The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai Mosaic

Catalyst introduces a new column out of Mumbai. The city is seen as the Mecca or Madison Avenue of advertising. This column seeks to take a bird's eye view of the happenings, events, personalities and, of course, the advertising that shapes, makes, and sometimes mars this exciting industry. The comments might sometimes be made, tongue firmly in cheek, but never with any intent of malice.

Why Victoria? A Victoria is the name given to the tanga or horse-drawn carriage that is unique to Mumbai. A once regal way to get around Bombay, it now serves as a favourite tourist attraction to those who visit Mumbai. The name regained local popularity with the release of a Hindi movie called Victoria 203. It remains a very enjoyable way to take in the sights of Mumbai. Sit back, relax and let this Victoria give you a periodic glimpse of the Mumbai Mosaic.

Salaam creativity

Mumbai celebrated excellence in advertising in style. The ABBY awards had all the glitz and glam that make some people confuse advertising with showbiz. A crowd of about 2,800 filled the Tulip Star poolside to capacity. Advertising Club President M. G. Parameswaran, take a bow.

The night belonged to Piyush Pandey and his men in black once again. O&M seem to be making it a habit of overwhelming the ABBY jury with its wide range of work.

The last two years saw Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan as the chief guests. If anyone bet on Salman Khan this year, he would have lost badly. The chief guest was none other than `Munna Bhai' (Sanjay Dutt). One wishes the Advertising Club Bombay would brief their chief guest better. Shah Rukh is a natural ham. He charmed the crowd. Aamir, fresh after Lagaan, overawed the audience. Sanjay did neither. Yet, Mumbai is not complete without advertising and Bollywood.

Judging creativity

Talking about juries, the ABBY jury had an interesting person on board. Balki, the creative czar from Lowe, returned from his self-imposed vanvaas to join the who's-who of advertising and judge some of the prestigious categories of the ABBY awards. Industry watchers will remember that Balki had refused invitations to judge the awards last year. Maybe his experience on the jury at Cannes last year made him realise that the ABBY awards are quite good, after all. With Balki back, does one see Lowe back in the hunt for awards next year? That should stir the creative cauldron a bit.

Creative advertisers

Advertising can only be as creative as the advertisers permit it to be. This year, Hutchison Telecom was adjudged the `creative advertiser of the year.' It deserves kudos for encouraging its agency. A pleasantly surprising inclusion on the board of creative advertisers was Hindustan Lever, with three silvers and one gold ABBY. A far cry from their normal researched-to-death advertising that ended up with "scintillating" campaigns that progressed from `Surf' to `New Surf' to `New Improved Surf' to `New Improved Surf with Ultrons.' I am still waiting for someone to tell me what Ultrons are.

Mumbai Masala

The NRS (National Readership Survey) is really in a legal mess right now. The election of Krishan Premnarayen as the new Chairman of the NRSC brought cheer to all those who have considered the NRS as the gold standard amongst media research studies. Now that they have the pugnacious Premnarayen at the helm, maybe he can combine his natural tendency to do some tough plain-speaking with his amazing people skills and get the NRS back where it belongs. Right on top. We wish him well.

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