co-worker to jump on. In the by-now infamous Jack and Jones ad, the inappropriate grin on the female model’s face, like she was waiting all her life to be bundled around exactly thus, is only matched by Ranveer’s smug expression, conveying he is buff enough to cart around 50 to 60 kg effortlessly.
This nostalgic flashback to caveman times and tactics by the Danish fashion firm was booed out of 30 hoardings across 30 cities in India after it failed to start a new trend in travel. The ad, which brought a new nuance to the term ‘taking work home’, did not take into account the mighty ire of the Twitterati. And though Ranveer hoisted his ‘work’ pretty high, Tamil actor Siddharth called it ‘a new low for women’s rights in the workplace in India’.
Maybe they were trying to be pro-women, maybe they thought women are always complaining about men bringing work home and if women were themselves the ‘work’ then they would be happy with it. Maybe they thought women like to be carried around. Maybe they thought... But as Siddharth tweeted: What were they thinking?
Ranveer was finally forced to shrug and displace any women he was taking home with him. Shaking himself free of the sexist tagline, he has apologised profusely: ‘It was important to give the brand creative freedom while designing their campaign, but I guess we got it wrong on one of those billboards and I’m sorry this happened...’ Jack and Jones too has said sorry, sorry, sorry, with a ‘We did not intend to offend anyone.’
This brings to mind a jewellery ad recently, with Aishwarya Rai in period costume, looking gorgeously like an oil painting from the yore, but with a little slave by her side, bringing on racism accusations. She said she had no idea about any little boy with an umbrella over her head, that this was cut and paste. Obviously there is many an airbrushing between ‘lights, camera, action’ and ‘cut’. But here Ranveer did pick up the female model and sling her across his shoulders. Of course he couldn’t have been privy to the tagline though.
Wooing techniques of the average Indian male are still stunted from the misplaced stress on stalking thanks to Bollywood. This is all we needed now, Romeos who swing past with women on their shoulders, wholly bypassing the Metro.
Ads are aspirational stuff. But for anyone who has taken to heart the tagline for the ad, ‘Don’t hold back. Take your work home’, do hold back. Do not attempt to carry your female colleague back home; what if she hasn’t seen this ad?
(Antony is a short-story writer)
@shinieantony