The New Lexus Car TVC (Television commercial) has been the subject of controversy lately, especially because of its portrayal of classical musicians. Those in India probably may not be aware of it, because the commercial has not been shown on Indian television, and secondly it features western classical musicians, which again doesn’t happen to the most popular genre of music, at least among Indians.
If you’re a classical musician, or a student preparing for Trinity College or Royal School music exams, you may probably not like watching the video.
There are many who feel that such casual & negative references to classical music in films and in adverts, is one of the reasons why many young people really believe that classical is for people who’re old, boring, squeaky and not normal.
One of the comments even went to the extent of saying…
“If that TVC is harmless, imagine the same advert but with three black people singing rap. How long do you think it would last?”
On the other hand, many viewers feel that the ad is not really insulting the musicians. The video is indeed satirical but the intention seem to be to mock other car ads, which in the past have featured classical music, and not really mock classical music.
Checkout the video for yourself.
Sometime back, we had done an article on why many were over-reacting to the cartoon depicting India’s Mars mission. However it seems, not just Indians, but many people across the world find it difficult to laugh at themselves.
The TVC is somewhat funny, but is it really offensive? What do you think?
