The Hindu Business Line : Subhas Ghosal Foundation

The Subhas Ghosal Foundation (SGF) has been quietly doing a lot of good work this year. It all emerged when trustee Titoo Ahluwalia was introducing poet and writer Javed Akhtar who was to deliver the Ghosal Memorial Lecture at the Taj President last week.

Earlier in the year, the SGF had an event called Provocations where Piyush Pandey faced off with Alyque Padamsee. Last month, it seems SGF took 15 of the finest minds in the industry to a kind of retreat in Nerul near Mumbai where it made them discuss "Advertising in Times of Adversity." After that it was able to make these 15 great minds put pen to paper and actually write what they felt. We doff our hats to whomsoever conceived of this and actually successfully implemented it.

Making advertising people speak is easy. Making them write is quite another thing. This is going to be published as a book, and it seems they have not yet finalised the publisher. If we were publishers of books, we would jump at the opportunity to put this book on the shelves.

Javed speaks up

Javed Akhtar: Wowing the audience

The turnout for the Memorial Lecture was impressive, to say the least. Golden oldies like Gerson Da Cunha, Mike Khanna, Amin Sayani, Bobby Sista and Ivan Arthur mingled with Shekhar Swamy, Sam Balsara, Prasoon Joshi, Piyush Pandey, Rama Bijapurkar and Kurien Mathews, to mention a few names.

Javed Akhtar wowed the audience. We must say we went for the function with trepidation. `Secularism in Indian Cinema' as a topic is not exactly close to our advertising moorings. But we are glad we went. And so was everyone else, if the standing ovation Javed Saheb received at the end of this 45-minute speech was anything to go by.

We believe the SGF is doing a great job. Yet, it needs to create a little more awareness about itself and its mission. Today's students would already be asking who Subhas Ghosal was. And they are tomorrow's advertising leaders.

Prasoon Joshi

Prasoon Joshi: Head honcho now

The new head honcho of McCann Erickson was making one of his early appearances in his new avatar, and thus attracted a fair share of interest and good wishes. After fantastic scripts for Rang De Basanti and Fanaa, we hope he will script a story of success for his agency. We wish him well. Santosh Desai, whose seat he fills, seems to have expressed his anguish about the advertising industry in some sections of the media. Well, as one old timer said, the writing on the wall is there for all to see, but if you don't want to read it, there's nothing much anyone can do.

Elections

One read that the Mumbai Municipal Corporation had appointed O&M to do some creative work for it. This is going to test even the creativity of an agency like O&M. Remember, you need a product to advertise. And the Municipal Corporation doesn't have too much going for it. Now with civic elections announced, one wonders whether the campaign will see the light of day. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has announced it will have a substantial presence in terms of advertising for the upcoming polls. The race to get these big bucks must be on and we will keep you posted about who bags this plum deal.

Peter Mukherjea

The salmon pink press has been talking about Peter Mukherjea's exit from Star. When it does happen, pull out the back issues of this column and recall who broke the news first.

Awards fever

The AdClub Bombay is really stirring up the pot and going all out to make the Abby show memorable. It has enlarged the scope of the entrants and tried to give it an international flavour. It hopes to get entries from South Asian countries this time. It also announced some new categories including one for the young creatives. Looks like everyone has suddenly realised that they need to look after the young ignored toilers in their agencies. High time, guys!

So that leaves the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to announce what it has in store for us with its awards festival. Remember, AAAI too wanted to take its award beyond the shores of India. We reported it had held a contest to get a possible new name for its "Goa Fest." Any bets on what the new name would be? We're betting on "Goa Fest." Yup! You read right. And we have not tanked up on feni. Watch and wait. Stranger things than this can happen!

Victoria

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