Apna System.com

Patriotism is not only a feeling that should be expressed in words but is also an act that should be displayed through action. A person is called patriot when he accepts, cherishes and practices the laws, culture, societal norms, customs and actions of a country. Our nation consists of people belonging to different backgrounds who prefer their community, tribe, cult, political party or provincial name over the national identity. We have somehow always neglected the fact that our national identity is that we are Pakistanis.
Though Muslims and Hindus have lived together in the past and they are still living together in India but in Pakistan we have a totally different scenario. We have our own background, culture and norms and we will have to understand and differentiate the culture of India and Pakistan. We are not similar countries.

Through the ‘cable’ (media) we have allowed the Indian culture to penetrate in our society and now it has taken over our own culture. Our children are forced to hear Indian religious guidance and songs and they are busy looking at the child cartoons of Hindu religious idols. We are ruining our next generation the same way as the Indians have ruined theirs. We have to understand that we belong to a different culture and we should accept and act according to our own norms.

Recently we have seen that the multinational companies have stopped differentiating between Pakistan and India and they have starting making a generic ad for both the countries. For example, there was an ad from Lifebuoy Soap “Healthy hoga Pakistan” which was copied from the ad they made for the Indians “Healthy hoga Hindustan”. I do understand that the theme of an ad can be the same for a geographic region but unfortunately the ad that was displayed in Pakistan had the same cast, locality, infrastructure etc, which was there in the Indian ad. The only difference was the tagline, which was changed from Hindustan to Pakistan. This is truly unacceptable.

We have our own identity, we have our own system and I believe Lifebuoy should have shot another ad and should have casted Pakistani children. The buildings that were shown were the same as what were shown in the Indian ad; therefore, being a patriot, I will never buy a product from a company who does not have the courtesy to hire our people for their ad campaign.
Another alarming issue is that besides showing the same ad in Pakistan, the multinational companies are using Indian celebrities to market their products in Pakistan. Example, Katrina Kaif in (Slice Soft drink), Asin Thottumkal (Mirinda soft drink) and others. Don’t we have celebrities who can market these products? Can’t the multinationals hire Pakistanis to market their product to Pakistanis? Why don’t we protest or boycott those companies who ignore Pakistanis and yet they want Pakistanis to buy their products? I do understand that we all have the freedom to like celebrities for all over the world but what I want to highlight here is that by allowing such things we are helping those who are not helping Pakistanis. They will keep on making ads in India and later they will advertise the same ad in Pakistan. They will only change the name or the tagline to Pakistan from India and will earn money from Pakistanis.

My humble request to you all is to look into this matter and raise your voice against it. We are losing our identity day by day. We will have to show the world that we are not followers of India or Indian media and we only accept Pakistani ads which are made in Pakistan and have Pakistani people in it.

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