Class divides exist. Everywhere. This is NOT a Pakistani phenomena and this is NOT something that just came out of nowhere. There will be shoe shiners sitting on the street waiting for you to come and get your expensive leather boots shined so that they can make a quick buck to feed themselves. There will be waiters clearing bits of your salad from a restaurant table so that by the time your main course arrives, your tables are clean and sparkly again. Your whole meal may even cost more than what their monthly salary is. But that’s fine because that’s how it is… right? But show us a mirror being party to that ‘system’ and we all get outraged? Hypocrisy at its finest.
The recent hullabaloo caused over a designer lawn’s advert has people going insane and international media has picked up on it too. Demands are being made for a boycott, tantrums are being thrown for discounts and worst of all, people are taking their Facebook likes back from the brand’s page! The horror, the horror.
To deserve this damnation from the Pakistani masses, the brand had featured their model displaying her fancy clothes and designer luggage while sitting with a group of porters at a railway station. This setting probably didn’t sit well with one or perhaps five (that’s how many it takes) Facebook users and before you know it, there is a full-on debate going on, accusing the brand of exploiting the working class and using poverty as an accessory for their image.
Just to point out a little fact here, this is not the first Pakistani clothes brand to do so, which is why I don’t understand why people decided to take this debate up now.
Is it because of the 30-feet billboards up in our faces or because we just wanted to be a part of a Facebook argument so desperately? The average person may not make poverty an accessory but then again, the average person doesn’t own six expensive designer suitcases either. So the lawn brand decided to exaggerate and make themselves look a little elite – how is that a crime?
Advertisements don’t always show the truth. A bride would NEVER leave her wedding stage to go purchase cola just because the price on the litre bottle went down. Come on! But we are okay with that. We don’t mind silly depictions like those, but the minute we see a reflection of reality in some adverts, we are ready to roll up our sleeves? Reality is that there is a working class – and it works real hard to make the middle and upper class satisfied. Your pedicurist, your maid and your chai-wallah are all part of that working class. You use their services to make your lifestyle better. So what’s the big deal about a fancy-clothed model using the services of baggage porters to help her pose and carry her designer bags? We didn’t like it because it’s exploiting the poor? Well go help the poor then instead of being a part of the generic protestors on social media. There are a million things wrong with Pakistan but people with a conscience are not one of those – people with a conscience can actually help bridge this gap through individual efforts in daily life – writing snappy comments on social media doesn’t count. You want to take up a cause? Fight for literacy, minority rights and healthcare – don’t channel your energy on commercial products that will continue to exist until there is a demand for them.
Zamzama is the hub of designer wear in Karachi. It also happens to exist between two low-income areas, Neelum Colony and Gizri. Given this argument regarding the brand, shouldn’t the warriors of poverty also protest the location of this expensive shopping area – or does that not bother your conscience that much? Or would your conscience have felt better if it were five hunky models in the background of that ad? I personally think that would be even more far-fetched because how many women actually have five chiseled-faced men trailing behind them publically?
Basically, this hype about pretending to be so sensitive about poverty is getting old. Will people stop driving their fancy cars on the same roads as staggering rickshaws? No. Will you stop eating at cafes where poor waiters linger around your table to satisfy your eating experience? No. If the economic injustices are giving you sleepless nights, do more than rant about it on Facebook – don’t just sit around bashing an advertisement that in all honesty, only made the mistake of showing you the truth about our society. Maybe once you start actively trying to eliminate the menace of poverty, your conscience will feel more at ease – but until you don’t start doing that, I don’t think any of us have a right to complain.
The writer is the Deputy Editor at Dawn.com
