I
am always fascinated by the Raymonds advertisement, not because of the fabric
or their designs but by the content and the way they capture the emotions of
characters and various beautiful moments in life. This made me to think on what
makes “The Complete Man” to exist or is this term just a hypothetical one.
The
Raymonds advertisement, pictures various stages of a Man’s life, a doting father,
spontaneous and surprising boyfriend, loving husband, caring son, affectionate
student. Yes Raymonds protagonist is the quintessential person whom everyone
would love to have on their side.
In
one of the Raymond advertisement which is also my favourite, we have a hubby who
reaches home to find a note from his wife saying,
“Working
Late…. Enjoy your office party.. PS: Can’t dance anyway”
He
looks at it, smiles and then reaches her office with a red rose in his hand, gives
her the rose and they dance together. Though the entire picturisation has been
taken from “Shall We Dance” movie, it definitively passes on the message that
nothing is more important than the family. How many of us have understood this
in our lives. How many times we had postponed our vacations which were planned
month ahead due to immediate office matters. How many times have we foregone our
movie tickets for our boss had wanted some urgent report for a meeting? But
here we have an understanding husband who forgoes an office party and instead
has a romantic evening with his wife.
In
the other ad we have a couple getting into a hotel with the boyfriend nodding
and gesturing to his friends. As the reach the center of the hall, his friends
start to play the piano of a famous old song. Everyone around joins them in
singing and dancing and the girl is taken by surprise and overwhelmed with joy by
this act of her boyfriend. At the end she meets his parents and at the end of
the ad, she just rests her head on his chest and nourishes this pleasant moment.
This is what pleasant surprises can do to people who get one. Haven’t we
experienced such moments in our lives when our friends / family members wakes
us up at midnight to celebrate our birthday with cake, when our loved ones
comes behind and closes our eyes with their hands and asking us to guess who it
was or everyone in your class room / office stands up and starts to clap their
hands as your enter office / class room just to appreciate your achievement.
All such occasions bring on a momentous joy which last forever in our memories.
The
other one shows a son handing over his appointment order to his mother. His
mother delighted on this gets sad on seeing that his son posting is in Singapore.
Though unable to show her sadness, she wishes all the best to her son. He at
that moment produces two tickets for Singapore which includes one for his
mother. On seeing this, his mother’s eyes are overwhelmed with joyful tears. At
that moment, he bends down and touches his feet for her blessings. The ad ends
with the complete man tag. Yes this is what our parents expect from our grownups.
The caring that we need to shower on them. The assurance that we are there for
them and care for them at all times.
Other
Raymond ads such as remembering old teacher for the wedding, outperforming Dad’s
expectations and daughter’s wedding. Each ad lays emphasis on a particular aspect of
life. After watching all the ads, a Complete man is one who has all the above
characteristics.
IMHO, we all have a part of the characteristics depicted in
the ads but lack each all of it. It may be our impatience or our inability to
inculcate all these values in our daily lives. However I still long to have all
these and be a Complete man as the Raymond tag says…
