Everyone will draw his own conclusions, but here is our vision.
Our goal was to draw the spectator to the ambience of India's streets, to reveal the unique vividness of the country in the context of the street graphics and at the same time to show our ad people how their Indian fellows work out day-to-day tasks in a truly timeless way.
India's spiritual life is so intense that it will never come to one's mind that consuming will make him happy. Because Indians know that happiness is not there.
India's advertising strictly fills its place. It does not mean more that it has to. It does not evolve into gigantic forms. It stands where it belongs, built in the system of values which was developed and approved over the centuries. Advertising was easily absorbed without any harm for the culture and mental health, and they are using it, it is not they are used. Brands were made to serve people, not vice versa.
There is no fashion in India, there are only eternal values – this fact makes India's advertising the art. The Coca-Cola Company acquires a right to form the city environment along with the Gods, and it does not look like an alien element of the street appearance.
But still – Coca-Cola is just a nicely refreshing drink, nothing more than that. People do not clog their minds with Coca-Cola. They would paint its beautiful logotype on their house and sometimes buy it, but they will never consider it to be "the true joy" or "the highest bliss" and a cultural symbol. They know where the highest bliss is. Indians' "spiritual niches" are not vacant; they do not accept false values. Of course, advertising agencies from the West make attempts to introduce a different approach to the advertisement. But the major India's brands are the Gods. Millennia culture leaves Coca-Cola on the side. The paradox is that it sells itself anyway, so everyone is pleased.
As for the graphics – you can judge the courage of handling colors and forms for yourself – there are no boundaries, India does not fit to any kind of framework.
Eastern culture is not individualistic. Eastern people lack the tendency of the Western people – to win, to outperform, to prove that you are the best, the first, to climb the highest mountain or to design the most high-tech laces in the world. Arts of the East do not serve for the separation or distinction from others. It does not serve for "self-expression" but for putting together, striving for impersonality. Talent is just the best chance to share the divine values.
It is likely that the term "Arts" does not make sense in India – the arts is everywhere. The art is the way Indian women wear their saris, the patterns they paint at dawn on the porch of their houses, the sign "Do not spit" at the railroad station.
In India people do not try to fight and win. They are in the stream of life, as there is eternity in front of them and they are in the middle of the Universe.
Nastia_Vladik
India – Saint-Petersburg 2004
