This was a photo shoot for soaring high-end fashion accessories - brands like Burberry, Hermes and Fendi, using “real people”. An old woman missing her upper front teeth is pictured holding, presumably a grandchild —wearing a Fendi bib, A family of three is unbelievably perched on a motorbike for their daily commute, the mother riding sidesaddle in the traditional Indian way and without a helmet — except that she carries a Hermès Birkin bag. In a third photo, a toothless barefoot man holds a Burberry umbrella (about $200).

You would think in a country where over 4 million people live on less than $1.25 a day - a spotlight on some real Indians would win points for getting “down and real”. Wrong! Not only are people in India not impressed, they are OUTRAGED! Go figure!

It may be noted that folks in India have had no problem for years indulging in luxury and ostentatious splurging of wealth in an affirmation of their status in blatant view of those that may never see that kind of money in their entire lifetimes. The “ones that have” have not felt obligated to share responsibility for providing for the “ones that don’t”. What we tend to think of as a “social conscience” is absent or negligible.

Perhaps pictures like this are unappreciated for what they inadvertently give birth to - an open acknowledgement that a disparity exists – that these “real people” live on the fringes of a tiny rarefied world of prohibitive high-end consumerism. It may well be a slippery slope. This ad campaign may have started a trend – “real life” branding – for lack of a better term. A familiar concept in the Advertising Industry is being stood on it’s ear to create an entirely different kind of brand awareness.

How to sell a $1000.00 handbag in such an economy may not be the question uppermost on people’s minds. Nor whether sales generated will be adequate to sustain the brands and ensure their continued consumption. No the concern may not be economic.

How one might begin trying to bridge the gap between the minority for whom a Birkin bag is a reality and the larger population who may never set eyes on one, in a country such as this, is to be relegated to the outer limits of our conscience. No the concern may not be a social one.

All that will have to wait while we bicker over the more important issue of propriety. What we are sure however, is this “fresh new” image will never hurt in a hip new world striving to assume a “global village” look and feel. And then, who knows, that might just translate to increased sales - if not here, certainly elsewhere. And that’s just plain SMART – don’t you think?

Tori Roy

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