THIS is apropos the letter ‘Senseless commercials’ (June 4). Commercials do not have to be realistic to capture the attention of the target audience; one has to show something fantastic, thrilling, catchy and action-packed.

Simply showing a family having a drink on the dining table with a sombre commentary will obviously not attract the attention and will, in fact, be found too boring.

In literature, there is a leeway for ‘poetic licence’ and the same is true when dealing with exaggeration and magnification in advertising.

But this overstatement should be pleasing, witty or causing awe and surprise rather than vexing, off-putting or displeasing.

Personally, I am thrilled to see those youngsters catching the train.

All literature is a world of make-belief which transports you to a world of fantasy, imagination and, as John Keats said: ‘charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam of perilous seas, in fairy lands forlorn’.

Khayyam Durrani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2021