From Icarus to Ajax….

 This is the opening line of the song which runs in the background for the new Vodafone elevator ad,which I m sure most of you would have seen.In case if you’ve haven’t check out this link.

http://in.truveo.com/Vodafone-Alert-India/id/703800549

 This brings us to our current topic.Commercial ads.If you come to think of it,advertising plays a major role in popularising a product or a service.A good product is only a job half done,and it may not reach the masses without adequate marketing or good ads.This also holds true vice-versa.A bad product/service with good marketing alone isn’t enough to sustain in this ever-growing competitive world.Thus a good product/service combined with an even better ad is a killer combination and would surely give its competitors sleepless nights

So lets take a look at the different type of ads we see on television.Each company has its own formula and style of advertising.For example the ads of Nike or Adidas are like Shankar’s films.They are grand spectacles themselves,filled with sporting superstars,with lavish spending written all over them.I think Adidas held the record for the world’s costliest commercial for a long time until the one by Honda for Accord beat it recently by spending a whopping $6.2 million for 90 seconds.Find the link below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yylNWKoifgk

But in contrast are the latest Vodafone ads which are like Maniratnam or Aamir films.Nothing extravagant.Limited dialogues.Simple yet impressive,which force you to watch it till the end to understand it completely.The old Hutch ad with the pug and the kid falls under this.

Then there are the ones like Hollywood action movies filled with mind boggling stunts performed by hunks on super race bikes.And of course they come with a warning “Stunts performed by professionals.Should be tried at your own risk.In the process,if you crack a bone or two we are not responsible” 

Some are musical hits.They serve as ring-tones for every 8 out of 10 mobiles when its popularity reaches its pinnacle.I don’t think its necessary to point out that I m referring to the jingle by AR Rahman for Airtel.Another famous example is the Titan ad which actually is an extract from a symphony by Mozart.You can catch that here :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN2mIa2UlV0

And then you have the ad wars companies wage against each other.The playing ground doesn’t get any bigger and better,than this.This is the arena where you mock your rivals,try to establish your supremacy and challenge anyone and everyone.The best rivalry till date undoubtedly is between Coke and Pepsi.If you can get hold of all the ads produced by Pepsi and Coke you would easily note that it would be similar to Tom and Jerry cartoons or Senthil-Goundamani comedy where they constantly try to pull each others legs with the guarantee of a laugh riot.

Frankly speaking,ad agencies thrive on creativity.Creativity is their bread earner at the end of the day.But they also have an alternative if they run out of it.But that requires a super-model’s or a ‘badshah’s’ consent to endorse their product.With the amount of money these stars get paid these days for a simple appearance there’s no wonder that they are ready to endorse anything from luxury cars to toilet cleaners.But who said money is everything?There’s an added ’status’ tag attached to it.According to the modern Inverto-Statuso rule of commercial ads the number of ads or the total revenue earned per year through ads is directly proportional to your quest for numero-uno status in your respective field.That’s why cricketers are selected in a team based on the number of products they endorse and not on their performance in the field.And stars are called either ‘badshah’ or ’shehenshah’.Does it make sense now?

If you are a regular viewer of Sun Music,you would agree with me that making an ad for the Saree/Jewellery shops  all over T.Nagar is as easy as counting with your fingers.It requires minimum effort and thinking.All one has to do is pick 4 or 5 good-looking but not so famous models.Make them wear the Saree/jewellery you are advertising.And allow them to dance all around a set or inside a shop for a simple tune for 50 seconds.At the end of which they should tell the viewers in chorus something like ’Annachi kadaiku vanga’ or ‘Idhu romba romba nalla pattu’ and you have an ad film ready which can be shown umpteen no. of times between programs.And you can reproduce the same for any no. of shops/stores.The only catch here is one model can endorse only one brand,so you have to keep changing the models for different shops and you’ve to get the correct shop name and the % of discount they offer at the end. 

So time for some reminiscence.The classic ones which remain green in my memory till date are the Dairy milk ad,where the girl dances in the ground after her guy hits a 6 and reaches century in the match, and Sachin’s boost ad where he starts ‘There were 9 guys around me in the field looking to get me out..’ If you got reminded of the same catch them here :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O_3ciQ7RtU 

And do add yours…Au revoir.

   Well, the much awaited annual Macworld,or Apple company’s conference began a couple of days back.This is the stage where Steve Jobs gives his key-note address sporting his turtle neck polos and subsequently unveils innovative products that redefine the world we live in,at-least for the techno-gadget freaks.This has become an event to look out for among the techies,for the hype and expectation it generates.Maybe everyone is expecting too much from Apple here every year,but for the past few years it has manged to fulfill if not beat all the expectations.

    But this time around,Steve Jobs didn’t come up with anything spectacular.He introduced what is known as MBA or Macbook Air,Apple’s ultra thin laptops.Since Toshiba and Sony already have a similar thing in their kitty it failed to impress the on-lookers.To add to that there was the Time Capsule,a hard-disk like device which takes wireless backup of all your content stored from your Mac system,some software upgrades for iPhone and iPod touch,an improved Apple TV,online movie sales through the already popular iTunes and an improved Xserver.

For more details visit : http://www.apple.com

Apple of late has become synonymous to innovation.Its engineering team has come up with products which few would have imagined.But that is what engineering is all about.As Von Karmen puts it “Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was.”It has pioneered in introducing technologies like touch-wheel and multi-touch.So what is the driving factor behind this?How come Apple is able to invent and re-invent,while its competitors remain muted spectators,unable to keep pace with it?

I came across an article in abcnews.com. The author suggests that there is nothing extraordinary about Apple or Steve Jobs or its engineers.They are ordinary people,who lead an ordinary life and are quite happy about working in a reputed company as theirs.But the environment is what differentiates Apple from others,which the author puts it as an 

“Environment that welcomes radical thinking, innovation, elegant design and just general swinging for the fences technologically.Which is why Apple keeps coming up with one innovative product after another; the least of them clever, the best of them earthshaking..!!”

Another reason the author points out is the fear of failure.The corporate structure we are in belts us left,right and centre if something fails.But its quite the opposite at Apple.He says “At Apple,punishment is for those who don’t go far enough.”Its CEO himself has seen so many failures,the ultimate being him ousted from the company he founded!!But he bounced back,and bounced back hard.This is the precise reason why Apple is way ahead of its competition,at-least for the moment.

For the complete article refer : http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/Story?id=4143385&page=1

Thus if provided the opportunity,freedom and the right setting the human mind seeks to create the unimaginable.This has been the mantra for all the tech-driven companies.The best example being Google,a company which relies solely on innovation,redefining the words search and information in the internet era.I would also like to quote Rabindranath Tagore’s famous poem here

“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 into ever-widening thought
and action–
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

  So all said,the question is do we have such an environment here in India?Do we have tech-companies which provide a stimulating work environment to its employees?Yes.But only a handful.Ours being a service sector driven economy,there’s little scope for ideas.While we mainly concentrate on servicing to the needs of the ‘clients’ in the process crushing out any solutions that is not as per the ‘requirement’.Also we are pretty much happy with occasionally adding that extra thing here and there in the name of ‘customer delight.’Thus the mind with fresh ideas succumbs to pressure and switches to the routine.

Wait.The corporates are not only at blame here,but there are a whole lot of factors which are equally responsible to this dilemma.Our fundamental educational system,which teaches students to just remember ‘things’ and  reproduce it in the exams,squashing any form of logical thinking in a child.

Our government is lackdaisical about investing in research and development.That’s why it takes an indigeniously designed aircraft 20 years to come out of the drawing-board.

Our universities have gone a step further and consider,giving out P.hD’s,a fad.Without proper ground-work and research,everyone who wants a P.hD earns it easily here.The leading example being Orissa Universities which have conferred as many as 1500-odd P.hD degrees in a single year to those who lifted research material from other universities!!Compare this with other universities around the world,whose alumni have converted their thesis into successful start-ups.

So when will a company like Apple or Google be founded in India?Not until the above blocks are removed and everyone realises that innovation is the only thing that will take us forward.

You would have guessed from the topic.The most expected event of the new year till date,took place yesterday.’The Reinvention of the Wheel’ was what TOI blared in the headlines today.Yes Tata’s ‘Nano’ was launched.Already it is known by names like ‘The People’s Car’ or ‘Jeh’ after the great Jamshedji or jokingly ‘Despite Mamata’.After 8 years of hard-work,marred by a number of protests and controversies,this ambitious product finally rolled out amidst great hype and expectation.This was a make or break project for the TATA brand.With Suzuki Motors chief scoffing at the plan saying that it is impossible to produce a car at such a low cost,given the rising prices of basic components,everyone was skeptic.

 But Ratan Tata and his team have proved the critics wrong.At $2700 per unit this is not only the cheapest car in India but also in the whole world,if you consider the proper definition of a car.A car named  ‘Sitara’ was introduced in Pakistan at a price of 1.3 lakhs in 2004,just when the TATA project hung in the balance.But with its Maini Golf Cart like looks and lack of comfort it was a complete disaster.The below picture should give you a better idea.

For more details on ‘Sitara’ visit : http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/jul/19car.htm

Without going into the technical specifications,this car looks clean,with a contemporary look.It has the basic features that you can expect in this range.TATA claims that it has met all the emission standards and safety requirements. So is this a breakthrough in Indian Automobile Engineering and the Manufacturing sector?Yes.First of all hats-off to Ratan Tata.My respect for him quadrupled after his speech on the launch.For the uninformed here is an extract.

“You could not help but notice that there were three or four family members on a scooter, the kid standing in the front, the guy driving the scooter and the wife sitting side saddle holding a little kid. And when you’re driving a car, you certainly say, Oh my god, be careful, they may slip.“

“The vision was to give the people of India a car which is not produced anywhere else in the world. Through Nano, which denotes high technology and small size, I have tried to provide a reliable mode of transport to every Indian family.Even though it comes 8 years after the initial announcement,the dealer price will be Rs.1 lakh. A promise is a promise.”

A true leader.A visionary.A man at the fag end of his career but still dreaming big and working hard to achieve it.Aspiring entrepreneurs should definitely take a leaf out of his book.He has done to the automobile industry what Reliance did to the Telecom Industry.Bringing about a revolution,coming up with a product which people could afford and be proud of.

Lets draw a parallel between the Indian Automobile Industry and the Telecom industry.Owning a mobile phone was considered a status symbol a few years back.Only the rich could afford it with call rates touching Rs.16/min.The brick-sized handsets were priced exorbitantly.The scenario radically changed with the foray of Reliance into the business.Handsets were given out at rock bottom prices.Though the quality of the product at the that time was questionable,it still created waves  among the masses and India frog leaped as the nation with highest number of mobile users.We can expect the same here.Owning a car is still a dream for the average Indian middle class.It is still considered a luxury and a status symbol.But with the advent of ‘Nano’ we can expect a paradigm shift.Given the rising salaries,easy access to loans and EMI’s the average Indian no longer needs to dream of owning a car.The TATA’s have just made it  simpler.

But everyone cant rejoice for long.There are a few major road blocks that needs to be overcome.The fast depleting Oil and Natural Gas resources are a source of great concern.The barrel had already hit an all time high of $100 with unprecedented demand.The introduction of the ‘People’s Car’ is only gonna add to the misery.With Hybrid cars already in the making,this is only seen as a step backward.

The environmental hazards its gonna bring about with thousands of cars hitting the road is another major concern.No wonder the likes of Medha Patekar have already raised their flags in protest.They see this as a major threat to our environment,with the cars emitting tons and tons of pollutants,adding to global warming or even acid rains,something which is still relatively unknown in this part of the world.

Above all the pathetic state of our infrastructure is the single most worrying factor.Already our roads are choking unable to handle the huge volume of vehicles.And our politicians are busy plotting to pull the opposition down or filing cases against actors for naming a movie in English to gain cheap publicity,least bothered about this.I wonder how developing the infrastructure of a city makes one pro-rich,when its not only the rich but also the common man who suffers.

So is it a boon or a bane?Only time holds the answer.But one thing is for sure.This is yet another step forward in making India a global power in the near future.

Well, to start with,I long resisted the temptation to blog about sports in general and cricket in particular,as there are so many expert views floating around,given the constant media coverage,that you virtually get bored to death.That too after the Sydney test,the whole world seems to be talking about racism,integrity and sportsmanship.But then it stuck me as to why not a post on the commentators and experts who have strange and indigenous ways themselves.

Given the craze for cricket,everyone wants to dissect a match ball by ball,throw some stats here and there and come up with opinions like ‘Dravid is low on morale’,'Dhoni is not using his feet’,'Sachin should’ve pulled instead of hooking’.But the irony here is these very gentlemen have dubious records of scoring 36 runs in 60 overs or whose averages were a quarter of the batsmen on whom they are commenting.Yeah they are entitled to freedom of speech,but it doesn’t include coming up with comments like ‘Indian wickets are falling like the cycles in Raj Talkies in Patiala.One falls and the rest follows’ or ‘That ball went so high it could have got an air hostess down with it !!’ which serve no purpose except to tickle your funny bone.

For more such ‘out of the world’ quotes vist : http://forum.cricketweb.net/showthread.php?t=7584 

 And retired cricketers,who get bored of playing with their grand-children,or recounting to them how they faced the then furious West Indies pace attack,managing to score 4 runs before their middle stump went flying,have found an easy way to get media attention,just to remind people that they are still very much alive and kicking.All they have to do is just wait patiently till Sachin or Ganguly get out cheaply in a match.Then its action time.Immediately call the press and issue statements like ‘Sachin should hang his boots.He’s no longer the aggressive player we’ve known’ or ‘The Bengal tiger has been tamed.It’s better that it returns to its den honourably’ and you start a string of national debates,opinion polls,online voting and sms voting with the BIG question.They also get a chance to be an invitee in expert panels where they serve tea and snacks at the end of it.

Still  worse is the pathetic state of these expert panels,which is filled by damsels wearing jazzy,’attractive’ outfits who only know that cricket is a game played with bat and ball,and the ball will be round in shape,trying to dish out something like ‘Excellent shot’,'Well played to score 50′,’Awesome bowling to pick up 3 wickets’,interfering when others are talking only to announce a com-break with a flashy smile. 

Patriotism is taken to new levels only in commentary.It is a general,unwritten rule that commentators should be unbiased,so as not to lead the viewer into false territory.But  emotions overcome these precepts,and you hear an ardent fan shouting into the microphone ‘And the next batsman to take the crease is,the ever-16 Afridi,the terror,the Tsar,who’s gonna hit the ball all around the ground,pity the bowlers’,only to find Afridi returning to the pavilion  the very next ball hooking  a simple catch in trying to play an extravagant shot.

And I m always in awe of these ‘Martians’ also known as statisticians.They come up with amazing statistics like ‘This is the highest score by a left-handed batsmen,coming in at no.6,on his 100th match,against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground under flood-lights and he has beaten the previous record by 3 runs which was set way back in 1988.’Hurray!!Applause!!Applause!!And what really beats me is the use of these statistics,whose credibility is doubtful when another stat says that 42% of all statistics are made-up on the spot.And commentators discuss these stats flashing on the screen with grave,serious tones between chewing a gum and blowing a bubble.

Well,all this does only one thing.It puts immense pressure on the players who are already torn between tight schedules and consistent performances.In a recent interview Tendulkar replied ‘When I used to play cricket 18 years back,you play a shot and there were only 2-3 opinions on its nature.But now you play a shot,and there are hundreds of opinions all around you,which is only disturbing’,when asked what is the difference between the time when he started playing cricket and now.He forgot to add that more than half of them are gibberish,but we can safely assume it.

But the genuine ones deserve a bow.No one can make a match more interesting than these people who have deep insights and great passion for what they are doing.In-fact whenever I think of Sachin’s sixes in Sharjah,the only thing that comes to my mind with it,is Tony Greig jumping with excitement for every shot.Their energy levels are contagious.And they bring you to the edge of the seat during tense moments,like SA-Aus World Cup Semi-final.

But given the commercialization factor,these people are a rare breed now.And we are more than used to all the nonsense talk nowadays.And the game goes on…..