Aurora celebrates Pakistan’s 77th Independence Day.

Here is a scenario most Karachiites dread. You are in a traffic jam, and the distance between home and your workplace and the Mad Max antics on the road leave you drained and exhausted once you do finally reach home.

I myself commute by bike or bus and sometimes catch forty winks in the bus, lulled by the rhythmic motion of the movement. This means that when I am home after work, paying attention to the TV is the farthest thought from my mind. The other day, however, an ad broke my stupor and actually grabbed my attention. And yes, it was a local ad. The ad I am referring to is the new Dalda Independence Day ad. The concept is simple.

The ad opens with Ali, a young boy, trying to remember a speech. His mom, busy in the kitchen, corrects a word he misreads. Of course, Mom is using Dalda. So far, par for the course.

The next scene cuts to a school auditorium and Ali is called on stage to deliver his speech. Mom is sitting in the audience with the other parents. (Dad is not there, as far as we know.) Ali looks like any other kid who appears in the thousands of national and patriotic ads we see. He is wearing a kurta shalwar and a fawn waistcoat, complete with a Pakistani flag brooch. Mom is anxious and Ali is nervous. He opens his mouth but the words don’t come out, and the crowd starts chattering. So he does the unthinkable. He admits that he has forgotten the speech, despite his mom’s best efforts. Mom is in despair and the crowd is silent. However, he is not done yet. He says he does remember one line: “yeh mitti hamari maa jaisi hoti hai”, meaning ‘this Earth is like our mother’. He says he remembers it because of the word maa. A woman next to his mom stands up and applauds, and soon Ali is a star.

People in the Facebook marketing group I am in commented that it was a very cute ad. Sorry, this ad is not cute. It is revolutionary. It is ground-breaking. Why? Because it showed failure. This is something we fear more than life itself. As parents, we do not want our children to fail – now or in the future. And as a result of our own insecurities and ‘failed’ dreams, comes the toxic shaming practised in society that plays such a big part in crippling the lives of our children in terms of their mental attitude and emotional well-being.

When we say local brands are not brave and daring, this is a shut-up call. For the first time in our history, a brand has been brave enough to show a child ‘failing.’

This ad is amazing! A few years ago, as a father, I was wondering about the way we talk about children not wanting to work hard, preferring instead to take shortcuts. Yet, as parents, we buy (pun intended) into the idea that a product or brand can solve our life’s issues, even those related to our children and therefore help us not feel failure as parents.

Moms, because of societal pressures and low self-esteem, put so much pressure on their children to excel and this ad dares to show a child failing to remember his lines. This is a ground-breaking idea. We are a success-obsessed nation and this is leading to deteriorating mental health. Children who are rewarded for their efforts become resilient and healthy adults, compared to those who are only rewarded for their results. We will all fail multiple times in our lives, so how does one pick oneself up if one is only praised when one succeeds?

You don’t, because you do not have the experience or tools to do so. Resilience cannot be created without mistakes and failure. Sadly, the local and global education system is not designed to create an environment that encourages children to fail, try again and learn. And this, for me, is a very worrying thought. The need of the hour is a revolution and an inquilab to free ourselves from the prison of fear of failure and end its rule once and for all.

Tyrone Tellis is Senior Manager, Corporate Sales and PR, Bogo. tyrone.tellis@gmail.com