Consuming advertisements on television is a fixture of modern life—we are constantly aware when watching TV that we can buy more things, be better looking, have more fun, and treat ourselves to more. In an environment where we are a perennial audience for messages that tell us how we can improve our lives, it is natural for us to wonder what effect these messages have on us.

The conversation around ads extends beyond simply whether one can convince us to make a purchase or not. How does our history of colonialism affect the identity of ourselves that we have accepted? What kind of portrayals of gender does the contemporary local audience accept? Can an ad of foreign origin reflect the local audience simply by being dubbed in Bangla?

Although ads can be a common topic of discussion among audience members due to its wide reach, seldom has there been a structured and methodical dive into the Bangladeshi TV advertising industry and the many meanings and messages in the ads we see.

Decoding Ad Culture by Dr Harisur Rahman does just that. Rahman, a scholar of South Asian media studies, has previously authored Consuming Cultural Hegemony (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), which largely explored the Bangladeshi audience's cultural obsession with Bollywood. In his new book, he dives into the contemporary advertising landscape of our country, thinking about the narratives, values, and ideas we consume on a daily basis. He achieves this through extended analysis of almost 40 popular ads that aired on Bangladeshi TV between 2018 and 2023, and conducting more than 30 interviews of ad makers and audience members alike.

The book provides observations and findings that will be of interest to anyone curious about the media or familiar with watching local TV in general. In the earlier chapters, we are taken case by case through many popular ads exploring their use of language, symbolism, hidden meanings, and the types of logic and ideas that are embedded in them.

While this analysis may be of particular interest to readers who enjoy analysing texts themselves, the approachable writing and explanations for every concept that is discussed makes this book perfectly appropriate for a wider audience.

The incorporation of quotes from audience members provides us an understanding of how other viewers feel about the issues discussed by the author. The book delves into greenwashing or how ads adopt certain pro-environment narratives to make it seem their work benefits the environment. Gender roles, acceptable beauty and body standards, middle class identity and class dynamics, the disparity in ethical standards in marketing in western and non-western markets—all become part of the conversation in exploring how these ads construct their messages.

One of the more interesting conversations that Decoding Ad Culture brings to the table is of cultural hegemony from Indian and western media. It is very difficult to define which culture is "ours" or even what the definition of "our" is for a country that is as young as Bangladesh, was once colonised, and shares borders with other countries (and consequently cultures) in the region. In any media, at what point does depiction of our culture end and that of a slightly different, more dominant neighbouring culture begin? Which ideas, cultural symbols, and norms can be claimed as "local", and which are being pushed on us by the soft power of more powerful media? The answers are not so easy.

Another interesting question the book brings up is "what is real"? The book quotes Pollay when stating "cultural values in advertising are reproduced in such an idealized manner that the audience finds a similarity between themselves and the subjects of the advertisements" (1983). That begs us to ask: How much of what is shown in an ad is meant to be perceived as "real"?

If the youth in an ad converse using buzzwords young people seldom use in real life, is that meant to portray the lives of real youth in a heightened fashion or does that represent a hyperreal world which is not meant to correspond to our society? Decoding Ad Culture seamlessly blends real life ad examples with theoretical components, bridging the gap between big picture ideas and the everyday products we use.

Overall, Decoding Ad Culture provides a truly wonderful insight into the commercials we see on an everyday basis. It is a reminder that nothing should be interpreted at a surface level—no text is simply words and actions, but layers of embedded meanings, ideas, and implications. Everything we see pushes specific values, makes assumptions about people and their lifestyles, and creates ideas of what is superior or even acceptable in society.

In a world where everything is commodified, it is difficult to maintain one's own ideas of beauty, comfort, and fun. Reading a critical text like this serves as an important reminder of the many ways messages are designed to appeal to us, and the ways in which we may engage critically with the messages to take away information in a manner that is helpful to us.

Mrittika Anan Rahman is a contributor to Daily Star Books.