Woodworks Gripe water: This company has one of the most memorable ad campaigns ever. A child is crying. The grand mother says to the mother “Give the baby Woodworks gripe water; it will make the baby calm. I too gave you the same”. The great grandmother tells the grandmother the same. The great great grand mother tells the great grandmother the same. The message is very clear ‘for generations it is Woodworks Gripe water that makes a crying baby calm’. The contradiction - any Pediatrician will tell you that Woodworks Gripe water is a lot of marketing hype and that what is provides is mental calm to the mother. Once the mother becomes calm the baby can feel the waves of calmness and it too becomes calm.
Playing video games: It was supposed to be the ultimate evil. Kids getting glued to the video screens. The doom sayers had a field day. They predicted a generation of Zombies glued to the computers and who never had any social contacts. In their view video games were the ultimate evil in the world. The two generation that have been addicted to the video games have not done that badly. They have come to age and have started many technology savvy companies like face book and others. Now the same experts say that playing video games is perfectly all right. They say (sic) that playing video games is good or motor skill development and that leads to analytical thinking. Tell me another example of a better double speak!
Rice or Chapatti: This is one controversy that is always raging. Ask any self respecting North Indian and he would sing peons of praise for the virile chapatti. In his view it is the ultimate meal. He dismisses the idli eating, the fond of rice south Indian as a softie. He repeats the often cited example that Chapatti is better for health and that is why most north Indians have a better build than the south Indians. But at the same time the south Indian is ready with his argument. He cites the power of rice eating as the prime reason for the South Indian states emerging with better indices of economic development than the north Indian states. So the war is always on – Is chapatti better than rice or rice better than chapatti.
What is vegetarianism: This itself leads to lots of contradictory messages. For the Bengali Brahmins in India eating fish is perfectly alright. They call it Jal Pushp (Water flower). On the other side most Indian vegetarians drink milk and they are okay with it. In Orthodox Ethiopian society milk is supposed to be non vegetarian just like eggs as both come from the body of the animal. Thus during Lent the Orthodox Ethiopian Christians do not even consume milk. On the other side we have the vegans who do not consume anything that is of animal origins. This leaves many of us very confused as to what is vegetarian and what is non vegetarian.
Which way should the customer go? Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware but is the buyer aware?) Are we being informed or we being confused?
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