Unplugging The Pressure On The Youth
Music.
I think the songs that people hum or sing along with says a lot about what they really feel. You vibe with a song if it says what you want to say.
Let’s look at how cult songs of the youth have changed over time….
OUCH.
Quite a leap isn’t it?
But the contrast in the words of these two songs pretty much outlines the contrast in environment that the generations then and the generations now grew up.
One word that the current generation grew up with is :
PRESSURE
If you’re in school are you rocking extra curricular along with studies?
If you’re in college, are you in a) IIT b) Stephens/LSR/SRCC c) Doesn’t matter
If you’re working, what is your pay package?
If you’re 22, are you single?
If you’re on twitter, how many followers do you have? Are you funny?
If you’re on facebook, how many friends do you have? How many people comment on your status?
If you’re rocking all of the above, are you thin?
WOW ?
People are dying trying. People are stressed. People are going mad. People have developed complexes.
And they start to desperately look around for anything that eases this stress. Helps them forget. Tells them to take it easy.
The evidence for this search is everywhere. Let’s look at movies.
The CULT movie of the Generation has been : DIL CHAHTA HAI. A story about three young kids with no careers to speak off, who are chilling in life with endless trips to Goa and family businesses to take over. Not Yuva which was about becoming a part of the system to change it or Guru which was about working hard and achieving success. No we prefer beaches and chilling!
Mindless comedies, which instead of needing you to use your head actually require you to go back and wash your brain, are making maximum money. Top Bollywood Grossers this year : Dabangg, Yamla Pagla Deewana, Golmaal 3.
Even when it comes to what we do with 90% of our time. Top activities?? Partying/Boozing/Facebooking/Chilling with friends would be high up.
Common thread? Help me take my mind off my stressed life!
Consumer Insight :
“Help people ease some pressure off their life and you’re a hit”.
Lets look at some brands that consumers have vibed well with:
On the surface Dove’s Real Beauty campaign raised important questions about inner beauty versus plastic beauty. But on a more basic level what it really did was tell every ugly/dark/fat girl in India that it was alright to look the way they did. It eased off the mental pressure that every girl was going through trying to look like an Aishwarya or a Priyanka and failing miserably. That mental marathon was suddenly over. Now the aim was ‘soft skin’ which was so much easier. Pressure gone.
Sprite cut the crap and made saying-it-like-it-is seem cool and people liked it. But what it really did was ease off the pressure of TRYING to be funny. How many of us are actually capable of cool one liners? Most of us are not. But ‘Seedhi Baat’ sabko karni ati hai. Now instead of trying to come up with a funny comeback to my smart friend’s jab at me i can tell him what i want to and take a sip of my Sprite to prove my point. Pressure off.
Mother have a 1000 jobs. They spend their lives obsessing about if their kids have been fed enough, are they studying enough, are they ill?, are they sleeping well? Are mosquitoes biting them? Surf excel came and took one of the pressures off – Don’t bother about your kid getting dirty, daag ache hai. Pressure off.
Now if we look around using this lens all categories have pressures associated with them :
DENIMS
Pressure : Slim Fit denims do not fit me!
Taking pressure off -> Levis Curve id?
COOKING
Pressure : I can’t cook like my mother but my husband expects me to!!
Taking pressure off -> Knorr Readymade Food?
Solutions can be in what you sell or what you say!
The only question you need to ask is :
“Am i taking pressure off?”