Recently I came across an advertisement of IndiGo Airlines, which won the Budgie $ world low cost airlines Asia Pacific Awards 2010, for the best LCC print advertisement. It reads as ‘Sleep with your wife’ followed by the key message or the sub-head—‘Same day return flights from all metros’. The advertisement has been termed as innovative, catchy, clear, crisp, refreshing and cool. According to Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo “The ‘Sleep with your wife’ advertisement is our way of showing to our passengers to keep things simple & hassle free.”
Shobha Shukla - CNS
(The author is the Managing Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS). She is a J2J Fellow of National Press Foundation (NPF) USA. She has worked earlier with State Planning Institute, UP and taught physics at India's prestigious Loreto Convent. She also co-authored a book (translated in three languages) "Voices from the field on childhood pneumonia" and a report on Hepatitis C and HIV treatment access issues in 2011. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: http://www.citizen-news.org)
Published in:
Citizen News Service(CNS), India/Thailand
G. Krom News, Africa
But to any discerning mind, the four words, like an ultra short flash fiction, convey several other meanings, not necessarily cool. It indeed is a running commentary on the signs of our Indian times.
IndiGo does not deem it fit to offer any sops for its female passengers or, for that matter, unmarried male passengers on board. It believes in keeping things hassle free for the corporate husband, the bread winner of the family, who is constantly flying in and out because of work related issues. It is still blasphemous to think that a woman (more so a wife) can be in similar positions at the work place. Even for those few women who are similarly engaged, Indigo does not think it worthwhile to offer something attractive to them. Did I smell the whiffs of ‘sexist bias’ and ‘male chauvinism’?
The ad sounds intimidating too, as if it were threatening men to sleep with their wives, else??? Good men are supposed to sleep with their wives at night. Are they are free to sleep with others during the daytime? The prime duty of a wife is to share her husband’s bed, and satisfy his sexual desires when he returns home tired the same day, thanks to IndiGo. In other words the hapless wife cannot ever have the night to her own, as IndiGo ensures that hubby would breathe down her neck the same day. While men fly, women are supposed to wait for their return and get rewarded by sharing their bed. So, like a good husband wife team, let him sweep the skies, as she sweeps the floor and the cobwebs of his life. Daytime flings are permitted, but night time outs should be avoided. That is the mantra for a happy married life.
The wife is meant to be slept with. It is too outlandish to sleep with your partner—woman or man. So the moral of the story (nay advertisement) is that even though IndiGo does not recognize them as one of its valued customers, it is better to remain single (or not fly IndiGo) to avoid any same day hassles in life. Be a free bird and soar high, with no strings are pulling you down to alight the same day.
Readers are welcome to share their thoughts on this.
(The author is the Managing Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS). She is a J2J Fellow of National Press Foundation (NPF) USA. She has worked earlier with State Planning Institute, UP and taught physics at India's prestigious Loreto Convent. She also co-authored a book (translated in three languages) "Voices from the field on childhood pneumonia" and a report on Hepatitis C and HIV treatment access issues in 2011. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: http://www.citizen-news.org)
Published in:
Citizen News Service(CNS), India/Thailand
G. Krom News, Africa
