Your children and my children and our children..

Ad agencies cannot simply decide to stay away from clients -good or bad they are important. That fact remaining as a supreme truth, there are some things which agencies can do. It is becoming a common practice these days that whenever there is a change in management, there is a review of the advertising agency without any adequate reasons being shown. it comes as a shock, a sort of thunder bolt for many agencies ,when the client suddenly calls for a divorce, for no particular reason..... Inspite of getting positive vibes from the clients after mid term reviews, sometimes a wake up call ,amidst deep slumber will shake up the agency honchos and they wake up to melancholy and utter helplessness, pitying over the plight of the industry .

The client and the incumbent agency, both parties, could sit across the table and over a period should over come the issues. It’s easy to invite agencies for a pitch and many marketing departments of clients seem to be thriving on this concept. There are times when a call for a pitch is made, presentations happen and then one hears nothing from the company.Worse their are times when pitching is made and 'ideas' are "stolen".

The fight between LG as a client and Mccann Erickson as an agency and the mud slinging over the client suddenly calling for a pitch is history now, yet worth to be quoted here.... LG called for pitch, Mccann stayed away and called others to follow suit “To put it in simple words: LG exercised its right to call for a pitch, we exercised our right to stay away from it,” as said by Santosh desai of Mccann.

LG consolidated its business activities this year ( read it as confused to hell) its creative duties for its consumer electronics and IT business with Lowe. In the beginning of 2004, McCann-Erickson was awarded the creative duties for TV, audio, plasma display products and the IT business. In a later reshuffle, it got the washing machine business as well. Prior to that, Lowe was handling the CTVs, IT and DVD audio systems, while Capital Advertising was handling the DVD video players. In a similar move, some two months ago, LG Home Appliances consolidated its creative duties with Capital Advertising. Capital got the air conditioners and microwave ovens business from O&M, refrigerators from Lowe and washing machines from McCann-Erickson.In fact, Capital had worked earlier on LG microwave ovens and refrigerators; the refrigerator business moved to Capital from Lowe in 2001.The washing machine business was with Lowe in 2001, but then it was moved to O&M, and then to McCann-Erickson in 2004. Now, it is with Capital...and then....

This is ,in simple words a comedy of errors....

Who finally will own such brands?

What will they look like..? A dirty looking kid born of a group rape?

What can the agencies do??

simple.. stay out..

I guess you still have something named the AAAI ...take decision to be together at least in such cases of client imperialism. But for that the self congragulating , self awarding( no other Industry in the world, as per Biju Dominic's (Mudra)own admission, gives itself so many awards) will have to come out of that self declared intellectual orgasm and see the reality that you had been faking to glory...

Will that happen?

My beloved Industry .... please,......

Maaji.. kahan hai meri "keo karpin"?

It is a tale of an evolution, ...

Ad makers kept ads in between programmes and made life tiresome for the idiots glued to the their boxes...they got angry and then they thought of sponsoring programmes and make people less tired by" passive learning".. remember Closeup Anthakshari, and Ujala Geetmala...? Remember Rin Makalirmatrum, Pepsi Ungalchoice and Lalithavin Pattukku pattu..?

Big guys could only afford sponsoring and then came the idea of product placements. Poor things -- the heros and heroines of our funny looking TV programmes, now would be inserting the brand names of the guys whose money has flown into the balaji's coffers, in their long dialogues..

Films set the trend... passpass and yaddein shall be remembered.. what a flop it was... i even wonder whether the film bombed on the producers face , due to his insatiable greed for money.. more money.. even more money..

Top gun and MI 2 are often quoted for its product placement wonders, and the effect on sales of such products.. but it went together well.. it was natural.. Tom cruise, the sexy hunk in an Aviator or an Oakleys, would look even more sexier and would only add charm to the story and the situation where the products appear. Thums up in the famous bollywood masala 'Kaante' was a natural fit, as the product espouses a macho image and so did the film....but these are clearly exceptions and not rules.....

Greed is a human attribute, no easy routes.. no escaping formulas..

But this never satisfiable apetite for money would slowly but surely make the dumbos locked on to their idiot boxes and multiplexes , realise the big game.. realise that the cinema that they had bough ticket for, is nothing but a series of ads, with some story thrown in , in between..

The day of reckoning will come when the gluttonous trio- the marketer, the agency( creative and media planning.. and now ,product placing) and the programme producer will have to ponder over the sword of democles that looms over their very existence....when our 'warriors'with invincible swords, in mirth over the breach of walls between the editorial content and the commercial space ,would regret that they have won over uninhabited lands...

In the mean while let me see the latest edition of Kyonki Beti Bhi Kabhi Maaji Banegi....

The heroine appears on screen..

Maaji---she cries...

Han beetiji--- appears the old maaji

Aap ne meri keo karpin dekhi?-- laments the over made up heroine

Nahi to beti ji-- replies maaji...main to apna Dabur amla kesh tel hi istemal karti hoon...

Buaaaji--- appears the young trendy metrosexual grandson ji ,who bumps like a rubber ball

Mere Pulsar dtsi bike ki chabi kahan hai..? ---asks the lad

Muche to nahin pata---replies the Buaaji--I think it is near to my Pudin hara bottle.. dekho..

Now tell me guys... how long this will go on...

You can fool every one for some time, some for ever.. but not every one forever..

Wherever you go......

Indian advertising industry lost a young and creative adman, V Mahesh, senior creative director, O&M, Bangalore. The 32-year-old Mahesh, who was most famous for his well-appreciated Hutch campaigns which made the dog and the boy famous,, passed away after a heart attack. Mahesh was regarded as a creative genius by many in the ad world. Apart from his creative ingenuity, he was also known for his congenial personality. It is learnt that the entire team of O&M is in a deep state of shock at his unexpected demise.

senior creative director and friend, Rajiv Rao was his close friend. Mahesh and Rao’s partnership dates back to 1994, when they launched themselves together at Heartbeat, and then to Ambience Publicis in 1996, where they spent three years. They then moved to O&M, first in Mumbai in 1999, and then three years later, in Bangalore.Apart from the Hutch campaigns, Mahesh and Rao have also worked on the Titan ads featuring actor Aamir Khan, as well as the recently released Lenovo ads.

The duo has won two gold and two silver lions at Cannes, a silver pencil at the One Show and two grand prizes at the London International. And these are just the cream of their achievements.

That is a glimpse of the obituary published in agency faq's today. Mahesh was revered for his exceptional ideation skills and combined with Rajiv , his best freind it made roaring success.

Forget other campaigns that were in their names, the Indian ad world will remember Mahesh for gifting us the wonderful duo of the dog and the boy, for making a dirty looking pug and a skinny lookin boy, the heroes of their idea ,rather than a cute puppy and a even cuter boy.

The Marketing problem which Hutch had( the TG percieved that they had no net work) was complex, but the talented creatives, the lesser known duo solved it with amazing precision and remarked display of ad creativity, making the Hutch sales soar, even up to 77% at one point of time. The Indian ad world will remember that.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.if that is the case,Britannia Little Hearts' (orange flavour) outdoor campaign and soft drink Mirinda (again orange flavoured) both took off on the Hutch ad concept in a blatant spoof campaign for which Mahesh responded-"The recent Mirinda ad is stupid. It is like a parasite who is trying to drink from our very successful campaign. Usually bad ads are spoofed rather than good ones. But anyway, this one has worked in our favour. We were at one point planning to send a champaigne bottle to the agency that made the ad!"( Indiantelevision.com). We remember that..

I consider the dog and the boy idea to the best in Indian Big Idea's and I am sure most of the ad watchers do that..it was so simple and yet so sophisicated, it was an idea next door and yet no one ever saw it, it was ground to earth and yet brilliant.. it was amazing..the Indian ad world will surely remember that.

The hutch campaign is sighted as a good example of 360 degree or IMC as ad world calls it..Taking a brilliant idea and taking it every where, every customer aperture(the touch points) where the message meets the TG.. it came as TV ads.. in print.. as T shirts... in waiting sheds.. in Tea cups.. in Chennai marathon... wherever you go, it followed....Mahesh, the Indian ad world will surely remember that.

At last ,the boy wasnt there and the dog alone came running and hissing, when from Orange Hutch changed to Pink.. there were a hue and cry, but it was simply stupendous.. The Indian ad world will remember that.

Ads couldbe simple and still make the TG as well as the clients happy.. good ads could entertain the TG and could sell the clients brands too.. that probably was the single most message that as a creative ad man ,Mahesh, is leaving as a legacy.....

My wishes to O& M and Rajiv to take it forward.. let his soul guide you guys..

My heart felt condolences.. to all the bereaved..

such men never die, they live for ever, in the hearts of their beloved...

an ad a day..

the one time wonder!!!!!.....its TV version is supposedly the longest in Indian advertising.