This is a beautifully scripted ad (agency: The Womb)! It keeps you curious about who is talking (as people bow). Is it God? But then, God appears too, to close the ad! Fantastic writing! But there are serious issues with this narrative. Watch, and then read 👇 1/2

2/2 The first big issue is that the narrative presents wishful thinking as a fact. While the entity we hear in the ad doesn't discriminate at all, given it is not sentient or sapient, we all know how water is weaponized as a means of exclusion. Every kind of division between humans is exploited with water as a lever. Most recently, a Dalit child in a school was beaten up by a teacher for drinking water kept in an earthen pot meant for so-called 'upper-caste' teachers. This kind of news is all too common in India - just Google 'child caste water teacher'. So, water doesn't differentiate because it doesn't have the self-awareness to differentiate. But people who control the source of water most definitely do. The second issue also has to do with the unrealistic stretch in the narrative. Given the heightened awareness around water contamination, a lot more people are likely to opt for bottled water (another kind of exclusion, in continuation with the first point). Even an open, public drinking water tap is not likely to make people (particularly tourists) consider it. But yes, I'd jot this down as creative exaggeration within the scope of advertising and give it a pass, unlike the first point which is more foundational to the theme. The third is more operational and pales in comparison to the first two - when 'Dakshin mein' occurs, the people shown are dated templates of "South" in the advertising industry. It's amazing that such laziness still exists. #advertising #marketing #creative #creativity