Question 6

6) By drawing on the articles on the exotic and globalization from class, discuss the following advertisement:



Ghosh says in “Con-fusing” Exotica, “The more predominant trend of representing Indians in the United States is through their absence- as a spectral presence. In most cases, Indians are simply erased out of the picture, whereas their clothes, homes, their cultural practices, and their artifacts are appropriated and used to sell a U.S.-identified product. This erasure conveniently creates the category of the ‘exotic’ as an empty space that can be used to denote both the repulsive and the desired, the fearful and the fascinating, the fantastic and the phantasmatic. This, it inscribes within it both a fascination and desire for the exotic.”(Page 278) Not only does this quote directly correlate to the idea of the “exotic,” but also to the reference to India in the video. In the video, we see the tremendous effort behind something as simple as red curtains in India. What takes lots of time and effort elsewhere, for us it just takes something as simple as going to the store and swiping a credit card. Because we never see the effort behind the product, it creates this “empty space,” thus making the idea of India “exotic.” The narrator at the end of the video says, “If you’re really serious about entertainment, every detail counts,” as if Conan actually made the curtains. This creates distance because in actuality, the curtains were bought from a foreign place, not made. This increases the idea of exoticism. Globalization of media is clearly scene in the very beginning. The Indian people are calling out to Conan O’Brien, a comedic late-night talk show host in America, even though he has no actual ties in the media to India.