The Hindu Business Line : Year-end musings

We keep patting ourselves on the back for our creative and management prowess. Some call it human capital. Then why am I seeing more of the Goodmans and Bruces of the world in the Indian advertising industry? Is it that we have shipped out all the good guys, and are importing talent to maintain a balance of trade?

Now even the largest advertiser in India has a gora boss. Well, I take solace in the fact that he has an Indian boss. Fly the flag, Manwani. Pity the gentlemanly Arun Adhikari said Sayonara and took off to Japan though.

And some about awards

Wonder why Cannes chooses Piyush Pandey to chair the jury while the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) wants foreigners to judge Indian creatives?

And that too when Indians keep cribbing that foreigners do not understand the local idiom, humour and language, when asked why we send huge contingents to Cannes and return with just a couple of awards. Maybe the AAAI will be giving an orientation course to the foreign members of the jury.

And I wonder what the total media plan of the new Tide detergent colour print ads are? They couldn't just be for the DNA, could they? But then awards season is approaching and scrutiny committees have been scrapped.

And will Kalpana Rao of O&M, as President of the Ad Club Bombay, be dressed in black on Abby night like all good Pandeyites?

And will Pranesh Mishra, who is on the AdClub Committee, be able to persuade Balki to enter Lowe's ads for the Abby? Something Prem Mehta couldn't or didn't want to do all these years?

And will Piyush Pandey enter his ads for the AAAI awards? No prizes for answering this one.

And some big questions

Is it true that all was not well between the AAAI and the AdClub Bombay vis-a-vis their respective awards?

Is it true that the President of the AAAI sent some proposal to the President of the AdClub regarding the awards?

Is it true that a high-level delegation from the AdClub formally met with a high-level delegation of the AAAI and then apparently, everyone decided that the best course of action is to maintain what some people call status quo ante?

Questions, questions, questions!

Victoria's awards

With everyone dishing out awards, we have decided on some year-end awards of our own. If you notice a bulge in our cheek, it's only our tongue there.

The Silken Bathrobe award for the most beautiful model in a beauty soap advertisement goes to Shah Rukh Khan. Best of Lux, SRK!

The Crystal Goblet award for the `thrilled to be fifty' youngster goes to Vijay Mallya. His five-day birthday bash at Goa had Mumbai's newspapers carrying empty columns on Page 3. All the glitterati and chatterati had flown down, free of charge, to Goa. It pays to attend a party hosted by someone who owns an airline. India's Richie Rich even had Lionel Richie performing live for his guests.

The Golden Baritone award for the best second innings performance in a lifetime goes to Amitabh Bachchan for KBC 2. He could now even model as the Energizer bunny that goes on, and on, and on.

The Golden Ingot award for Pole Vaulting goes to the Bombay Sensex. Wealth creation was never so quick and easy.

The Goldy-Oldy award goes to the models in the SBI Life Insurance advertising.

The Wide Eyed award for the most `Surprised at Everything' company goes to SBI for its surprising advertising campaign.

The Gilt-Khadi award for the best Indian Media Independent goes to Sam Balsara, our very own Asterix who is the last man standing on the Indian side in a market filled with the giant MNCs.

The Golden Magnifying Glass Award goes to the new Deccan Odyssey campaign from O&M. You need one to read the advertisements.

The Golden Handlebar award is shared by Piyush Pandey and Mangal Pandey. The Best Continuing Handlebar award will obviously go to the former.

The Ceramic award for the most innovative jewellery goes to Hindware, for dressing up its models with miniature washbasins hanging around the plunging necklines.

The Red Herring award for the `worst kept secret' goes to this column. Evidently everyone knows that a team of four contribute to make up the column. Well, so much for Victoria's Secret.

Have fun in the New Year! We love you!

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Year-end musings

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