The Hindu Business Line : Amol Bose R.I.P.

Veterans in the advertising industry tell us that he ran an advertising agency called Amol Bose Advertising. His main account was Charagh Din, the shirt store.

More importantly, the man had the commitment and personality to play an extremely active role in the affairs of the industry. People nostalgically reminisce about his long innings with the Advertising Club Bombay. Evidently, he was quite a mover and shaker there. He was also President of the AdClub and contributed to building the association up to the enviable position it enjoys today

Incidentally, we are told he was also Chairman, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), and the most `happening' President of the India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA).

People who knew him describe him as a hard-talking individual with a soft heart. From all accounts, a colourful personality.

Mr Bose, rest in peace.

Jagran forum

Media houses seem to have been bitten by the event bug. Shobhana Bhartiya and The Hindustan Times just pulled off a high-powered event with Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, L. K. Advani and the like.

Now Dainik Jagran is hosting a forum with the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the leader of the Opposition, the new Chief Ministers of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and several other worthies such as Lord Meghnad Desai and Arun Jaitley.

We've already seen India Today do a similar event for a couple of years now. Coming to think of it, this is a pretty interesting way to build a media group's brand.

The speakers find it difficult to refuse the request of an important media house, the participants are suitably impressed by the clout of the organiser and everyone is happy.

Fortunately, our politicians, even those out of power, do not charge a fee to lecture at such events. Try getting someone like Bill Clinton to speak, and it would burn a pretty big hole in your pocket.

Reliance, bent over

Have you seen this new TV commercial from Reliance Infocomm? It shows a man obviously bent over and shuffling along like he is bearing some great big load on his back. The voice-over speaks about the many benefits you get with the Reliance mobile and how "heavy" the phone is. After seeing the poor guy groaning under the weight of this "heavy" phone, I hope people are not afraid to use the service. Maybe I just don't have enough of a sense of humour!

Air Deccan

The advertisement that Air Deccan now has the largest destination network in India was pretty impressive.

One remembers that not many years ago, Air Deccan started operations with one turboprop aircraft whose engine caught fire on the first day of operations.

Anyone else would have felt this a crushing blow. Not the doughty Capt. Gopinath (in picture). Not only has he encouraged some wonderful advertising from his agency, but he has also guided the airline to become what it is today.

As the good captain says, "Simplifly."

Bye, Orange

Mumbai woke up to find one leading daily's front page taken over, and every other newspaper in town carrying huge advertisements that bid farewell to Orange, the popular mobile telephony brand, and greeted Hutch, the brand that will take its place.

Hutch had the larger-than-life picture of the well-known and loved pug with its pink tongue hanging out.

Amazing how one fantastic TVC can turn a dog into an icon and also make for great connect.

Hi Orange

Bidding goodbye to Orange took us down memory lane to the days when BPL welcomed Orange to Mumbai. They took out a full-page advertisement that said, "Welcome, Orange", and showed a picture of an orange juice squeezer. This was vintage aggression from McCann which was handling the BPL account then.

Aaj Tak in the US

G. Krishnan of TV Today can't stop smiling as he recounts the story of the launch of Aaj Tak in New York. Evidently, it pulled off a coup by beaming the launch programming all over the landmark Nasdaq building.

Curious onlookers, seeing the pretty anchor persons dressed in Western outfits, wondered aloud if this was from a studio in the Big Apple or direct from India. G.K. had a wonderful time assuring them the broadcast into freezing New York was indeed directly from sunny India.

Meanwhile, India Today turns 30 and intends turning on the heat at a huge party at the Hyatt. Happy Birthday!

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