An advertisement, of all things, has caught my attention for this blog post. The color green is everywhere. You just cannot escape it. From Copenhagen to the grassroots level of discussion among the youth, the color green is everywhere. The environmental awareness is penetratinng our minds on an everyday basis. For the first time, i must say that Aditya Birla Group’s Advertisement on Idea Cellular is a shot in the arm for Green enthusiasts like me. It gives us the two basic reasonings for change in society and mindset. One, this thing can happen. Two, The environment needs change like this. Afterall, Obama has only focused on humans and is not doing a good job, it is only better that environment is now the focus, because change will happen.
The idea of the Idea Mobile phone ad is that without trees, there can be no life. But, without trees, there can never be any paper as well. Have Media houses, industrial outlets and ordinary people identified that without trees, you will just not have paper to work on. It is at this time that technology and convenience work on each other and come up with some out of the box solution.
The Ad goes on to say that Graduation certificates, Boarding passes, Stenos at the court proceedings, Newspapers, orders, bills can all go mobile. If one goes mobile, then paper is saved. This is a simple but an out of the box solution. Can we all even think on those lines? Well, the unfortunate answer to that is NO.
Because once we want to think about that, two obstacles among the many predominantly stand out. One is the utility of technology in a country which might still be coming to grips with it. The second is obviously the cost factor. Mobile subscribers will charge a high amount if they will offer services like epaper facility. The amount might not look high, but in the long run, people may be deterred into using mobile services for everything.
Have we all realized the calamity that can come upon us? For everything to be on record so that future generations can look at their history, there may not be any material for recording it. Paper will end, so what are you left with? Absolutely nothing. The main aim of technology is to change people’s mindset and come up with ideas that help the environment. This kind of mobile phone ad is indeed heartwarming, but once again the Indian public, under the shroud of cynicism, will ensure that it becomes unpractical.
Green enthusiasts all over India will want to run this ad over and over again, because, as I have said earlier, summits like Copenhagen will only stall the movement rather than enable it. We, as alert green citizens of this country, must take the plunge and ensure that this ambition of Idea is pushed through, even if other networks pry on greed and competition to divert their focus.
The term ‘What an Idea’ Sirji’ will become relevant for citizens in real life if a green initiative is indeed pushed through. Till then, citizens can only comfort themselves with ads. But, somewhere, sometime, we need to realize that Green is the only way
