The young girls and boys stood with arms around each other, dressed in colourful clothes, sporting radiant smiles. Black next to White next to Asian next to Oriental. 'The United Colours of Benetton,' read the caption underneath. "Buy from us," they seemed to say sotto voce, "because we love you just the way you are." Nice. The advertisement had a ring of new-age racial tolerance about it that made one want to keep the distributed leaflet for a bit longer before dumping it in the nearest bin. Not so the latest promotional gimmick of Benetton's sister store, Sisley. I really don't know if they are sister stores, but long back the two shared the same roof and had the same kind of clothes. A couple of weeks ago I went into Sisley's and the salesgirl slipped in this in-house fashion magazine along with my purchases. I got a glimpse of a sleek and glossy cover and figured it might be fun to flip through later. It wasn't. It was gross and disgusting. It's a sad state of affairs when people think soft porn is needed to sell T-shirts and skirts. Let me describe the cover first. It says 'Lost in the Garden of Eden' and there's a girl holding a snake and sticking her tongue out. The snake's head is close to her mouth and your imagination does not need to soar to guess what message the advertising brains were trying to get across. The inside of the magazine stars two waifs in an exotic jungle, presumably Adam and Eve at age 14, dressed by Sisley. Here is Eve bare-breasted in a leather skirt; and there she is holding a carrot. A bare-legged and unshaven Adam models the T-s in a subdued manner. But wait, there is a tender love story too. The title is 'The Garden of Eden' and the credit for dishing up this humbug goes to Jay McInerney (not the Jay McInerney?). Reading a few lines here and there I gather it's about Katrina and the problems she has living in with her boyfriend Richard. Trouble comes when Katrina starts liking George. Guilt and the following dialogue -- edited, of course -- follows. "What say we take a little break," said Richard. "Yeah," she said and tugged him towards the bedroom. Later she felt guilty when she found herself thinking of George... Definitely not literature at its best. Towards the end Katrina's words have the ring of truth when she says, "I'm clueless." Et tu, Katrina? There are a lot of us here who sure as hell are clued in even less than you! Who, for example, is going to explain to us why anti-pornography laws are in place when such explicit material is freely available to kids in the guise of clothing advertisement? And who will reassure us that times are not changing drastically; that this is not the first step to even 'harder' selling? Oh, Katrina... Richard... you would have looked so much nicer with your clothes on, telling us to make the world a more tolerant place! Sujata Prakash will certainly be on her guard next time she shops. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh Tell us what you think of this diary Be part of an exciting venture! Write a Diary!
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