Walk when you talk – Is this even an ‘idea’?

This post is actually long overdue. It was supposed to be out when I first heard the phrase “Walk when you talk”. I’m referring to the ‘What an idea, Sirji!” advertisement starring Actor Abhishek Bachchan for a mobile phone network. It is absolutely abominable that this ad was even made and then actually allowed to be publicly screened. I am no ad-guru. But anyone should realize that the very ‘idea’ of the ad is wrong and dangerous.

A doctor asking the entire world to ‘Walk when you talk’. It only reminds me of the death of a girl from my college when I was pursuing my under graduation. She was talking on her cell phone while trying to cross the road just outside college, and was hit by a truck (or a bus, I do not remember clearly) and died on the spot. This was exactly ‘Walking, talking’. And the ad endorses what is completely the opposite of common sense. Imagine what would happen if an entire country started walking while talking on the cell phone. And the ad shows different people doing exactly the same and a news channel airs it as ‘Breaking News’.

Why did Abhishek Bachchan (who came across as a sensible gentleman to me, till this ad) even agree to endorse a product (I’m not against the product) through a concept like this? Mobile phones have caused much danger while driving, walking and so on. And people are repeatedly told not to talk while walking and driving. Then you have this ad saying something completely different. I would like to know who is this brain surgeon of a copy writer (or whoever, of the ad agency) who came up with this line and this concept and then have a doctor portray it.

And they call this an ‘idea’?

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