Akshay Mahajan’s Teesra – the Rickshaw Run blog
—from lecercle – (?) Akshay Mahajan, who induces jealousy with his photographs, has decided to up the ante and all. He’s running across the Himalayas. In an auto, what’s more. And making it all sound cool and fun. Damno! Anyway, now, he and his team mates make one more jealous with all the photos and, more importantly a rather cool new blog and associated design. I wonder what I should do to get my blog designed like that. Hmmm…
Car brands that a wicked Tamil can think up
Being Tamil and a copywriter has some off-beat benefits. One of them is the ability to think up brand names for various products that are elaborate in-jokes. A subtle ‘take that, world’ gesture, if you will, that will have the Tamils rotf,l and the rest, well, the rest won’t know anything’s amiss.
Here, I present some of my better attempts.
a) The all new Dodge Jalra. It’s good for your ego.
b) Honda’s VRN daVan. Looks good. Feels good. Smells good.
c) Volkswagen Vettala. Set tongues moving.
d) Audi Paudi. Puts you in the groove.
advertising | 
branding | 
car brands | 
tamil
Books by Indian authors
When the Madrasi Chick speaks, Madrasi boys listen. She asks one to tell one’s readers what books one’s read of Indian Authors. Before that, one would like to ask her what defines an Indian author? Therein lies the answer to all questions, one thinks.
All right. One shall not get smart alecky, here. One shall, because one likes what the Madrasi Chick stands for, and all, get right down to business. (It’s going to be a long transaction.)
The war for on consumers.
You’d think that consumers love advertising. You’d think, even, that consumers couldn’t do without advertising. But you’d be wrong. Most consumers hate advertising. And, I am sorry to say that they hate it because we, the ad people, have thrown away every bit of respect we have for the consumers and given them shitty stuff. Oh yes, in many cases, it is the advertisers, the advertising agencies and the creative-folk who make consumers hate the whole thing.
See, advertising adds unnecessary bulk to a newspaper, clutters TV (and how! Five-six 30 second commercials for every 7 minutes of genuine programming), slows down web-site loading and covers up the sky.
But, it needn’t be so. Advertising gives consumers the choice. It gives them the power to play god. Figuratively, of course. But still…
Advertising makes people’s lives easier. I do think advertising is all about problem solving.
The problems of What to buy, where, when and how much to pay for it. And there cannot be a human activity that does not involve buying something at a certain price.
So, as I was saying, consumers mostly hate advertising. And go to extreme steps to a) avoid it or more dangerously, b) fight it and kill it.
Now, news from the world of advertising is, that consumers, along with activist governments, judiciary and certain other people have taken to arms against us. (No bushism, that!) Which means, we retaliate. And strongly. In the way we know best.
We turn it into a profound but fun comic strip. Here’s what Graham & Jamie, of the much too popular Words & Pictures Online, have got for you, in the WAR ON ADVERTISING-HATERS.
The story begins here. And continues here. While the plot thickens here.
And oh, perhaps, you might want to keep an eye out for someone familiar in that last episode.
All fun aside, (and yes, it has been fun) advertising is one of the most challenging professions I’ve known, (not the only one…not by far) and the most thankless. Which is why, when people work their tempers off advertising, and on the people who make it, I take it personally.
consumers | 
ad folks | advertising | 
war on advertising | 
comic strip | 
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan
Google, Yahoo, Privacy and censorship
First, Google gets a rap on the knuckles for doing evil. According to Privacy International, Google’s the worst when it comes to keeping private data, that way.
On the other hand, Yahoo seems oblivious to the number of people it turns off, as it continues to squeeze flickr’s balls. In yet another case of Censorship, it’s filtering out “offensive content” in Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, and North Korea.
As expected, flickr users starting crying murder. And with protest art. Some whined on their blogs (like I am doing now), while some get quoted on Salon/Machinist.
(Aside: This is probably the most link-filled post I’ve ever written)
So, anyway. The point is – how long do you give flickr before they censor all kinds of images except cute kitten ones?
againstcensorship
thinkflickrthink
flickr
googleProfanity in the workplace, and new YouTube page layout
That’s called the Swear Jar – a Fucking awesome piece of advertising from an agency called Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), Chicago.
Searching for this video on YouTube, I found that YouTube’s got a new (beta) page format. This new one’s a lot easier to use – if you are a regular user of YouTube, that is – and looks much simpler. Fucking awesome, again.
advertising | 
Bud Light | 
Swear Jar | 
YouTube
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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