Posted in June 16th, 2009
Photo “Holi in Udaipur” by Andifeelfine
I happened to see a commercial for the Banzai Color Stream Battle Blaster between SpongeBob’s (ahem—I mean, MY SON happened to see a commercial for it between SpongeBob’s…) and immediately thought of the Hindu holiday Holi (actually—I thought—wow, that’s a commercialized version of that Indian holiday where they splatter each other with different color paint–I had to research/look up the actual name of the holiday, and narrow down Hindu vs. Indian.)
By coincidence, my son and I were talking this morning about ‘cultural equivalents’ and how cultural is transfered by commercial products. In 8-year-old terms that was how SpongeBob can be viewed in different countries, or how Japanese shows and toys, such as Pokémon, have become popular in the US.
So when I saw the Color Stream Battle Blaster commercial, boasting “Color Infusion Technology”, I immediately thought of it as the ultimate, commercialized, packaged adaptation of Holi, or at least as it was described to me by an Indian-American colleague last year. For me and my son, it opened a conversation about a holiday/culture with which he was unfamiliar, a doorway to learn something new, and for us, multicultural. If you celebrate Holi, did you get the same impression? Would you use a Banzai Color Blaster to celebrate? Or, should I have kept my visual, cultural connection to myself? Why?
Tags:
Banzai Color Stream Blaster,
Cultural Equivalents,
Holi
3 Responses to "Cultural Transfer with Holi Inpired Banzai Squirt Gun?"
On June 24th, 2009 at 9:14 am
Gori Girl said:
Wow – that gun would be a blast at a Holi celebration! Although it doesn’t seem like the color sticks as well as the color traditionally used.
I don’t know why you should’ve kept your cultural connection to yourself – it seems perfectly reasonable to make those sort of connections in daily life.
On June 25th, 2009 at 12:15 am
shoss said:
See, that final concern about the cultural connection was that slight nagging/concern about offending. What if as an ‘outsider’ I didn’t fully understand the significance of Holi–if there was something particularly religious about it that would make it ‘inappropriate’ to make connection to a commercial product.
But, then, I always say we’re bound to make mistakes and sometimes offend by being willing to be open and engage in new experiences and relationships, so I’m delighted this isn’t one of those times!
On June 25th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Gori Girl said:
As far as Holi goes – well, it’s pretty much just an excuse to ambush your friends and have a fun time getting really dirty. So no worries about offending Hindus on it (unless they’re fundamentalists, but those people aren’t worth worrying about offending).
With other religious events, I do agree that there’s a line to be walked in accidentally making inappropriate connections or remarks – but I think that as long as you approach the conversation in good faith and are open about your lack of knowledge, then, again, anyone who gets offended is overreacting, and probably not someone you should be that worried about offending.
