I was thinking about Benetton ads for kids wear this week. I loved those Benetton ads from 1896-87 specially ones for babies wear. Benetton ads set a standard for creating ads for a social cause. Benetton ads gave glimpse of fashionable western outfits during my teen years.
We got Srilankan TV "Rupavahini " broadcast at our home if we changed antenna's position/direction. I immensely enjoyed the entire Tamil program in Rupavahini TV as well the Sinhalese programs. They had such superior/classy ads including lot of ads for foreign products from western/gulf countries. The news anchors wore fashionable clothing compared to dab /dull news anchors of Doordharshan TV. I was an official Rupavahini TV fan.
I had couple of Srilankan tamil friends join my class in mid 1980's during the big influx of refugees from Srilanka. Some of them decided to pursue studies in TamilNadu due to the unrest.
I remember one of my friends Satyavani who looked sad all the time. She and her younger sister had an individual hostel room unlike other students who lived in general dormitory. Her father was well known jeweler in Colombo and the store ads aired very often in Srilankan tamil radio. He was killed and the family sent their kids to India for safety. Both Satyavani and her sister Kalaivani always looked sad atleast for the first couple years after joining my school. Post traumatic stress was unknown word to me at that time and I never understood reason behind their sadness. Slowly they got used to their new place and they settled in my hometown after their college years.
I got my first taste of ”Wrigleys” chewing gum thanks to Satyavani. Foreign choclates or products were not so easily available in those days in my hometown. After couple of years Burma bazaar was established in the downtown and my hometown got flooded with foreign goods.
England /America were a distant land during my teen years. Only my Anglo Indian friends talked about them a lot and gave glimpse of western wear/lifestyles. Not even in my wildest dreams I thought about living and working in one of those foreign land Destiny drives our life and it can takes us to places and situation we never imagined.
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