TV channels these days are showing a commercial of a detergent powder company. It shows a few naughty schoolchildren pulling down the trouser of a junior/weak student. When the teacher asks what is happening, to save the skin of the naughty schoolfellows the junior student replies that they are just practising a game: sack-race. The naughty student thanks the junior student for lying and saving him from the teacher and the commercial ends with all of them jumping with their pants down.

My five-year-old niece was watching the commercial with me. I was surprised when she asked me to change the channel, saying: “This ad is bad”. I was stunned for a few moments why such a young child uttered these words. Although I didn’t want to make her think in depth about the commercial, I, therefore, asked her after a while why she said so. She innocently said: “They did a bad thing.”

One of my friends also told me that a similar case was reported in his son’s school where a few students of Class V pulled down pants of a student of Class III. The student reported the case to the teacher. When the senior students were admonished on the act, they replied that they had learnt it from a TV commercial.

I would like to ask the advertising agency and the detergent powder company why they passed this commercial and on what basis the TV channels are airing it. They should have kept in mind that children learn fast what they see and listen. The commercial will not only develop a habit of lying among young children from an early age, it also reflects a negative image of society.

RIZWAN YAHYA Sukkur