IPL ad annoys Chennai Super Kings fans
An IPL ad has sparked off debates over regional stereotypes. In the ad, a woman in typical Bengali attire, in an elevator, notices a nerdy young man reading about Chennai Super Kings fan. She then accuses him of touching her, and while leaving the elevator shows him her key chain, which identifies her as a Kolkata Knight Riders fan.
The ad has annoyed many who feel that it serves to underscore stereotypes of docile south Indian males being bullied by aggressive women. Others maintain that the ad shows a man being falsely accused and do not like the potrayal of women as being unfair.
YouTube users have left comments on the ad, such as “So you’re ready to cheat as well? Chennai will meet you in the lion’s den,” “The Knight Riders are going to cry and play like the Aussies now?” and “yea they do have punter to boost this ad.”
However, there are some who feel that the ad should be taken in a good spirit. Prahlad Kakkar has been quoted as saying, “Stereotyping has always been a part of the ad world. An ad should be able to convey its idea in the 30-second slot given to it. How do you expect a person to recognise a character in an ad as a South Indian male or a Bengali woman unless you cast them in an image commonly associated with them? You can pinpoint the regional ties of the actors only because you have the reference point of a 100 ads that have come before this and feature the same stereo types.”