The i-pill and I: A two part exploration of the i-pill advertising campaign in India.

• In Event: Communicating to/with the 'new' India: A cultural analysis of matrimonial websites, communication text books, and medical advertisements in contemporary India

Abstract

Cipla, a leading pharmaceutical company in India recently introduced the “morning-after” pill or the emergency contraceptive pill to Indian audiences through a targeted and extravagant advertising campaign. Since the “pill” is viewed as a contraceptive it is permissible to advertise in Indian media; however it has raised questions about policy and polity within the “new” India. This paper examines the advertising campaign first by way of semiotic analysis of the advertisements themselves and then undertakes an ethnographic study of the reception of the campaign. While the semiotic analysis is largely a textual analysis, the ethnographic is Unconventional in its approach as it uses the internet for all “interactions” – from participant observations and “deep-hanging out” in chat rooms and blogs. The implications of this research go beyond the need and effect of such advertisement campaigns, rather highlight the subject positions being gardened and contested in contemporary India.

Author

• Nayantara Sheoran, George Mason University