The now infamous My Choice video, whose script veers between pissed-off-teenager and aspiring-stream-of-consciousness-writer is only the latest in a series of hilarious ads that the fashion magazine has put up under its hashtag ‘VogueEmpower’.

The campaign – for what cause, we don’t know yet – started with Ranbir Kapoor blathering on about his love of black-and-white photography while a scantily clad Kangana Ranaut promised to empower women by talking to them about her journey.

Then, it moved on to an ad where a lot of anorexic women in business suits and bold lipstick strode around, plastering themselves against various horizontal and vertical surfaces, while screaming into phones, with words like ‘power-hungry’ and ‘arrogant’ jumping out of blackboards.

In another ad about saluting heroes, an acid attack victim who has turned her life around finds herself feted, alongside a female bodybuilder who giggles that her parents-in-law don’t know what she does, and an old actress wearing several layers of makeup.

This is followed by an outlandish video called ‘Warrior Woman’, where a dominatrix-type wearing leather and feathers stands among shaven-headed dancers.

Then, there is an ad featuring Madhuri Dixit along with a bunch of sadistic parents who command their sons not to cry, and culminating in a kohl-eyed man who twists the arm of his girlfriend, who in turn seems to have fallen off her high heels.

Arguably the most bizarre of the lot is an ad where Alia Bhatt’s car breaks down, after which she requests a lascivious gang of men who are ogling her to drop her home.

And, now, we have a problem with the verbal and visual content of the ‘My Choice’ video?

Since when have we been turning to fashion magazines to lead the way where perception of women goes? And since when have we been depending on them to speak to men on the behalf of all womankind?

Their attempts at joining the bandwagon of political correctness have usually backfired.

Case in point: A Femina cover with Huma Qureshi posing against a mannequin, an idea that was unofficially ‘borrowed’ from a photoshoot featuring plus size model Denise Bidot. 

Unfortunately for Femina, they decided to add the words, ‘I don’t owe you perfection’, thereby suggesting that Qureshi was imperfect for not adhering to the body measurement norm.

Across the world, fashion magazines and beauty brands have tried to adopt a ‘Real women, real bodies’ policy. But, strangely enough, all these ‘real women’, while wearing Size 28 or whatever below the neck, have heart-shaped faces with streamlined chins and cheekbones on which you could dice carrots.

Why can’t we simply accept the fact that some magazines and products will target an audience that is swayed by a certain idea of beauty, and that that is perfectly all right?

The problem crops up when we expect brands that celebrate physical appearance to speak for social causes.

Every now and again, a glamour magazine will institute a woman-of-substance award, or some such, and invite ‘real women’ to pose for its cover. For the rest of the year, the cover will have a woman displaying her cleavage and her pout, because that is what its target audience wants, and that’s all right.

Perhaps, rather than vilifying the magazine for its series of self-defeating ad campaigns, and Deepika Padukone for being a part of it, we should glance through the video playlist, snigger to ourselves, and move on.

A fashion magazine is simply that. It cannot be an instrument of social advocacy, except to suggest what dresses will make your waist look tiniest when you go to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award, maybe.