24 SEP

Thou shall protest!

A yahoo video ad was noticed by one of our TISA team members on Sep 22 (8.23 am). It portrayed stammering in a negative way. To use his words- it was an ad “in which stammering has been used to create fun in bad taste.”
The TISA members and other IPWS promptly went into action, lodged complaint with Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) and with Yahoo.
All the while, we had an internal debate too: are we over-reacting? Have we not shared jokes about Tamil accent, Sardar ji, fat-thin people etc etc.? But then, stammering is a health condition, which causes considerable suffering and disability. But are these other kind of jokes OK? Should we file a PIL? Should we just focus on our internal work focusing on self help movement?
We think humor, still has not matured enough. Still not very intelligent or creative- if it has to depend on people’s accent or girth. But to begin with, we started with this one issue and succeeded too! Because in less than 48 hours Yahoo removed the ad. You may check it out by following this link:
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/3527101/9774251
So, the moral of the story is: if you dont like something, say so. Make a protest. This is how you shape your world. Your reality. You are the shaper of your world.
Congratulations to all of you PWS, who reacted promptly and spontaneously..
Keep it up!

Post Author: Sachin

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3 thoughts on “Thou shall protest!”

    Anonymous

    (September 24, 2008 - 6:59 pm)

    great work guys. No u r not over reacting. laughing at accents is different from laughing at stammering. A guy with a tamil accent does not have problem with his accent, its just the way he talks. but a PWS suffers from low confidence, negative attitude etc and this ads increases the negative attitude. Secondly as you said it, it is a health condition.
    We must actually see how we can highlight the media’s indifference to stammering, like stammering being portrayed in movies, TV etc We must make a big noise. that’s how there will be awareness. and TISa is the best way to do that in India. In Uk, BSA is doing similar things.
    -tanveer

    Manish Rami

    (September 25, 2008 - 1:32 pm)

    This shows the collective power you have. Good work.
    Best.

    Karen Trollope-Kumar

    (October 3, 2008 - 11:28 am)

    Good work to all of you who responded promptly to this. It is really an important way to make a difference.

    Keep up the great work!

    I recently visited Samagra headquarters, and was thrilled to see the work going on.

    Karen Trollope-Kumar, Canada

Comments are closed.