Category: Advertising

Creative persons need inspiration to create. Men have always depended on women for the push. Prabhuddha Dasgupta, a photographer calls this feminine energy responsible for his creativity. However, he agrees that a muse need not be a specific person. A muse is the mythical  figure credited for being not only an author’s inspiration, but also the genius behind his work. Myth is thus an ephemeral idea. Some find the idea of a muse uncomfortable. A creative person must work regardless of inspiration. Surgeons do complicated surgeries with no muse to inspire, and mothers nurture babies without relying on a muse. The idea of a muse can be used as a metaphor. Muses remind us how capricious the inspiration is , just like  the goddesses who are free-spirited and elusive. A poet can scratch a pen endlessly across the page, and still there is no output.Anything can trigger off a poem, say a place, a person, a mood or a relationship but its verbalisation requires a goddess. Any poet would wish that she visits him more often.

Rural India constitutes a substantial percentage of market for automakers, e.g. Hyundai gets 32% sales from the non-urban markets. Maruti sells its fast moving car brands to orange farmers in Nagpur, turmeric growers in Tamil Nadu, granite polishers in Hyderabad, pottery makers in Jaipur, Madhubani painters Bihar, potato growers in West Bengal, apple and fruit growers in HP, fishermen in Howrah and alphonso mango growers in Ratnagiri.

Maruti has converted a Tata truck into an 18-seater mobile theatre. It takes the vehicle to project promotional films to different non-urban areas. Maruti Alto, its entry level car, fetches 36 per cent sales from rural areas. The truck has a big LCD TV, a split AC and push-back chairs. The projected film is aspirational. The quiz questions based on the film are asked  after the projection. The winners take home prizes such as caps, pens and wall clocks, with Maruti Suzuki branding. The opinion makers in rural society are wooed. They are invited for a factory visit.

Maruti has created a force of resident dealer sales executive ( RDSEs ) who do the profiling of villages to assess their potential and then target them.

Of the 7 billion people on the earth, 5.6 billion are connected by cell phone and more than half of those accessing the internet do so without a laptop, desktop or a landline. Advertising against this scenario has become more valuable than ever and more consequential. In essence, it is an educative force. Advertising has always been an engine for economic stimulation and social charge. Its purpose is to make a world a better place to live in.

The growth in advertising will come from India, China, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Mekong sub-region. Since the World Cup took place in South Africa, the Sub-Saharan Africa has come a long way. There are 800 million people in that region. Advertising will continue to improve lives in ‘always developing markets ‘ like Japan, the US, Western Europe, Brazil, Russia and the Middle East.

In fashion,  modelling, and glamour industry, women were judged ruthlessly beyond the age of 25. China Machado, however, is changing all this stereotyping. She is now 82 ( 2012 ). She became muse of the well-known photographer Richard Avedon in the 1950s—1960s. She shows her wrinkles to the world with elan. She appeared in HBO documentary About Face. In this documentary, the other supermodels and actresses featured are Jerry Hall, Cheryl Tiegs, Beverly Johnson, Isabella Rosellini, Christy Turlington and Carl Alt. China Machado currently works on print assignments. According to her, one should learn what to wear to look good at any age. She is the first non-Caucasian woman ever to appear in a major American fashion magazine in 1958. She says that what is more important is feeling beautiful rather than looking beautiful. She attributes her strength to the gift of laughter which she has inherited from her mother’s side. A model has to reinvent herself to keep pace with the times.

‘Live the Thunder’ unlocks the new code of masculanity by launching a campaign shot in Bangkok. The ad opens with four youngsters sitting on the top of a building discussing their plan of action. Mahesh Babu, the main protagonist takes a sip of Thums Up and says, ‘ Aaj kuch toofani Karte Hai ‘ . He jumps off the building, and others follow him. The group does dare devil acts —jumping across roofs, gliding down wires and slipping down pipes. They cut short a 30-minute trip to just three minutes. At the end Babu says, ‘ Tees minute ka raasta teen minute ka bana diya. …, aur kal kuch toofani karte hai.’ For the first time, they have shown a girl indulging in extreme sports. The brand is widening its space to include women. The Thums Up man is no longer ‘chasing the thunder,’ but ‘living the thunder.’