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ShareHere's the story so far: an international storm is brewing in the media, on the web and amongst opinion makers about a 16 page spread in the August issue of Vogue India, which has used poor Indian people as props for $10,000 Hermes bags and $100 Fendi bibs.
Enter 'Vogue' 'India' and 'Poverty' into Google, (three words that you'd never have associated together before) and you'll be privy to the outrage.
People have called it 'grotesque', 'shocking' 'in unbelievable bad taste,' and articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Telegraph and even the Sydney Morning Herald.
Todd Hartley, for instance in his column 'I'm with Stupid', asks "Does this justify using these people to sell items that they couldn't buy even if everyone in their neighborhood contributed every rupee they'd ever made? To we Americans, conditioned as we are to political correctness, the answer would be a resounding "no," but maybe we just don't get it."
To which the magazine's editor Priya Tanna has replied "Lighten up. Fashion is no longer a rich man's privilege. Anyone can carry it off and make it look beautiful"
Be that as it may, what intrigues me is not that the magazine has displayed an alarming lack of judgment that has made even its international fans threaten to cancel their subscriptions, but the pressure that I see media outlets succumbing to, of pushing the envelope further, in the name of creativity, originality and higher TRP ratings.
Put yourself for a moment in the Jimmy Choos of the people who dreamt up the controversial shoot: a big new fashion issue! Major luxury brands to promote! Shall we do the shoot with the hottest new Bollywood actress on the block? Nah, just done that.
In Rajasthan? Passé. How about at an Indian BPO? Nice, but no zing. A circus? Imagine the colour with the elephants and the trapeze artists? Great idea, but hasn't that been done in a European Vogue once before? Perhaps. But wait -- I got it: let's get some really poor people to pose with the luxury goods. Beautiful contrast. Lovely tans. Naturally thin bodies. And what's more: It's Never Been Done Before!!! Fabulous!!!!
Hurrah! Shoot, print and publish!
Okay now, put yourself in the mind of the producer of a reality show that's supposed to ratchet up the viewership of a TV channel. Imagine you're casting around say for inmates of Bigg Brother:
A gangster's moll? Great pull factor! Imagine the shock value. A noted
cocaine junkie?
Fantastic -- especially if he gets withdrawal symptoms on our show! A rabid ideologue? Think of the potential controversy if he attacks a member of a minority community. It will play out for weeks in the papers.
Wait: how about the woman who killed her boyfriend and then hacked his body into little pieces with a meat knife? Can we get her? Not out of jail yet? Make a note that we should get her for a future episode. But here's a killer idea: let's get the man accused of Murdering All Those Kids in Nithari. You know the paedophile, sodomising necrophiliac. Perfect!!! Think what that would do for our ratings!
You see what I mean? In a world gone out of control to sell, shock, impress and grab eyeballs, one does not have to took too far for reasons why we are subjected to the sad spectacle of a delinquent uncoiling before our eyes on a reality show -- or the grotesque sight of a man who probably does not have a proper roof over his head, holding up a $200 Burberry umbrella for a fashion magazine shoot!
Email: s_malavika@dnaindia.net
