Flashed & branded!!

The Indian market has evolved, the Indian consumer no longer stops dead in hi/her tracks to a “Breaking News” ticker on the TV news channel, because media has sensationalized itself. Tiny truths flicker in a frenzy of over hype, PR, mellow drama and opinionated reporters.

The layman wants that drama to spruce up his/her life, but seek a sustained source of sensation. Flash brands have in way risen from this need; here is a brand that escalates to great heights purely on the steam of media spinners and exhaustive PR! The brand exposes itself to a 360-degree consumer reach, where television, print, radio, outdoors… weave a web of almost continuous bombardment...

A tapestries of stories are woven into the warp and weft that serve to fuel the brands ascent. These brands are scrutinized, to the extent that everything they do , are made to do or claimed to have one, suddenly become of uttermost importance and the focal point that feeds the ever hungry gluttonous media mouth. Reputations of these brands get torn down, tarnished or they become sanctified, God men and women, the walkers of the right path.

Winds of change

The winds of change carry with them a burden so lofty,us plebeians of the world cant shoulder.A torrent of possibilities seems to be lost in an ocean of confusion.Thoughts are fuzzy,images blur,the mind is intoxicated with points of views, opinions, biases...The mind and heart beat to a restless drum,an unsure drum, a broken drum...

A live and kicking child is being laid to rest, as arms reach out for no one to hold.The stench of death rises high,its putrid odor fills the nostrils,it creeps into the deepest corners of our soul eating us from within.

As the heart seeks anyone to shoulder its loss and the mind wanders, resorts to any means possible to come to terms with the loss.The flood gates are open as emotions are unleashed,they play havoc with the workings of the mind,making us more weary by the day...
A peaceful head we seek to lay down to sleep...

A hopeful thought[s]

Trenches dug deep, remnants of an unfinished task, unkept promises and long lost whispers fall with a thud, raising a fine layer of dust, as hairs on the back of ones neck rise in anticipation. Wiping the slate clean, redrawing the boundaries, re-chalking the parts to tread on, only till where the eye can see. The chance to plough the field and sow new seeds into the earth as the ensuing hard work and sweat beats the brow, a plentiful harvest the hopeful dream to reap.

I stand here, a hopeful, expressing my hopes…
I hope I continue believing in David
I hope David doesn’t continue to be the training camp for freshers to learn the tricks of the trade and run their own shows elsewhere
I hope we feel more like the family we claim to be.
I hope justice prevails.
I hope as a Client servicing person my job profile doesn’t spell, collecting prints, haggling for monies, chasing layouts and artworks.
I hope the great wall of David, which to me is not the wall on which we share our thoughts and ideas, but the very real wall between servicing and creative crumbles.
I hope clients are not our masters and we their underpaid genies.
I hope the more ‘systems in place’ that we always talk about find their place in David.
I hope we collectively pool our innate talents and energies to make David a little part of everyone.
I hope I am not hoping in vain.

All this said there is the side to David that I hope we don’t lose out on!

I hope we look past marketing jargon and see organizations as individuals, rather than revenue figures
I hope we don’t cut the umbilical chord that has nourished us and help us grow for so long.
I hope we don’t decide to give David a premature death, when David has still a lot of spunk left.
I hope we realize sometimes good things do come in small packages and I hope we don’t rubbish them in the hope of the bigger package.
I hope David stays alive, stays strong, and stays young and sure-footed.
I hope we don’t just land up playing the game…especially the game we don’t want to play.
I hope we learn to enjoy the intimacy David has to offer and I hope we can see the good tighter bonds brings.
Again I hope I am not hoping in vain

Pin prick!!!!

Its the pin pricking into a Valentine heart!Call me a sadist if you must but the sight of red and pink hearts makes me nauseous!!!

Media conglomerates,ad agencies and multi billion dollar companies feed on the hullabaloo they create themselves on this day of so called expression of love.They sow the seeds of a million expressions, a thousand desires and a hundred wishes...They are the new planters of insecurities, uncalled for lows and false highs.Why?to make that many an extra buck.Creating an environment where the masses are forced to see the world through pink tainted spectacles.Rosy red or baby pink these are not the colors of love...

War strategy"Bombard the target with as many sights and sounds of mushy.gooey images of 'love'.Break all forms of resistance through unmasked,unabashed hard hitting messages,quotes,anecdotes,fall back on eternal love stories if need be!The battle cry the resounding sound of the word Valentine,till it resounds in their head.The war leader 'Cupid',become cupid!Think,feel,believe you are the new Cupid!,interpolate
the necessary skill set to sell the same to the non-believer.

A DAY IN MY LIFE BEFORE VALENTINES DAY

• Get up switch on the radio to pep myself up for the tasks ahead and what do i get! Valentines days is round the corner win passes to blah blah blah...now take part in the Valentines day contest blah blah blah...followed by a whole bunch of mushy songs that make me want to clobber my radio set and the RJ if he/she were in it!
• Get into the bus,there's giddy headed girls giggling away at what they should buy for the guys they hope to kick it off with[why does it always have to boil down to what you buy & how much you spend?!?]Interspersed with this 'giddyheadedness' is a lonely heart that dreads the thought of another Valentines day alone[For Christ sake woman!!give me a break!]
• On my way to work all i see is a sea of red & pink..headlines and corny images screaming at me, all laced with hidden agendas, that unveil themselves in the barely readable fine print.
• I get to work, start my computer and check my mail,there a dozen freaky hearts popping around my screen,picture perfect smiles and babies in diapers shooting arrows dangerously all over my screen!
• Disgusted i pick up the newspaper in the hope of taking my mind away from this hearty affair, but to my dismay it seems like media's lost its soul to love too[or maybe the moolah that rides with love]Gifts,parties,that tiny dress that will make him drop dead,red nail paint and pink lipstick, a bouquet of red and pink roses...
• I get through the day with alot more bombardment from every conceivable angle!

Love has to go beyond those few seconds of joy when someone exchanges gifts on Valentines day,it has to go beyond that one day and what is now being stretched easily into a week and a month even!Why cant we go back to when love was pure,true to all its shades and not just hues of pink and red!Where have all the colors gone?!?!?

Don't worry bout the bill!

Endorphins deceptive, nasty endorphins,rush to the brain,sending out impulses, carriers of a ripple effect of happy feelings,good feelings,warm feelings,feelings of joy!!

Every time i get what i want and i get it now,I've fallen prey to this addictive sense for elation .I belong to generation that lives for the moment with an eyesight weakened to the extent that one can see beyond the satisfaction of the most recent craving.

Worldwide we are witness to a movement,a movement that endorses the Id in us,it brings to the surface our inner most instincts to satisfy our selfish needs.Credit cards being the very blatant reiteration of this belief to the not so overt,subtly woven instruments that work to create a sense of pseudo power-the focus on the consumer.Today the consumer is so the focal point of any product or service unlike ever before.As a consumer I have the power to create new product designs,[Apple I phone],new categories or products[P&G has a consumer inputs link where consumer can contribute in the suggestion and creation of new products],create media waves and decide the faith of others[Big Boss,Indian idol,Channel [V] VJ hunt etc]I can demand customization to suit my needs...

I can control every aspect of my life,well almost.It is the sense of God like power bestowed onto the common man that subtly fuels the latent need to gain more,it pushes us to want now!Materialism,consumerism is at the peaking point, we are at the brink of a revolution that might change us forever.This generation lives by the philosophy' Live for today, who knows you may be dead tomorrow'

Impulses put up on a podium and given a standing ovation,rash decisions and behaviour float by me everyday.Do i care?Not really!Don't worry bout the bill is all i have as an answer!