Ordering Food - Radically Changing Perceptions

I'm quite bugged by the new Swiggy ad that has swept over our TV in the past few weeks. Swiggy is a food ordering and delivery app, for the unthinkable few who haven't got a clue about it. While the previous Swiggy  ads have concentrated on no minimum order value (which is a superb idea actually) the recent ones have touched the pulse of an emerging economy with its happy to spend population. Earlier if they had looked to target the smart young generation with dispensable cash at the ready and retired people who wanted to hide their sweet cravings from well meaning Hitler-ish spouses, now they have decided to enter the haloed space of the thrifty Indian home-maker. It is no rocket science that in India, the home maker is a WOMAN. With so many opportunities to milk issues of feminism and/or women's liberation - issues that won't be recognized by an average Indian male or female even if it came up to them and smacked them right across their faces, it is no wonder that the makers of the ad have zeroed in on the hard at work, bored of cooking woman of Indian homes.

The truth is that we are nothing but cheap fodder to their marketing and sales. Imagine this ad -
A bored teenager asks her mum what's for lunch today. Her mother who is trying out a new exercise/ dance step on TV replies dal, chawal, pizza, pasta...and then like a waiter from a restaurant she continues to list out a variety of items as if from a menu card; only this menu card exists on Swiggy. She asks her girl to order what she wants and some for her too. Which the girl does with a bored look.

In another, a mother and son are playing a video game and the mother looks like she is winning. The son pauses the game announcing he is hungry. To which the mother tosses her phone at him and asks him to order from the Swiggy app. And they continue the game. When the food arrives, the boy takes it and kicks the door shut on the delivery guy showing his frustration of losing the game to his mother.

A very peppy voice over announces to Swiggy Karo, Jo Chahe Karo - in other words, Just Swiggy it and Do what ever you want. Even slamming the door shut with your foot on a person who just served you. They make it look as if Swiggy was lovingly and with great care preparing my food just like my mother would, instead of what it actually was doing - picking it up from the various dubious and/or popular restaurants (which exist purely to cater commercial needs, unlike my mother) in my city and delivering it to me.

They even go out on a limb and show that you can order your ma ke haath ka bhindi (mum's special ladies finger). One would pause to ponder if not taken up by the sweet setting of three generations of women sitting and massaging the other's head with oil, that the very tag of ma ke haath is because it is my mother's special bhindi. 

The makers of the ads, sitting probably in some swish advertising office, where their distance from reality is as much as the chrome and steel office they work from, in buildings sitting squat in the middle of a jostling very Indian commercial district, who don't see real sunlight even in the bright day, shoveling microwaved, Swiggy delivered food and gulping copious 'healthy' green tea from environment friendly steel flasks. Women's empowerment" and "women's liberation" seem like cool ideas to incorporate into their ads, maybe even look noble.

What exactly are they trying to sell here then? Definitely not the ease of ordering food. They had already done that, and had established themselves into our lives so much so that when we felt like ordering food on the odd day when cooking was a chore we either Swiggy-ed it or Zomato-ed it. Fair enough. But did I say, when cooking was a chore? Whose job is that you ask? Well, they seem to have zeroed in on the same question and brilliantly they have hit on the target group - the lady of the house, as she is the one with the boring job of making meals for her family. So now we have various family members asking the person who cooks - the mother/ the wife, what's for dinner or lunch and the answer is Swiggy. For why should she cook? This lady who has dreams of her own. No, not just her dreams here... this lady is doing what she wants to do - play video games with her son, sit and just enjoy an oil massage with her daughter or try out a new dance step/ exercise step (not very clear there).

And there is absolutely nothing wrong here except for the idea they are selling here. That you can pursue or engage in one activity without sacrificing the other. That I could spend time with my son and be a cool mum only if I weren't slogging in the kitchen making meals for the family. They are not interested in understanding that I pride in making stuff or that I make healthy choices or that I have empowered my children to take care of their hunger pangs themselves by teaching them a skill or two. They are simply saying - buy my service. Kick your habits/ values and buy what I am peddling, because I have invested crores in my product. I don't care that you might have to pay probably more to a health provider because you have got influenced by my service and have exposed your family to a bad/unhealthy lifestyle with impending health probelms. Just buy my service. Because let's not be naive here...we know what looks cool and easy - not your haath ka sabzi, but what is sold as ma haath ka sabzi that I shall deliver at your doorstep.

Isn't it what they are trying to do when they insult a mother like me's intelligence that they rather order food in when hunger pangs hit my family? Like there was no other option? Like I couldn't ask my son/daughter to yes pause the game and go fix yourself a sandwich or grab an apple or a thattai ( a fried savory) that is already in the house? Like don't I already have a losing battle against my teenage son/daughter's craving for outside food, that I have to fight the ideas this ad is putting in their head? Why can't I simply equip myself and my family with skills to kill the hunger pangs instead of ordering food so you can laugh your way to the bank?

I also wondered if that was how we tackled cooking in our country? Was it a spur-of-the-moment decision to prepare something? Does our cooking lend itself to this impulsiveness? Yes, there might be a lot of women out there who think cooking is a chore, but if they can spend the kind of money to buy food from outside welcoming bad/ negative eating habits then why can't they invest in a cook? Outsource the job to someone who uses their raw product and under their supervision makes something for the family while they are doing what they love to do? Sounds good right?  Perhaps instead of ranting here, I should expressly think of starting an agency that would supply cooks. Or better still get Swiggy to accept my app that would link their account to a local hospital and give them a 25% discount on their medical bills.

Wow. Brain wave! Eureka! This needs a bit of thinking and planning I know, but if I were to be amiss in my duties of providing good food to my family I know Swiggy has got my back. After all for me to develop an app which will do the above, I need to make some sacrifices somewhere right? Let's start with my family's health :P