Monday Bloody Monday & more
As I start to write this post at sundown on a wet Sunday, I can’t help but wonder how specific ‘days of the week’ have overtaken the lives of many. Song writers, an entire base of working populi, sports channels and the rest. Isn’t it interesting how we sync the waxing and waning of our moods across the week, to our work-life schedules! And it pretty much is reflected in the relationship we have, with a specific day in the week. Honestly, no other day evokes the elation of a Friday or the impending doom of a Monday. Makes for good brand ideas, both product and advertising. And makes for some memorable songs too.
Lets start with the most recent advertisement for ESPN. It makes the beginning of the week, Monday, just a little…
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Catch ‘em young. Says Aheibam Prahlad, an indulgent observer & Copy Grp Head, L&K delhi
My son doesn’t know how to read ABC. He can’t count up to 20. That is because he hasn’t started learning them. He attends a play group alright but all that they do there is eat, pray and be loved when they are not singing and playing in the ball pool or the slides.
The fact that he doesn’t know ABC doesn’t mean he can’t read! Flash a bar of chocolate in front of him and he’ll scream Cadbury. It’s not that he calls every chocolate by that name. He knows the difference when you tease him with a Nestle bar or an M&M’s pack. It was when he started asking for “Kellogg’s Cornflakes” when I realised that it’s wrong to presume that the entire half of your advertising money goes waste. Seriously speaking, we…
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Can brands be choreographed to Sun Signs & Planets?
When reading a magazine, often inadvertently your hand flips many pages to arrive at today’s, this week’s and this month’s tarot reading. Soon a ring with a pleasing stone slips into your finger. Precious stones hide in crevices of bags. Planets define journeys.
India for years gave in to the power of the black hole and was prepared to face any onslaught by shielding herself from the very occurrence. Thanks to astrology and the planets.
However, today this trend is visible across the world. In a small but expensive golf town called St. Andrews in Scotland during my shopping moments, I encountered a corner store with karmic stones. The advertising professed authenticity and benefit readings. Surely, Karma & Golf make great holes in your wallet. Feng Shui another buzzword in the Western/Eastern Hemisphere is…
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Quod me nutrit, me destruit: Content vs. Time in the digital age
Time is finite. Content infinite. The divaesque status of the virtual space is that the content keeps coming. Refreshing, Inspiring, Connecting, Shocking, Entertaining… The impact of content in this space is limitless. Ask any disaster management team and they will rave about the instant damage control that technology, specifically the internet & mobile telephony enables. A couple of years back an American student found his way out of an Egyptian jail when he tweeted a single word, ‘Arrested!’. The message helped him network with his contacts who helped him out. Great way to rouse a movement. I wonder what Mahatma Gandhi or Matin Luther King could have done with such possibilities.
The ‘tickle and I’ll sneeze’ effect of this world, makes us so wired that it can be overwhelming how much there is to absorb…
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I was married once. Now I just lease. (Quote: Lady Astor 1879-1964)
How could Lady Astor have known that a smart quip like that in the Victorian Era, would become much of a norm in the 21st century! Surely it’s emerging as an expression of cool, at least in the context of some teen relationships portrayed in modern India.
Let’s take movies & brand advertising. At one end we have stories of togetherness, couples buying a home, dissolving differences etc. and at the other end we have stories of relationships going kaput, boys and girls moving on, quoting flimsy reasons etc. The value borders ensure married couples are celebrating the former (togetherness bit) and young ones in relationships are enjoying the latter (time to move on bit). So isn’t this hot button among young unmarried couples, all about unbridled leasing? Insights in both the story telling…
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Citizen Activism in Social Cause Brands: Selfish or Altruistic?
This is really not so much about a brand taking up cudgels for a cause, but brands getting created for a common cause. Today, many such cause-led initiatives (brands) activated in cities often build up their momentum in the social media space. And as each cause gets a fan page, it needs the multiplication of fans to make itself a success.
Can we with few measurement tools evaluate the correlation between the number of fans and those that implement the cause they sign up for? Do these causes qualify to be run again and again? Does it matter how many fans are on the page as long as people take action?
With social cause initiatives, there is only so much that one can gather to understand their sweet spots.
Curiosity on another upcoming movement…
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Is longer really better? A ringside view by Charles Victor, NCD
Advertising and words – it was a love that seemed to last forever.
Then Mr. Jobs came along with a fancy looking machine and before you could type ‘double click’, young art students airbrushed away the written word from advertising.
Make no mistake; everyone (including my 89 year old great-grand aunt and myself) loves pictures. Especially if they tell us a clever story. And some of my favorite pieces of advertising include many such visual stories. Visual stories are great but their older counterparts have a magic that a picture can never perform.
The ‘no-copy’ ad doesn’t give me an alternative. It doesn’t let me complete the rest of the picture/story in my head. It doesn’t always let my imagination get involved in the piece of work. I see it, consume it and go ‘wow,…
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Can India get real(ly) activ?
Recently a friends’ status update on Facebook read like this: “Did a fitness profiling this morning. Result = Unfit. They wasted 30 minutes of my time to state the obvious!”
So what are you doing about it buddy? Does it even bother you?
Often there are scores of excuses you hear on a loose comment about gaining a paunch or being unfit. Excuses like: Am on a desk job. Post marriage weight gain. Wife’s tasty lunch dabba everyday makes me eat too much.
Reality is that most who get aware of their body mass & unhealthy living, simply frighten themselves by knowing the facts. Or then create anxiety by reading about real life consequences. But do little!!!! Call it lack of self-restraint or just the prime of youth/mid-life, when just a glance at home-made fresh…
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500 million & counting: Here’s raising a toast to the new digital language
For addicts & enemies of Facebook, it is time to simply stare and wonder. Connectivity never got this mega. As of July 21st, 2010 this networking destination had all of 500 million people as members. I remember just a couple of years ago discussing the prospect of launching an Indian social networking site. There were other sites in pockets of the world, populated by specific countries etc. Data proved that the potential was vast. So a dedicated Indian networking site was inevitable. But in no time, Facebook became a pièce de résistance in the lives of many across the world. What worked? Maybe in the beginning all the crazy games did. Then along came photo albums, tagging, virtual gifts, bookshelf, drinks, text twirl, vampires etc. All the stuff that eventually got mundane, just brought…
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