When I was a small girl I used to ask my parents, 'Am I pretty?', and they would reply, ‘You are the most beautiful girl on earth’. That would make me so happy that I would try and do everything that would make my parents happy. What everyone else thought never mattered, what was important was that those I loved thought I was the best. All other compliments were insignificant. And it then remained that way, always.

Why am I talking of this all of a sudden? Actually I saw this ad on TV the other day where the daughter asks her father, ‘Am I pretty?’. So what does the father do to convince her? He buys a car, picks up his daughter from her class (literally!) and takes her on a ride around town. The car is a show stealer and draws everyone’s attention, and the little girl thinks it’s her everyone is looking at. So that convinces her that she is pretty. I’m sure you know what ad I am talking of. If you don’t, then your GK is lower than a 5-year old and it’s time for you to watch some more TV! During a discussion, a friend told me about his 5-year old niece who asked her dad to buy the same car, about which, incidentally, he had not heard much. When asked why she wanted him to buy the same car, she replied coz it would make her friends like her more. Well…..

We keep talking about how ads impact minds of small kids now-a-days. And yet we have this ad which sends out such a strong message to the pre-adolescent age group. While it may be ok for kids to want designer clothes and shoes (after all their parents want them too, so why keep kids away), but is it really right to influence their minds in such a way that inbred qualities like self-confidence and morality end up depending on artificial objects? Don’t they run the risk of growing up as superficial human beings? Is there a solution to keep away kids from being 100 percent influenced by the influx of brands in the market? Don’t ask me, I don’t know the answers, but I am trying to find them. In the meantime, maybe the media can be a little more imaginative and do their bit in helping us bring up our kids as better human beings. After all there is no dearth of good ideas, so maybe choose ideas that sell well too, at the same time don’t play with the minds of kids.