Look away

Not something I usually blog about but boy is this funny. (At least) Star Sports has been airing an ad for an app called ‘Magicpin’ that I think helps you in some way when you shop for stuff. And this is how the ad goes:

So… a fight breaks out in the middle of the road over some pseudo-accident, as it usually does in India. A bystander starts to film the fight until one of the picaros charges on the camera-wielder, points to a side-street full of stores and says, “The magic isn’t happening here, it’s there.” And when the camera moves to view the stores, imaginary discount tags pop up onscreen, the music starts to play and the word ‘Magicpin’ blares in a medley of colours. I don’t know about you but it’s really hard for me to miss the allegory about an independent press here – as if to say, “a fight holding up the traffic for no good reason isn’t important, do look away, go shopping, get distracted”. Plus it’s apprently also what late capitalism expects of us, considering Magicpin thinks the skit is… amusing.