there is some horrendous show on US cable called Indian Showbiz blah blah, and they actually cover advertising news, like which star signed on with which razor blade company and which agency is doing the work for how much.
but at the same time, embracing crass american advertising and entertainment is a global norm. a friend of mine is in taiwan and says they embrace hiphop and say the n word like it was saying hello.
FWIW skin whitener isn't an indian invention either, a highschool friend (white american female) imported some from japan in 96.
On 9/29/07, dredmond at efn.org <dredmond at efn.org> wrote:
> On Sat, September 29, 2007 11:33 am, B. wrote:
>
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZpTdDLeHS8
> >
> > Cream promises to make darker complexions into lighter
> > skin tone. With "American double strength." (Ad above is subtitled.)
>
> I'm no expert on India, but... this has been going on within India's
> neoliberal elites for some time - yesterday it was British crumpets and
> Oxford accents, today its skin cream and American slang. Many of the
> Bollywood stars of yore were shot to look Anglo-American, and there's also
> been something of a long-term whitening process - instead of brown-skinned
> stars like Nargis, one of the great actresses of the century, there are
> increasing numbers of lily-white US-style pinups of lesser status, e.g.
> Aishawarya Rai.
>
> Fortunately, India's media is still hugely diverse, and there's still lots
> of resistance to the neoliberal variant of whiteness, even within the
> rarefied confines of Bollywood (which is only 20% of India's film
> industry).
>
> -- DRR
>
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