Part 2 of Scene I , take I....

Continued from Part I .......

Tril was supposedly a path breaker with Endura007 which cleaned the clothes, killed germs and gave sparkle like no one else did… It still wasn’t sinking into the jug head Indian buyers mind set that India and its dirty clothes needed German help to sparkle… The Indian detergent market was not the same like Europe from where Tril came from if it was P&G ‘s Ariel which ruled the charts , in US it was Tide and no Ariel would be available… definitions of premium varied and so did the varieties of Tide or Ariel that one got in their respective markets

The Rs.5,700 crore detergent market in India which is segmented into two product categories - powder and cake was one tough nut for Tril to crack….. Sub categories like concentrates/compact (variants of Surf, Henko, Ariel), premium (variants of Surf, Henko, Ariel), mass premium/mid price (Rin, Mr.White, Tide and regional brands) and popular (Nirma, Wheel, Chek) made it difficult for the brand managers and the advertising agency to decide where to enter and where exactly to position. Tril after careful analysis decided to take the mass premium category and that is why this actor from the south was chosen to come all the way and dip dirty clothes, take them out and show ho it sparkles…research said she had the appeal… she was loved by the mass and yet had a premium appeal… she looked premium and yet was mass like material…

The first Tril advertising (launch ad) which Ram and co had made with no famous star in it had shown the offer of this unnamed product for maximum whiteness effect…. The sparkle and the clean which no one else did gave,….. The house wife tries the product and lo and behold, she gets the promised whiteness. After which the product's brand name appears from heaven as Tril….

The competitor was not to be left behind…. He had to prove that this unnamed detergent powder that is offered for trial does not provide that super whiteness and even if they do the unnamed new fellows cannot be trusted…. And they showed a lead female actor who wore cotton saree to look like an ordinary bharathiya nari waxing about the super whiteness of the time tested age old brand while unnamed detergent gets pushed to the background by a group of women talking about the excellent performance of the old brand…

What could Tril do but get another star to counter propaganda..? And the research luckily agreed to the very obvious… get the competing star to kill the other one….

The phone rang again….

Hello … said Ram….

Hey Ram…. We are on the way… said Guru….is everything ready?

Ram didn’t say YES… it was understood that when the unit was there since early morning they would be ready and tired of waiting….

Ram let out a huge sigh of relief … he had his plans for the ad shoot and release… had to rush back to Chennai after the post shoot works… had other brands in his kitty competing for his attention… The life of a client service director was in soup… the more clients in his kitty the more was the confusion… the bigger ones got the better attention and the smaller ones were never happy with that fact of life… the bigger ones weren’t happy either with the divided attention that they got… after all they paid through their noses for listening to them at least ,full time…

The phone rang again….

Hey Ram ..said some one… this time it was not Guru…

Khurana here… I have sad news for you and Tril…..

What is that? Asked Ram

The other guy is reducing its price by half… said Khurana who was head of the research team back in the Chennai agency office…

That means?… asked Ram visibly annoyed

That means now Kite detergent powder will be available at 23 Rs and not 43… said Khurana…. They call it as the biggest ever consumer advantage transfer…
My foot …..said Ram…..

He knew what it meant to his brand… Tril…. It was a price war that was launched… and quite unexpectedly,,, the whole shoot now became futile an effort.. after all the strategy was to talk about value for the mass premium segment…

A car came and the whole unit stood up….

Like a dream which came true, the star descended from it…

Acme fitness - fun & fitness !

I have been an ardent animation& cartoon enthusiast ever since I got some sense of my own… While in advertising too animation could seize my imagination and keep me there. But then my school of thought remained mine and not many joined it.... but then that was THEN...

Over the decades but this amazingly varied and vibrant medium has progressed from an inconsequential tool aimed at engaging children tired after school (and on dull Sunday mornings) into a  source of power that has connected civilizations, enthralled scores and generations of people of all economic levels . ( I still watch a Tom & Jerry show over any other show ,given a choice !)

My beloved Industry still keeps a taboo over using of animation as an execution strategy and it still remains a under utilised tool reserved for cereal commercials and some (very few)other segments of the children’s market. This is not said forgetting the great mascots that advertising has produced (Captain Crunch, Tony the Tiger and The Jolly Green Giant, The Simpsons (Domino Pizza, MasterCard etc), Wallace and Gromit (Renault Kangaroo)…not to forget our own gattu of Asian paints and the omnipresent Zoo Zoo …. the list is endless. But then they were all mascots and very rarely became an execution platform…

Now at this juncture is what I saw this ad from ACME fitness which is direct, funny (just because it uses animation) and hitting the target right there at the weakest touch point…

Animation, with a fine dosage of humour and a compelling theme can give a brand and its agency inestimable creative and communicative powers .....It can bring to life images and ideas that can reach the TG and make waves. It could be used to say stuff which couldn’t be that easily said otherwise- exercise improves ‘performance’ said using any other execution platform would have been sexist, animation saved it…

 

To sum up, ACME is in the right path of advertising and if the platform is maintained and new variants of the same idea brought up, the brand is here to make waves in its category !!!

Kudos to Salt Chennai ( the creators - little is known about the guys though) and Mediaedge:cia for the right piece of work... !!!

Ritz & Beat - selling life !!!

‘How many moments have you lived’ is the question asked here and it makes one ponder.. I liked the ad for the simple fact that after a long time here is a car ad that shows the small and happily family in their car, enjoying their world…since mid December it’s going the rounds and is contributing immensely to the sales of Ritz which is a good car and hence this simple and beautiful ad looks so believable and real.

‘Plan ahead’ is what the Chevy beat has to say in this ad which looks like the mirror image of the Ritz one. Life and its living moments is the theme in both and hence the similarity, may be. That is ,seeing it from the view point of a simple family man, who bought his new car just a month back (not a Ritz or a Beat to make a confession!).

Such communication makes a lot of difference. Buyers when deciding to buy a car – choosing between A brand and B brand, may not take an ad seriously for information. This is because ads are the purest form of commercial sources of information. But a good ad, such as these can help the brand in climbing the ladder of recall and taking to brand into the buyers consideration set. If an ad does at least that, its purpose is done.

The review of Ritz and Beat as Cars is better left to the auto experts but the ads are striking, positive, simple and sweet!!!

Cheers!!!

Red tape - old style seduction !!!

Now this is my answer every time I find a marxist/anti liberalisation expert (self declared or other wise) waxing about how after the 90's with the influx of foreign ideas, the whole of India got corrupted, its values saw a fall and how marketing and advertising( foreign style) landed you up in your bed with strangers !!!

Last day as I was speaking on globalisation and advertising to a global world, the same allegation came up and this was my answer..!

Real Children - Heart touching !!!

A gut-wrenching commercial made for NSPCC (national society for prevention of cruelty to children) – UK by Saatchi and Saatchi UK in 2002 creating waves across UK and even outside. It escaped a TV ban narrowly despite receiving 127 complaints from all quarters.

The independent television commission-ITC then (and now Ofcom of UK), decided not to uphold complaints, including12 from victims of child abuse, which claimed the ad was ‘upsetting, shocking and had “overstepped the mark”.

ITC accepted that the ad was “extremely hard hitting” but agreed with the NSPCC’s defence that the particular imagery was “an effective means of communicating the seriousness of the issue and moving people to take action if they were concerned about a child”.

Few viewers complained  that the ad suggested that 'only men' abuse children and several other viewers said that, while raising awareness of child abuse was important, they felt the film’s treatment of the issue had overstepped the mark. It but went on to become one of the most decorated and awarded ads of its category….the rest is history.

Credits & Description:

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London
Production Company: Gorgeous Enterprises

Awards:
Cannes Lions - International Advertising Festival, 2002 (Gold Lion) for Fund-Raising & Appeals
BoB - Best of the Best Awards, 2002 for Best Commercials Director
British Television Craft Awards, 2002 (Winner) for Best Performance by an Actor
British Television Craft Awards, 2002 (Winner) for Best Animation
British Television Advertising Awards (BTAA), 2003 (TV Commercial of the Year)
The One Show, 2003 (Gold) for Public Service/Political Television Single
D&AD Awards, 2003 (Silver Award) for TV & Cinema Advertising Crafts: Use of Music
D&AD Awards, 2003 (Silver Award) for TV & Cinema Advertising: Public Service & Charities Individual & Campaigns
D&AD Awards, 2003 (Silver Award) for TV & Cinema Advertising Crafts: Direction
D&AD Awards, 2003 (Silver Award) for TV & Cinema Advertising Crafts: Animation
CLIO Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Product/Service: Public Service
CLIO Awards, 2003 (Silver) for Technique: Animation-Film
CLIO Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Technique: Direction
CLIO Awards, 2003 (Bronze) for Technique: Editing
Art Directors Club of Europe Awards, 2003 (Gold Winner) for Public Service & Charity
Kinsale Sharks Awards Advertising Festival, 2002 (Grand Prix Cinema)
Kinsale Sharks Awards Advertising Festival, 2002 (Worldwinner TV)
Kinsale Sharks Awards Advertising Festival, 2002 (Winner) for Best Sound Design
Kinsale Sharks Awards Advertising Festival, 2002 (Gold) for Public Services & Social Welfare
Advertising Creative Circle Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Best Idea in 60 Seconds or Over
Advertising Creative Circle Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Best Direction
Advertising Creative Circle Awards, 2003 (Gold) for NABS Charity Advertisement
Advertising Creative Circle Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Best Use of Animation
The Gunn Report, 2003 (02) for Most Awarded TV Ad

The team :-

Creative Director: David Droga
Art Director: Howard Willmott, Duncan Marshall
Copywriter: Howard Willmott, Duncan Marshall
Director: Frank Budgen
Producer: Paul Rothwell
Cameraman: Ben Seresin
Lighting Director / Lighting: Ben Seresin
Account Director: Norma Clarke, Stephen Corlett
Strategic Planner: Thea Tetley
Animation: Russell Brooke, Hugo Sands, Passion Pictures
Animation Effects: Chris Knott
Sound Designer: Nigel Crowley
Music Composer: Jonathan Goldstein
Actor / Celebrity: Johnny Harris
Brand Manager: Dugald McDougall
Animation Director: Russell Brooke
Animation Producer: Hugo Sands

The Fun Gun !!!

"Honey," said this husband to his wife, "I invited a friend home for supper."

"What? Are you crazy? The house is a mess, I haven't been shopping, all the dishes are dirty, and I don't feel like cooking a fancy meal!"

"I know all that."

"Then why did you invite a friend for supper?"

"Because the poor fool's thinking about getting married...he said... I thought let him come and see for himself..."

Some people will learn only when they experience... anyways its week end again,,,, experience life people.. Njoy...! 

When u are wrong accept, when right--shut up !!!

O

One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river,his axe fell into the river.

When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?"

The woodcutter replied that his axe has fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living.

The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.

The woodcutter replied, "No."

The Lord again went down and came up with a silver Axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.

Again, the woodcutter replied, "No."

The Lord went down again and came up with an iron Axe. "Is this your axe?"the Lord asked.

The woodcutter replied, "Yes."

The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.

Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the river bank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?"

"Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with ANGELINA JOLIE "Is this your wife?" the Lord asked.

"Yes," cried the woodcutter.

The Lord was furious. "You lied! That is an untruth!"

The woodcutter replied, "Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see,if I had said 'no' to ANGELINA JOLIE , You would have come up with CAMERON DIAZ .Then if I said 'no' to her, you would have come up with my wife. And I would have to go home with all the three...!!!!

The moral of this story : Whenever a man lies, it is for a good and honourable reason, and for the benefit of others.......

A gentle man named Rajiv Sabharwal of a frontline advertising agency (then and even now) told me this story some years back. (Now don’t ask me.... if he was a gentleman, what the hell was he doing in advertising...)

Rajiv was an excellent story teller and I’m not, still I have to tell you this...

The client was an egoist (I bet you knew this..) and an IKE type ....... Rajiv and his team in the Account management/CS , wasn’t too happy with the type of client they had had but had to cling on for want of a better choice...Their Agency in that city had only one major client worth to be called as a client, and so it went on. The agency did a study(almost a life threatening exercise) on the feasibility of the clients produce, which was a ready to eat stuff, mostly vegetarian and traditional. The packaging was archaic, the logo was close to primitive, the mascot belonged to the stone age......

Study ..you ask.......? With so much of clear reason what is there to study?

Advertising is where clear reason has no place according to Rajiv.....and hence the study went on to find out the obvious...to unravel secrets which even the tea boy at the agency knew...to discover insights with which street kids across the agency played....

And the finding... nothing great and everything as expected...the city had grown ,it said and people have all become modern..the garb of tradition and filter coffee mania has disappeared...The young lot has taken over and old things are out.....old images......old culture......old habits... including (sigh!!!)the clients primeval produce...

The client refused to accept it..the agency was vociferous..was argumentative ( for a change..!!) Spat and squabble followed and the client won. As in marriages it is always the other party who has the last laugh finally....

The findings were replaced by something new-fangled......since the client and his primordial products couldn’t be touched, and since the agency couldn’t also blame itself for the quandary that they were in, what left was to be blamed was the consumer..it was the paradigm shift in the consumer attitudes that they got to blame...

Every one was happy.....
The client -for his football size..oops..stadium sized ego remaining untouched, even glorified...
The agency- for the extended lease of life, until the next campaign also flops and people still refusing to buy ....

It went on...

Rajiv says ...There was a hanging in the walls of the agency which after this incident he thought was the synonym for the ultimate irony in the business of advertising...

It read so...

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee to ever-widening thought and action......

Rajiv says that the best lesson that the agency learnt (in a hard way of course) was that the client is always right..and when you are wrong admit it..when you are not wrong also admit that you are wrong, and if at all you are right, shut up...

Tail piece:-

 
Patient: Doctor! You've got to help me! Nobody ever listens to me. No one ever pays any attention to what I have to say.
 

Doctor: Next please!

Dream Job ad- job ads need not be boring !

Here is a touching testimonial of a worker whose occupation is not regulated, has no trade union support, doesn’t get weekends off and he works up to 14 hours per day!! Poor guy right? ...... see it....

And I thought my work was fun...... 

This is a campaign for Dream Job a job portal website in Brazil.....Bikini-clad Brazilian models are what most men would dream of being with and yet the worker is completely dissatisfied with his job ( HUH..!!!). The catch is when the worker claims that he’ll quit this nightmare, a clever insertion of a statement that there are “more than 140,000 job positions—one of them will make you happy.” appears.. !

I haven't seen many job ads here that are that creative and worth remembering., Hari Sadu may be an exception, of course...This one is creative and fun to the core.. !

Credits :- 

Advertising Agency: BorghiErh/Lowe....... São Paulo, Brazil
Creative Directors: José Henrique Borghi, Erh Ray, Edgard Gianesi
Art Director: Fabio Nunes
Copywriters: José Henrique Borghi, Kiko Mattoso
Producer: Sagaz Filmes
Producer Director: Cláudio Cinelli
Fotography director: Scalante
Editor: Cláudio Cinelli
Sound: Comando S
Post production: Sagaz Filmes
Agency Producer: Márcia Coelho and Elisa Pamplona
Client Services: Priscilla Carvalho and Daniela Biazoto
Client Approval: André Vasconcellos and Pupo Neto
Aired: April 2009

Kerala Tourism - Mexico flavoured !

Its now ages since Kerala Tourism has come out with its new international campaign ( this is the digital world every day is a month,and every month is year ,) so I am like a year late with my take on the  ‘Your moment is waiting’ video that has demonstrated  intense reactions like a swaying coconut tree caught in thunder storm….. .

I belong to Kerala and have always felt proud of the fact… It was always a blissful feeling to hear and see praises heaped on your home by people, especially when one lived abroad and I have felt it more often than I could afford...

It pays to Advertise !!!

The fish, it never cackles

'bout it's million eggs or so,

The hen is quite a different bird,

one egg-and hear her crow.

The fish we spurn,

but crown the hen,

which leads me to surmise:

Don't hide your light, but blow your horn.

it pays to advertise

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Why should I advertise?

Can you do business without advertising?

It looks familiar, often asked questions ,considering the fact that advertising money is spend on a virtually immeasurable platform.

See this story....

"A man lived by the side of the road and sold roasted chicken.

He was hard of hearing so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes so he watched no television and read no newspaper, but he sold good roasted chicken. He did however, advertise in the local newspaper telling people how good they were. He stood by the side of the road and cried, 'Buy roasted chicken sirrrrr 'and people bought. He increased his orders and bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade.

Indian Railways - wonderful !!!

CWG and all the mess that it created, the negative energy and the media debates, the last minute efforts, dogs and snakes, fallen bridges and fallen hopes……

Everything  turned into a bright ray of hope as the day came to an end on 3 rd Oct 2010.  As the world watched in awe, as India unfolded its unparalleled history, geography and myths before the world in all grandeur and blush, in its infinite variety, any one who would have seen the show, at least for a second would have wanted to be an Indian….

I sat glued to TV and after ages  Doordarshan (India’s national channel who had the exclusive right over the CWG show)  amused me and after some hours I was trying to calculate the number of years of mine , where I would have had nothing to do with the first TV channel of ours…

The show was awesome as you have seen and read it all, but Doordarshan had to live up to its nick name Kroordarshan.. … Commercial breaks with no logic and sense.., an array of ads that were nothing but irritating (largely of the Public sector and hence irresponsible), and poor visual and miserable sound quality…. And to top it, you never knew when the break appears, suddenly cutting short an event in the thickly packed stadia making India curse its national TV….

I was too lazy to pick up a remote and sat idle when I saw this …a group of men playing a train like we all used to do as kids, singing and going galli galli and house after house.. 10 seconds into the ad I knew it was something worth watching and when it ended I had goosebumps all over..

I am in love with this ad because ..

1. It is from the Indian railways, I would have never expected them to come out with such a stuff.. (My apologies for the earlier “public sector and hence irresponsible statement”.)
2. It was different in terms of concept, so very near to all of us- (all of us would have played a train) and yet so very different, it can grab attention and hold you in its grip and make you feel proud of the biggest railway network of the world..
3. It has a Potent strategy in it, it stands out and has a strong selling idea and more over ,it is relevant and can be build into a campaign without much efforts…

Kudos to Indian railways, Nirvana Films and Prakash Varma…. It is a sea change from what the PSU ads looked and stared at us like…


After note :- in case you have read the post already , this info came to me late as my contact with Prakash Varma just buzzed me saying, the ad had a Piyush touch in it.. Not entirely the idea but parts of it and the song to its entirety... so Kudos to the great Piyush Pandey as well...

The Fun Gun !!!

Ram went to the doctor complaining of always being tired. The doctor examined him and couldn't find anything really wrong. So he half jokingly said, "Ram you're going to have to cut out half of your sex life".

Ram answered, "Which half. The talking or the thinking?"

Reminds me of Ad men who keeps talking and thinking and never Doing IT.... 

Have fun people... !

Yardley & Katrina - imperfectly perfect !

Yardley as a brand is one of the oldest in the world .Established in 1770, with its classic promise of exquisite beauty, lingering fragrance of English Lavender and English Rose, it has everlastingly enthralled men and women alike with it’s well-mannered, old world charisma, so pleasing yet indefinable…. Yardley in India and its roping in of Katrina Kaif seems to have raised many a blogger eyebrows but I insist that I have to write a piece on it as well.. So here I go…

The London bred Katrina, who will be the first Asian celebrity endorser of the age old brand, is supposed to have sophistication, eyebrow-raising magic weaved into her, poise, and some English royalty like refinement that makes her a perfect choice .. a perfect marriage when one sees it all of a sudden…or is it not?

Katrina has in the past endorsed brands like Pantene shampoo, Slice juice, Oil of Olay, Kodak and Panasonic and now she is seen selling Yardley. If it gives the impression of being an expected choice then I guess the Yardley guys {WIPRO is its new owner,.. to be precise Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCL)}haven’t done some home work before the actual marriage took place…

The reason for the flop show as I see it are as follows..

1) The actress has lend her name and face to an umpteen number of brands and her face has got so diluted , that this new one even fails to register… Yardley and the mere mention of Katrina's name will NOT have fans flock to stores to purchase the stuff….her name and face still will be associated with other brands that she is with…. Remember the rule.. Thou shall not employ a celebrity, who is there, everywhere.

2) They say, thou shall not engage a celebrity because everyone else is behind him/her…. Here again the brand owners have coined a huge jumbo-bumbo in support of their reason to choose the lady which sounds so very same, clichéd and heard for ages. In fact, the reality that Katrina was chosen for Yardley had raised some positive interest but the actual ads make me think otherwise.

3) Katrina connect with the brand for sure (the London connection and the connection with the youth) and her persona and the brands match but, it is not only the gelling between the brand and the celebrity that matters, it is also about the equal weightage given to both so that the star do not eat on the brand (vampire effect) … here alas, due to poor execution (plus other factors), Katrina remains but not the brand…

4) Yardley is in an attempt to build up on its aspirational brand position.. (A brand that people think is a very high quality brand, which will give them a higher position in society if they buy it is called an Aspirational brand) this ad but is a vain and poor attempt in that direction.. It doesn’t give the premium feel, the first step to achieve aspirational equity , even for people who have used the original Yardley for years now…. As my friend from London says, In spite of this ad, IF the guys who already know Yardley buys it, it would be a miracle……

5) Before aspirational positioning, brands should think of achievable positioning … Wipro already holds Santhoor and in its category it has some real good locus of positioning.. Yardley first have to find its locus, know the people who are there, get their permission and then fit in.. A Katrina may not be required (or may be) which depends on what you see in that locus.. The brand is more important, it existing charm is, and not the face that will today launch a million ships, and tomorrow forget into oblivion…

Some right media planning by Zenith Optimedia Mumbai, is taking it to the right people in some right dose and cheers for them , but for the lazy execution, thumbs down to Situations advertising Mumbai, the agency that made it .....

The rest is said and hence, I rest my case..

Foot note:- Hard work never killed anyone, but why chance it?

Teachers day !!!!

They say " A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.... " .. a humble dedication from my side to all teachers who have made our lives beautiful !!!

The Talent Centric Industry !

Scene setting – A local Ad club’s annual meet

Participants- a host of them.. the ad guys, big names, media barons etc

The star- the big name of the Ad Industry who’s name seemed to have driven the entire crowd…

Posh conference hall of the best Hotel in town, AC, soft music, the camaraderie, fellowship waiting, hugs and taps in cheeks, brand talk and so on…

I am just an Ex Ad man, now an academic and hence kind of lesser mortal and was attended less to.

The programme as usual got delayed ( the ad man is perpetually busy and hence never arrives on time..) and no one seemed to regret, they have in course of time learned to take it in a stride.

I sat there thinking of the pitches that agencies would have lost and accounts that would have walked out of their lethargic offices that pretended to be full of activity even when a paper refused to move from here to there. Perhaps for the one classical exemption of Peter Marsh and his team at ABM (Allen Brady Marsh) winning an account (of the British Railways) for being appallingly bad behaved with the client, all the rest have been losses and yet very few lessons learnt…

At last the programme began.. The ad speak, mutual admiration societies, you scratch mine and I will do yours- gleefully… !

The star rose to speak, he dealt with the fact that Advertising is a talent centric Industry or rather IT IS THE TALENT CENTRIC INDUSTY and why and how it should encourage ART and NOT mere CRAFT! He spoke and I sat to attend (for a change) on the profusion of trash, pretending to be talent and why talent is needed in abundance to take the Indian Ad industry to where it belongs. He left in me a ray of hope that very few speakers who were practicing ad professionals could leave. The tiny burst of brilliance that fresh blood throws in- he said is needed and I applauded for the very simple reason that I know how hard it’s for a fresher (with passion and devotion) to get in and survive in the ad industry. As an academic teaching advertising, I have seen the entry barriers that the talent centric industry keeps with impunity on approaching talent ….

Fellow ship time, when others indulged in the pleasure of wine and froth, I thought of engaging him and getting to hear more.. He seemed to be speaking from his heart, and he meant it.. He told me how hard it is to get the right people for the right job and those people who can do it their way and not waiting for some one to tell them.. the DOERS.. The undying doers who will defy rules and create new ones.. Only to defy them and thus go on from excellence to more excellence..

I had met the right man to send the list of talents I have in mind.. the guys and gals who sat in my classes with Ad ambitions, and (in spite of my teaching ) hang on to the ardor and wanted to be in the Ad mad world.. The list of young men and women who would fit into his list of DOERS would for him look like a treasure cove, I was sure.

Call me…… he said as he left with a deep impact on my mind… I have saved your number…

After a long time I had met an Ad guy who was so pragmatic and addressing the Human issue of Advertising …

I tried calling him many times but no response.. In fact for the last 547 times I had called him I got to hear some 2 different Hindi songs ( Rukh jaa oh dil diwaneeee and Hum tum ek kamare mein bandh ho ) and a dozen times it got busy..

Surely and Ad man of his stature will be busy but when you need talent, you cannot be so busy that you cannot even meet them?

I am now sure, he had saved my number ..

Oops !

Expect the Unexpected...part II

The doctor said, "Joe, the good news is I can cure your headaches. The bad news is that it will require castration. You have a very rare condition which causes your testicles to press on your spine, and the pressure creates one heck of a headache. The only way to relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles."

Joe was shocked and depressed.

He wondered if he had anything to live for. He had no choice but to go under the knife. When he left the hospital he was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he was missing an important part of himself.

As he walked down the street, he realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning and live a new life.

He saw a men's clothing store and thought, "That's what I need - a new suit." He entered the shop and told the salesman, "I'd like a new suit."

The elderly tailor eyed him briefly and said, "Let's see... size 44 long."

Joe laughed, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the suit. It fit perfectly. As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, "How about a new shirt?"

Joe thought for a moment and then said, "Sure."

The salesman eyed Joe and said, "Let's see, 34 sleeve and 16-1/2 neck."

Joe was surprised, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the shirt, and it fit perfectly.

As Joe adjusted the collar in the mirror, the salesman asked, "How about new shoes?"

Joe was on a roll and said, "Sure."

The salesman eyed Joe's feet and said, "Let's see...9-1/2 E."

Joe was astonished, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the shoes and they fit perfectly.

Joe walked comfortably around the shop and the salesman asked, "How about some new underwear?"

Joe thought for a second and said, "Sure."

The salesman stepped back, eyed Joe's waist and said, "Let's see...size 36."

Joe laughed "Ah ha! I got you! I've worn size 34 since I was 18 years old."

The salesman shook his head and said.........................................................


"You can't wear a size 34. A 34 underwear would press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you one heck of a headache."


dummmmmm.................................


ALWAYS get a second opinion......

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The creative guys in my story ,which I left half last day were as adamant as any other creative in any other agency.... but this time as there think tanks had gone dry, relented to hear the Junior executive .......

He said.... The client just want one message to be delivered... "Expect the unexpected"

The scene is an office.. a tough boss into his late 50's...tall.... fiery ..fiercesome... everyone is afraid of the guy...

The secretary to the boss... hot ..sizzling...sexy..tantalisingly exposing and exposedly tantalising......

The only weakness for the boss is this chik..the secretary...she is crawling in his blood and veins.... as a desire...as a forbidden fruit...


Wow... chuckled the young guys....
mmmm ...gruntled the old guys...

The man couldnt lay his mind open before the girl, for he doesnt know how she will react,,, if it happens to be on the negative side, then his good will may go down the drains....

One day the girl walks in ,as sexy as ever, and tells him... please come home sir, today evening , for a party... and she walks offff...

She turns around half way through and says invitingly... I am going to be alone at home...

THUD... our hero falls flat....He HAS heard what he wanted to hear...finally ( he thought) he has won her over..." tonight I would be rocking that dame..."

He goes over to her place... she is more sizzling , as she opens the door.. and invites him to the large sofa at the hall....

Pls bear with me for a moment .......she says, as she went inside.... im just back....

Our hero gets impatient.... he cant wait... he takes off his clothes and sits ready expecting the heroine to come for him to " rock"...

Trrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Opens the large curtain of the hall and hero looks back from his sofa in expectaion... but gets a shock of a life time......

There is his whole family....His wife..sons..daughters..son in laws..daughter in laws..grand kids.. the whole brigade...

Happy birthday to you...they sing and sing as they advance into the hall.....

And then they see him naked.....

Close up of the hero.. and a punch on his nose...

The caption appears..... XYZchocolates... "expect the unexpected".......

Oh God.... it is simply amazing.... the crowd seemed to be agreeing unanimously......



foot note : Idea..... it can come on anyone ..but not every one can accept it....

Airtel DTH - Idea Inspired !!!

That was the original and now a latest Airtel ad by Rediffusion that is going on the air as of now.. Creativity is no doubt an art of inspiration and this guys here has done it so well.. I am for a change not being sarcastic since I love the way the idea is adapted... Its better than no idea at all.... !

Yeah the parent Idea belongs to some one else but the adaption here is creative... Someone who said the word "Hello" on the phone first time would have never thought he’d be so creative that the whole world to come after him would be copying him... now that is the parent idea that is being so blatantly used over and over again.... We accept it and yet we all to an extent hate copying isnt it?

Do we hate the people who copy ideas? We all do it...... This is in spite of the knowledge that kids learn their language by copying parents, their play by copying what they see in life ad TV, their moves in sports and fun by copying other kids. We learn to write better by copying writing we like..... we all do... Adapt as we call it but we do it... We learn to get along with people by copying people.

'Do your own thing as much posible' is what I think creatives should be doing.....Original stuff has its own value and don’t just copy any thing.....

As of now its good work ..Enjoy !!!