Wednesday, March 05, 2008

An Admiration for Yadda yadda nada !

Like any other advertisement, this ad has targeted those who are assumed to be the main consumers for this new SONY product – Noise Canceling Headphones. We see a young serious looking adult male who is in a plane, perhaps going for a business trip, and who is canceling the annoying noises in the plane by his SONY headphones.* My main objection is to the inaccuracy and meanness that this ad earns from just to be cool and appealing.

Inaccuracy: In any random public place, babies and mommies are not the main sources of noise (pollution or otherwise), let alone inside an airplane, where the plane’s engines make all the noise. The SONY advertisement decapitates a mommy and a baby and dehumanizes their heedless bodies with newly replaced megaphone heads. Here lets merge to the meanness part: Why a mother and a baby; couldn’t SONY beheaded two noisy adults? Couldn’t it be someone talking out loud with his cell inside airplane – which is both loud and against the airline regulations?

For you to believe that I am not going for the Romanic sentimentalism of motherhood here I give you a little personal explanation: I am not a mother, and personally I don’t want ever to become one.

Regardless of my personal choice on reproducing,** I love kids, babies and children; I admire any little growing human being, I love to see their changes, and I die to be a witness of their growing-up progress. I enjoy them and I learn a lot from them, kids. I do not like it when, in public places, people shush towards kids, role their eyes at their mothers or pass unpleasant glances towards a crying noisy kid who perhaps is having a disagreement with his/her parents. To me any sound from the baby is a voice; it is not a NOISE; to me it is talking. To me if the sound is from an older child, it is the most natural sound without which, any public place becomes a graveyard.

I believe a little bit of patience and compassion toward the younger members of the society goes a long way. After all, there was a day that we all were kids, how easy we forget!



SONY Ad for Noise Canceling Headphones, Austin, Jan. 2008


* I’ve mentioned in the previous post that this ad is cool, new and interesting.
** Personal references can be found in the inner circle of Soup & Salad and the Miracle of Cracker.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish I could like babies. Mona, my beloved sister, is a baby lover. All growing kids in our family- well, a few years ago- just loved to spend their time with her and not even looked at me. I think it is great to hear kids voice as VOICE. But the feeling may come one day. who knows?
About the add, I guess I can be a good consumer for this product. I m tone deaf, by one of my dearest friend theory, so it really does not matter if I hear anything or not.

Rezaf said...

This ad is deceiving as well. Having traveled with one of these headphones on a plane recently, it is obvious that they can only cancel the low frequency jet engine "humm", and all the other sound sources such as talking or baby cryings perfectly pass through.

Anonymous said...

No Roja. Don't tell me you don't want to have kids. But how about my daughter? Do you want my girl to be single all her life? :((This is not fair ,I thought I had it all planned out!

Tameshk said...

Leva Joonam
Thanks for your comment. Of course I didn't meant for anyone to fall in love with noisy kids; I think we can be more tolerant toward the kids that we come across in public places, that's all.

Dear Rezaf
Thanks for your comment. I gather that these headphones are not canceling after all!

Roya Joon
Oops! I have totally forgotten all about my social responsibilities ;D