Orient Pakistan new campaign on Dowry and Innovation

Societies are defined by their norms and when social ills become norms the whole definition becomes less and less presentable. In the case of Pakistan many social ills have become part of our norms hence they are defining us now but we do not bother correcting it because as Pakistanis we all live in the oblivion of superiority complex. Therefore whatever we have and whatever we do in the name of social and religious norms are utterly unquestionable.

One such thing is the dowry, recently a home appliances company Orient Pakistan launched their TVC targeting the very  topic of dowry. And somehow they have successfully been able to harness debate online on this topic. And the debate so far has been interesting as many opinions came in the favour of this TVC idea and the move of oriented ad many out rightly defended the concept of dowry.

Dowry is a subject that can not be covered in one blog post. In fact, one paper in a journal can not justify the topic either so let me stick to the TVC only.

The first thing that impressed me is that it is coming from an organisation that earned profit from the dowry system itself. Yes! home appliances are one big chunk in the checklist of dowry. The same thing was the point from the critiques of the campaign too. As a company that sells products which

The same thing was the point from the critiques of the campaign too. As a company that sells products which are used as dowry should not try to be all Holly. Well while another brand is actually promoting and marketing it’s ‘Jaheaiz Offer’ (special dowels deals) it is commendable that orient has challenged the whole idea.

“جہیز آفر” بس مارکیٹنگ اور اشتہار بازی میں اسی کی کسر رہ گئی تھی.
I seriously have no clue how to react… pic.twitter.com/qhq3bvQRsA

— Rai M. Azlan (@Mussanaf) August 10, 2015

Despite overacting of girl’s father the TVC has rolled out the whole story quite well. It is true that marriage in South Asia is not about a contract of two people deciding to live together for whole life and put it in a contract. In this region, it is about the creation of a new family a new house at the same time unifying two families. And when a new family and a new house is being made there are certain things every house needs. The idea of this #RishtonMeinInnovation campaign is to why not we innovate the whole concept. Why don’t those who are creating the new house and a new family should pay for those required articles rather than putting the entire burden on the girl’s family!

Dowry has already created a great damage. Everything looks good in the limit but the biggest ill with the dowry in Pakistan as we know it is that it is never in the limit. Girls families are harassed for this and if a girl fails to bring required amount of dowry with her results in life long suffering for her.

In such environment, the concept of #RishtonMeinInnovation is a breath of fresh air. It’s true one TV ad one social media campaign can not correct things but yes it can create a debate and once we start debating about issues in a decent manner there is a great chance for us to finally come with a solution and start accepting innovations for the sake of it.