Since TV is too expensive, cluttered and fragmented, print seems to be having a revival. Print has geographic selectivity. It is cheaper and faster to produce and place ads in print. Though FMCG are yet to embrace print wholeheartedly, it is mainly durables who rely on print. There is media multiplier effect — the impact is greater when both press and TV are used.

There was a time when there was no shortage of copywriters who were willing to write print copy of 250 words. Print ads have now lost their bite. They simply look like bad posters. In a visually driven world, copywriting is a casualty. It has become almost inevitable that when an advertiser’s budget grows beyond a certain level, it triggers an automatic switch from print to TV. But the written word is still very powerful. Print will get back its glory if colleges begin producing copywriters again. It is not that the consumers have lost their ability to read, it is the industry that has lost its ability to write.