2. Client: UTVi, the business news channel Brief: “Term Busters Media Special” was a fortnight-long offering from UTVi. It brought in experts who explained in simple words the terms that are bandied about a lot by media planners (or people working in the media planning industry). So, to create a buzz around this program, UTVi wanted to create emailers for a handful of media planning agencies. Approach: Since these terms are commonly used but not properly understood, we decided to take the “take a dig” route.
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9. I was speechless when they said the term ‘Media’ was going to be defined on the show.
10. All of what was written was okayed in the “first take” except for this one. Version 1 was “Doesn’t TAM refer to a Tamil person, as in Tam-Brahm?” The lady at UTVi threw apoplectic fits over this, saying it was racist. WTF? Political correctness gone insane. Version 2 was “Does Television Audience Measurement mean measuring the bodies of TV viewers?” Nixed again, though in a lot more peaceful way. Which then led to what you’re seeing right now.
11. Client: Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) Brief: To make people aware of the excitement of the weekend’s horseracing, thus making them get off their lazy asses & make a beeline for the RWITC gates. Target: Pretty much the regular people who sleepwalk through the weekend. Where the ads appeared: Mid-Day.
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13. One of the headlines I wrote was “This weekend, the Autobahn comes to the Mahalaxmi Racecourse.” It was nixed on the grounds that ‘autobahn’ wouldn’t be understood. Next I offered, “Who says the Germans give you a good time only in October?” (The ad was being done in April). Nixed again on the grounds not many knew of Oktoberfest. So the headline you see is written by my then-boss. Body copy’s all me.
14. Client: Times Private Treaties (TPT) Brief: To let India Inc. know that there’s a better alternative to cooking the books - Times Private Treaties. Targeted at: Companies of all shapes & sizes. Where the ads appeared: At the time of writing, not anywhere in anything from the TOI stables. I do know with certainty that they were all approved. It doesn’t surprise me that TPT is taking its sweet time in releasing the ads. They were very leisurely in every respect, be it deadlines or responses to certain questions or getting facts. No wonder my then-boss (the art-director one) dubbed them as a ‘Pina Colada client’. Note: Some of the images may have the text too small. So I’ve kept the jpegs in a separate folder too.
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18. This was the first ad executed in the campaign. The headline was written by my then-boss.
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21. Client: UTVi, the business news channel Brief: Post ’09 elections, UTVi’s “Vote for Growth” program had an episode where the industry experts would analyze the impact of the elections on the nation’s economy. The ad had to tell people about this. Well, yes, I feel stupid for having just said that. Targeted at: The people who read pink newspapers. Wait, that sounded gay. What I meant was, the people who read the business newspapers. Where the ad appeared: In the newspaper ‘Business Standard’
22. In the first cut, I had suggested the following: Headline - “Did the electronic voting machines push the right buttons of the market?” Visual – An EVM with 2 ‘candidates’, namely a bull & a bear. We couldn’t get hi-res images of EVMs, so idea was extrapolated to voting paper. This time, headline was written by my then-boss.
23. Client: Dermalogica skin care products Brief: To create posters about Dermalogica’s unique skin-care services. Posters meant to hang in Dermalogica’s skin clinics/spas.
