AD WATCH: Continental's Angry Indian Woman

Here are some screen grabs from a current Continental Airlines TV ad called "Lost in Translation." The point of the commercial: "If only speaking foreign languages was as easy as flying internationally on Continental." You can watch the clip here, which is from the airline's ad archive.

Two quick points on this: The scene appears to be the lobby of a five-star hotel somewhere in India. I  bet there isn't a single two-star hotel in India where the concierge doesn't speak English. The sign doesn't make sense to me. It says "vastra ki banavat." I will leave it to you better Hindi speakers to explain it in the comments section, if you can.

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Comments

[chachaji]

OK, Sree, my debut comment at SAJAForum!

'Vastra ki BanawaT' means exactly nothing in the context of the ad - it is not meant to, it's just a random sign picked up from somewhere and placed there - it has no relevance whatsoever other than to connote a strange sign. If you look really deeply (as a Hindi reader, with the benefit of screen grabs - it otherwise goes by too fast) you might take it to mean the guy has walked into a ladies' dressing room. 'BanawaT' can mean anything from 'decoration' to 'dressing up' to 'showing off' depending on context. 'Vastra' is clothes or sometimes, just 'cloth'.

[Sri Vasudevan]

This is one of the reasons why I've stopped flying Continental as a frequent flier - the mere stupidity for approving that ad proves everything.

[Aseem Chhabra]

Every time I watch the commercial (it has been playing on CNN for months), the thought crosses my mind that will some super sensitive desi react and say the commercial is racist – after all it is the desi woman in a sari who slaps a white man. So where are the super sensitive desis? Busy doing what? I would have imagined that there would be demonstrations outside Continental’s HQ (wherever that is in Houston or Newark), especially given that the airline is trying hard to capitalize on the desis who travel back and forth between Newark and Delhi and Newark and Bombay.

Does a woman in a sari slapping an idiotic white man constitute a racist portrayal of a bharatiya (perhaps a Hindu) nari or this is just a commercial ki banawat?

Maybe I am wrong and I need to understand these super sensitive desis.

[swapna vora]

Possibly too inane/inexplicable/unreal even for SS desis to react to.

Maybe it shows that martial arts originated in India.(I was taught to look at the good side always.)

Maybe people should fly Continental to learn kalaripattu....

Maybe the pair got married or had to a nice affair. Whatever.

[chachaji]

"I was taught to look at the good side always"

Perhaps one point that the advertisement makes - inadvertently (er, ahem) - is how easy it is to come up with non-idiomatic phrases by putting together words looked up in reverse-dictionaries. 'Vastra ki BanawaT' is not just meaningless in the context of the ad, it is also not idiomatic usage in itself. An idiomatic phrase would be 'KapDon ki Silaai' - since many Indians still get their clothes tailored to fit - such a sign would be appropriate above the tailors' area of a clothes showroom.

[washington]

chachaji.. Are you serious? this makes you want to stop flying continental? did anyone on here even watch the commercial? this is a montage and the woman slapping him isnt even the one displayed as being in India! He is wearing a different suit and the slapper is wearing a red sleeved jacket NOT a sari. Its supposed to be the woman with curly hair perhaps from Spain. And this commercial in no way is attacking ANY of these ethnicities...if anything its making fun of the "stupid white man" or "ugly amercian" however you want to look at it. jeeze, this should not be offensive at all.

[hotel in India]

This ads was very funny. People will well-remember it.