Vantage point




Monday, July 08, 2002


I need to buy headphones!!!!

'Blondie', the community server here has a huge variety of songs, both english and hindi (and around 100 marathi classic as well) numbering in thousands. But no headphones. Making a mental note- BUY HEADPHONES.

Yesterday I appeared for the interview of the only speacial interest group/committee I applied to. People knowing me would be surprised as to why I applied to only 1 committee, whereas there are around 15 and most people apply at least to five. The reason is that all my student life, I have been involved in some extra-curric or the other and my grades have inadvertantly, suffered to some degree. Quizzing, debating, gathering committee, magazines, and also the big commitment of Rotaract Presidentship. I want to, for once, find out how I will do if I just concentrate on studies. Most of the people apply to these committees because they want 'bullet points' in their resumes. I have enough bullet points to last a small Al Qaida unit. Hence this policy decision to apply for only one committee- PRISM- the Marketing special interest group. That too I applied because in their application process you had to write 100 words about your favourite ad, and I wanted to do that. By the way, for someone who blogs a lot, 100 words turned out to be too less. 100 words is hardly anything!!!

So anyway, I sat down to think of my favourite ad, and the first one that came to mind was "Beta Sweater Pehno.." thanks to Suku's constant use of that dialogue. But as I was thinking up stuff to justify that choice, I realised that I had no idea what the product was. It took me a few hours to recall that it was some mint, probably Polo. That again got me thinking on what an ad should really do? If it is too good, the ad becomes a brand in itself. Marketing can prove to be too attractive. Like in 1974, Gillette withdrew from sponsorship of the English Domestic Cricket Ch'ship because their name was becoming associated more with cricket than razors. It was a similar problem Rohan was going through. His favourite ad was the Kavita Kapoor ad "One Black coffee please" in which a lady starts flirting with a man(it appears) in a restaurant but when he gets up and goes near her, he sees that she was talking to someone else using a mobile so small that her hand completely hid it. To top off embarrassment with insult, she thinks he is a waiter and says "one black coffee please". Amazing ad, but it took Rohan and a few of us a lot of time to recall that Ericsson was the brand in that case.

Taking all these factors into consideration, I chose "Amul The Taste Of India" ad which was frequently shown a couple of years ago. It shows various Indian food products from different parts of India and how Amul is used in all of these. The music, choreography and the editing was very vibrant, and it had a very real feel to it. In the end, I wrote about an ad which may not be the most popular ad, but certainly is one of the most effective ones.

Since I have applied to only that one committee, and I am one of 80 vying for 5 spots, I don't think I'll be selected. So, as I was saying, it's studies without extra-currics this time. Dekhein...