IPL ad upsets Chennai Super Kings fans

An Indian Premier League (IPL) advertisement seems to have got off on the wrong foot with fans of the Chennai Super Kings.

The TV ad involves an uptight woman, who is a fan of the Kolkata Knight Riders, accusing a nerdy-looking fellow in an elevator (supposedly a South Indian and a fan of the Chennai Super Kings) of feeling her up. The ad has put off quite a few fans who believe the ad reinforces stereotypes of a docile, South Indian male being bullied by a dominating woman.

While some viewers have brushed it aside as a funny video, other fans of the Chennai team have been more vitriolic in their retorts on Youtube with comments like, "So you're ready to cheat as well? Chennai will meet you in the lion's den", "The Knight Riders are going to cry and play like the Aussies now?" among others.

Sheena Kandasamy, a senior account planner with an advertising agency and a fan of the Chennai Super kings team, says, "I did not like the ad because it portrays a woman leveling false allegations against an innocent man. The ad would have looked better if they didn't make the woman look like Parineeta."

Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar remarks, "Stereotyping has always been a part of the ad world. An ad should be able to convey its idea in the 30-second slot given to it. How do you expect a person to recognise a character in an ad as a South Indian male or a Bengali woman unless you cast them in an image commonly associated with them? You can pinpoint the regional ties of the actors only because you have the reference point of a 100 ads that have come before this and feature the same stereo types."

Prahlad adds, "I feel the ad should be taken sportingly. For all you know, the jingoism the ad invokes can have Chennaiites lining up by the hordes for games against the Bengal team. What more can the organisers ask for? At a time when nobody cares about local teams, they come up with one ad and that's all it takes to shift loyalties back to one's regional team."

Singer Vijay Yesudas says, "The rivalries should be built in a healthy way. One should not see an ad and have a notion that people from one region behave in a certain way. Everyone has a tendency for good and bad, You have to be able to see the humour and laugh along with it."