It’s your life. Make It Large.
Does this sound familiar?
Well yes, you would have heard it on the TV or radio. It’s the main tagline of Royal Stag who sell music CDs (apparently). But we all know what these guys actually sell.
Do you know why these companies who specialize in alcoholic beverages or cigarettes and similar products do this kind of advertising? Well, it’s because India does not allow advertisements of such products which are scientifically proven to negatively affect the health of people.
Some of the first evidence of surrogate advertising was seen by the Indian tobacco Company ‘Azad Bidi’, who sponsored an international cricket match in India.[4] In India, extensive surveys resulted in similar findings which showed that liquor ads had direct influence on consumers’ purchasing behavior. Soon afterwards, the Cable TV Regulation Act banned liquor and cigarette advertisements; thus, India gradually adopted surrogate advertisements.[3]
Such companies usually either go for brand extension and promote the extended products, or promote certain products which might not be available in the market. The excessive pressure of the ban forced companies to focus more on brand building and thus liquor companies started sponsoring and hosting glamorous events, yet many others started distributing t-shirts, caps, key chains, drinking glasses with the brand name displayed on these products.
Source: Wikipedia
You might have known about this this method of advertising by these companies but you wouldn’t have known the term for it called ‘Surrogate Advertising’. At least I didn’t. Till today. Well that counts for something in the TIL (Today I Learnt) section.
But that wasn’t the point of why I wrote this.
The thing I wanted to write about was how we get so much advice in life. People are more than willing to give their perspective on how you are doing. It could be anyone really- friends or family mainly.
The kind of advice you get from your family, especially your extended family, is always full of cliches. Like ‘son, are you going to be doctor or engineer?’ , ‘what’s next? MS or MBA?’. I could go on, but you get the drift. You feel like they don’t really have a pulse on what you are going through and the decisions you have to make, but then they are family at the end of the day. Your parents will tell you to just smile through it all because they want all of them to come for your wedding (wait, that decision is out of my hands too? :P )
Then you have your friends. There’s a thing called peer pressure, where you see your friends doing very well for themselves and you look at yourself and ask yourself, what am I doing with my life?? Why am I not as good as X at this? Why can’t I get this cool scholarship Y got?
I will confess, I do get jealous of other’s achievements. It’s easy to say that the grass isn’t greener on the other side, but often I think that is the case. I want to do things which I am not cut out for, just because someone else was able to achieve something in that field or interest. So I ask them how they do what they do, which is another form of advice I kind of ask for myself.
But I think at the end of the day, the biggest thing I have learnt is to not do something just because you have been advised or recommended to. I mean yes, sometimes interesting points will be raised when you get these kind of advice, but it’s your life at the end of the day. You are liable for the consequences of the actions you take. So in short, understand the context of how people achieve their goals rather than blindly imitate them and continue to be unhappy about how you aren’t where you expected to be. Their successes will depend on things that might not be applicable to you and it is always better if you can adapt these advises depending on your circumstances.
So go ahead. It’s your life. Make it large!
P.S. Once you have decided what path of life you want to traverse, it is always best to ask people who have gone down that path before for advice. Their advice will always be relevant and will help you a lot! Keep your elders and teachers close with you and don’t forget to consider your situation too when you get advice!
