Imagining India: Narratives of Class and Caste in Indian Advertising
The narrative of India as the “next power to be” is dominant in the Indian public sphere, in the way consultants and economists talk about the country, and in advertising commercials portraying life in India. Despite the overwhelming media endorsement of this economic process, statistics belie this claim: industrial production has slumped, debt increased and structural aggravations have led to great economic disparities among Indian people. Through an analysis of popular Indian advertising campaigns and marketing discourses, we show how marketers help sell and promote a certain image of India. We then analyze the disjunctures of this image with reality and the potential consequences for consumers.
Citation:
A.F. Mathew (2009) ,"Imagining India: Narratives of Class and Caste in Indian Advertising", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Sridhar Samu, Rajiv Vaidyanathan, and Dipankar Chakravarti, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 150-150.
Authors
A.F. Mathew, Mudra Institute of Communications
Volume
AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8 | 2009
Share Proceeding
Featured papers
See MoreFeatured
‘But Screw the Little People, Right?’ Case of the Commercialization of Reward-Based Crowdfunding
Natalia Drozdova, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Norway
Featured
Inside Out: Product Essence is Perceived to be Concentrated in the Center of a Group of Products
Kunter Gunasti, Washington State University, USA
Noah VanBergen, University of Cincinnati, USA
Caglar Irmak, University of Miami, USA
Featured
M7. The Mixed Effects of Nostalgia on Consumer Switching Behavior
Zhongqiang (Tak) Huang, University of Hong Kong
Xun (Irene) Huang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Yuwei Jiang, Hong Kong Polytechic University