They’re back. Not with a bang but in briefs. TV advertising has shown signs of a recovery recently, not all of it as entertaining or as wholesome as it might be. For instance, there’s something so irresistibly silly about TV commercials for underwear: Indian male is at a swimming pool where he or his Dollar briefs catch the eyes of a foreign lady. He crashes into the water, the green bottle in her hand crashes to the ground and he rises out of the pool, triumphant at the power of his undergarment. Can’t think why he would jump into the pool in his underpants — ever heard of swimming trunks?

In another, a wimp of a man tormented by she-devils beseeches God and receives an Amul Macho vest from heaven which swells out his chest and bursting with masterful intent, he subdues his female tormentors. Moral of the story? The vest invests a man with testosterone. Can’t understand why male sexuality is defined by undergarments when a good shirt would do the trick.

A silly but dangerous TV commercial is the Chlormint one with Salman Khan and brother Sohail. They’re in an aeroplane with the latter imitating everything Salman does. An irritated superstar gets himself thrown off the plane — ditto brother — but while Salman has a parachute, Sohail has a backpack of books. Result? Sohail plunges to earth and craters his likeness in the ground. Should children, anybody, watch such ads?

The Cadbury chocolate éclair ad is also iffy. Wicks burn from the corner of kids’ mouths and then their heads blast open like bombs in an explosion of chocolate. Bombs are bombs and we don’t need to burst, even if they’re a gooey brown delight.

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