Adhjal Gagri Chalkat Jaye

This weeked I got a chance to meet some of the people I'll admire and look upto for the rest of my life. I met achievers ..... the real men who spent their entire lives for a cause, climbed new heights and yet don't have an iota of ego. One of the most brilliant people who are either oblivious to their intellect or have developed such a strength and maturity in their character that it keeps them grounded no matter what. Authorities in their field who needed no ego massaging to show the world what they deserve. Brings me to think of the people back home which is full of those holding half baked baseless knowledge but an ego that overrides whatever good sense they ever had. Made me think whether its more difficult to acquire the knowledge or the fantastic attitude in life. Humility which was the essence of our culture has just disappeared somewhere. The generation of baby boomers though went through hardships when rose to a higher level forgot modesty in the bargain. The generation X with the imense competition and lesser employment anyways felt they achieved greatness when they got even moderate recognition. The onus lies on us the generation Y to bring back the culture of moral and behavioural integrity back to this country. We need to learn to grow as professionals and individuals on a continous basis or else it would be just another generation living in the illusions of greatness.

Rock the Shock!!!!

Every advertisement elicits an emotional response but the thought of getting one of shock is absolutely shocking. Shock advertising or 'shockvertising' may not be the new kid on the block but the growing competition in the market makes it more important than ever before. When the objective is to catch maximum eyeballs the "shock therapy" works wonders. Whether the idea is to evoke emotions or to generate buzz or just to get the masses talking a shockvertisement hits the bullseye. A shockvertisement may frighten, challenge the norms or mention the unmentionable the key is to strum that rebellious cord in every customer. United Colours of Benetton which has defined shockvertisementsnot just challenged the conventional every single time but built a successful campaign of "union of colours".Though deprecated time and again due to racial contents UCB never failed once to capture attention.
Whether it was the nurse kissing the priest; black woman feeding the white baby; multiracial family; the black, white and yellow hearts; black and white hands in one handcuff or my personal favourite- the graveyard, all scream the message loud and clear " UCB is for anyone and everyone".

In the Indian scenario where even UCB has taken a softer stand the shock factor needs to be free of sexual(think Calvin Klein) or racial innuendos the job gets tougher and asksfor much higher levels of creative thinking. Recently Volkswagen achieved the appreciative task through its audio ads in two leading newspapers

The bottomline however remains that you can find them lewd, terrifying,immoral or offensive but you can not ignore them which is the idea at the first place. isn't it?