Is It A Bride In This Wedding Jewellery Ad Or A 5 y.o Crying For A Barbie?

A new wedding jewellery ad is driving us crazy. And not in a good way. Why is this bride crying for her dream wedding like it was a laddoo that mom kept away for another day?

You know how as a 5 year old, you cried for that Barbie doll, and then as a 10 year old, for that shiny new hairband all the girls in class were wearing? That’s how life continues for the Average Indian Woman, until at 15 we cry for that new phone and at 25….for our parents to organise our dream wedding…NOT!

Somewhere along the way, that little girl grew up, got her degree, found a job, and picked up a good pay cheque too. If she wanted something, she went out and got it for herself, and puhlease, what she wanted was so much more than just for Mumma and Papa to give her the big fat wedding (no, make that obscenely fat wedding).

Except it looks like some brands haven’t yet got that memo.

If not, why else would we still be seeing an ad like this?

This ‘poor’ woman’s dream in life is to be ‘allowed’ to paint even after she gets married. Gasp, whoever heard of that! What’s more, she is so suppressed that the family won’t even allow her to plan her own wedding background scene. If that doesn’t show you just how suppressed women in India are, nothing will, believe me.

What, did someone say women in India are actually fighting everyday with their own families to be allowed to do things like study, work, be with a man (or woman) of their choice? Scratch all that. Clearly, the big ask in a woman’s life is to dress up like Mumtaz Mahal and wear the blingiest wedding jewellery she can find. Not only will she whine about it like a 5 year old crying for a Barbie, she has no visible life whatsoever beyond doing what her family (and strangely distant fiancé) require of her.

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I understand that brands have to market their products, and fair enough – I don’t actually have anything against wearing jewellery at your wedding, less or more. Whatever floats your boat. But can brands please show real women, who may want a dream wedding, but are not sulking for mummy-papa to hand them one like the latest model Barbie? It’s not clear either why the parents, brother and everyone else feel compelled to diss every idea the woman has – and then after making her feel horrible for no reason, magnanimously give her the wedding she wanted.

Sure she has nothing to do beyond dream of a Hum Aapke Hain Kaun wedding, but still, if you’re going to spend a bazillion rupees on a wedding, why not consult the bride? But that doesn’t work because, hey, why bother talking to a grown woman when you can walk over her!

Perhaps the folks making the ad thought it would be ’empowering’ to show a woman standing up for her right-to-a-dream-wedding. If that was the case, can we go back to the good old days when jewellery ads had no pretensions to empowerment and simply focused on covering the bride in a nice haze of gold from head to toe?

Top image is a screenshot from the ad

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