Here is food you cannot buy!

How pitiful is the father who cannot buy his son the candies that all kids seem to eat and enjoy!

In an age where media is in everybody’s phone and home, each mind is aware of the possibilities that exist around one. This is one of the greatest things that could have been achieved through ensuring free access to information. But at the same time, I have observed that this has created an element of frustration. Especially where inequality is rampant, such possibilities become a negative energy. When your loved ones ask to eat simple food advertised thousand times a day, what would you do if you could not afford it? If you were the person who created this mass media advertisement campaign in kids enjoying delicious candies, you should realize that you are making a million of hungry kids feel miserable. How would a father afford a “delicious treat”, if he is unable to provide wheat of appropriate quantity!

While providing free information through legitimate and allowed modes of information that one may argue are well needed as a fundamental right to a consumer of product, why do we create sorrow? Why would you use public media to create a desire for something that people cannot afford? On one hand, the society does not create opportunities for the people to dream of a life full of possibilities, and on the other hand it makes sure that those deprived are constantly reminded what they miss out in terms of simple items projected as unaffordable pleasures of life. Although I hate socialism as it is against the fundamentals of most basic pursuits by us, yet sometimes, I find it hard to understand the impact we create on our societies. I would like to narrate a few simple stories the likes of which we all see every day.

The juicy burger: I remember driving on a popular and busy road in Karachi. We stopped at a traffic light with a friend and my driver in the car. It was a casual day till the time I saw my friend and my driver looking at the billboard of this amazing juicy burger. The burger was so juicy that it created a huge lust in me to just grab one and eat it. But that was less important than the feeling of appreciation in my friend’s eyes and the feeling of utter despair and sorrow in my driver’s sad smile. Such a shocking moment it was. That one moment created so much guilt, empathy, enlightenment, and sadness in me. At that moment, I could not appreciate the amazing quality of the advertisement for the information it had for my friend. The attractive display just appeared to be an insensitive description of something that made most of those stuck at that signal feel miserable for themselves.

The prohibited dessert: I was sitting with my mother and we were passively watching TV. For reference, my mother, during her last few months, had to be on a controlled diet plan. So much so, that she had lost her appetite as she only could afford (medically) the food that was of mediocre taste. It was a normal viewing of TV, until there was an advertisement of a “deliciously dressed” dessert that “everyone must eat”. During those 10 seconds, I saw a light sparkling and immediately fading in my mother’s eyes followed by a sigh of sadness without a word. But that hopeless sigh narrated all the pain she suffered from that advertisement. There was this immense desire in me to get her that food item, but I knew that I would only cause her harm. This was like being able to see your happy place without being able to live in it. What a sad person I felt I was! Provoked by that 10-second display, it was impossible to sleep that night.

The greasy fries: In school, I had a friend who was trained to be physically fit. He belonged to a good family headed by his doctor father. His father was a good doctor, so much so, that he probably forgot that he was a father too! Every day, this friend of us used to bring fruits with him to eat during lunch time, while other unhealthy kids brought some money to buy unhealthy stuff from the cafeteria. And the cafeteria had the greasiest chips and sugar filled drinks. Although the fruits the kid brought were admired, but the display of the unhealthy food was simply amazing. One could not resist it, so what started happening was that the rich kid of a health-loving father used to under-sell his fruits for a few bucks to other students so that he could buy attractively marketed food. And he did that with all the depressing face he could make. Just the attractive display was enough to push him towards a lifetime of diseases.

In the above three stories, there is a common theme: Good information created frustration. Can you blame a father who steals money for his son to have the food he sees every day, demands it, but cannot afford to eat?  Can you blame a patient to have a forbidden food because an advertisement created a deep desire to enjoy the taste the patient should not have? Can you blame a kid for forgoing healthy food because the advertisements for unhealthy profitable food are so rampantly done by the makers of those?

I cannot blame them. But I also find it hard to blame those who just marketed their burger, dessert mix, and greasy fries as a genuine choice to those who could afford it. The key problem is the society where inequality is so rampant that a large population cannot afford normally accepted life. Without the regulation hurting free choice, I struggle to answer the most fundamental leadership question: How far does a leader go to sell its products if the product does not make sense for non-targeted user? This is not a question for a commercially performing “manager”, it is a question for a socially aware “leader”. Can our leaders exhibit the best albeit remaining aware of the issues that come with living in a highly inequal economy?

And if they cannot, I would urge us to think as to how terrible it is to create the sense of helplessness, misery, and deprivation in a million children so that our product is consumed by a hundred who could buy it!