Barkha Dutt, NDTV, BMW, Supreme Court and Suo Moto evidence
Neruthanum. Ellathayum neruthanum
Fiction Fragment: Her son’s photographs
(Because, we always need the other side of the story)
Sabaapathi wants to bang the phone down. But corrects himself, just. His mother, obviously. She wants photographs of him, so she can ask Kamala maami for a suitable varan. He mumbled something about fending for himself. Anyway, being single is not all that bad, he tells her.
The week-after. His mother still hasn’t received the promised Euppeeyes package. He tells her he’ll check up on it, makes a mental note to despatch them before the day closes.
Evening, he runs into a once-in-a-while friend at the store, tells him of his mother’s demands, hoping for a few laughs and sympathetic tongue-clicks. He gets awkward laughs instead.
Perhaps mother was right after-all. 28 and single? It would be good to have a wife around the house, he thinks. Maybe, she could even work.
He smiles.
In Arumbakkam, the doorbell rings.
Why do I still blog?
Why, because I can get comments like this one, of course. In my hours of gloom and despair, I just have to read Ashok, and others of his ilk, and the world is once more a bright place.
Ashok, replying to my post about an alternative to Flickr, says:
Oh, shut up. Whiner.Point #2 is bullshit. I receive my flickr comments in indiatimes just fine.
As for the rest… The fact that Flickr is still the most used photo sharing site says it all. Censorship is important after a while. I remember my younger brother accidentally stumbling onto a BDSM pic on Flickr that shocked him out of his skull. Now I don’t know how this is acceptable to you, but it sure as hell not acceptable to millions out there.
So yeah, leave Flickr. Go put your “safe” pictures in pBase or anywhere else and see how long they’ll tolerate it.
Besides, if your pictures are safe… what the hell is your problem? And if they aren’t, do the world a favor and quit flickr.
Thank you, dear Ashok. I have learnt my lesson, and have eaten the humble pie. I shall no more whine.
Free running, advertising and memes in the mind
Two videos, first.
(keep a special watch out for his antics after 2:48 minutes into the movie)
I first heard of Free Running, I think, about…um…3 years ago, when Discovery/NGC made a feature on the Parisian Free Runners. It was only natural, then, for advertising agencies and sports brands to take it up and spread it further. Nike just did it.
Wieden + Kennedy’s ‘Angry Chicken’ Nike commercial
4 years after Nike did it, Indian agencies jumped on to the Free Running platform. With Parachute and Thums Up debuting almost simultaneously with their version of Free Running. Thums Up is the better of the two, imo, because we all know Akshay Kumar is a crazy fucking athlete. And poor Yuvaraj is just so much celebrity meat in his ad.
And oh, dear old O&M came on to the scene with Free Biking.
So, what the fuck is all this, you ask? Why, nothing. Just wondering aloud if it’s..um..copied ideas..or memes in the mind.
Speaking of which, dear makers of deodorants (That means you, Zatak and you, Wild Stone) – would you please come up with a new idea or shut the fuck up? Getting the women horny has been an Axe/Lynx property for a long, long time.
P.S: Searching for the Thums-up video, I saw that Nimish Batra has already covered it. Hmmm… Do we both share the same meme? Fuck!
advertising | 
branding | 
free running | 
memes | 
nike | 
thums up
Still on the topic of Interactive Marketing
Check out A-to-S.co.uk.
As I was telling a friend and ex-colleague, one feature of good interactive sites is that they give the user the chance to try out the product on advisement before he/she even gets out of the house. The better sites out there all confirm this. A-to-S, especially.
On a tangent, I think one reason why Indian advertising hasn’t got online yet is that a 30 sec TV commercial is still cheap to produce, air and see. You see, there’s not yet enough clutter on Indian channels, as against, say, a US channel. We still don’t have local shysters, pharma companies, insurance agents producing ‘info-mercials’ and crowding out your TV viewing experience.
And oh, Internet penetration, as they say, is still a little limp.
interactive marketing | advertising | 
microsites | 
viral marketing
About
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan is a copywriter, photographer and goofball from Chennai. He is also an archaeologist, historian and a city lover. He is currently a documentary film-maker and desk-monkey for a film production house.
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