Mallika sherawat once made a very good statement, justifying her show of skin in her movies – “In India, only sex and shahrukh sell!”. Well, it could not be more true. Not too sure of shahrukh khan, but sex surely sells. And who else but the sellers, the advertisers, know best to get it out.
Sex has been employed in advertising since the beginning of advertising. At the beginning, wood carvings and illustrations of attractive women (often unclothed from the waist up) adorned posters, signs, and ads for saloons, tonics, and tobacco.
Well use of sex and symbols and pictures associating with sex, is okay for a lingerie or a condom ad maybe. But how can sex be used to sell cars?( refer Volvo cars with the tagline “We Are Just As Excited As You Are”) Hamburgers??( google for Carl’s Jr. Hamburgers with paris hilton)
We are sexual beings, and we Indians in particular are probably much more horny thanks to the suppressed society we live in. Advertisers use this attribute by trying to associate their products and services with sexy imagery hoping that some of the hotness gets attached to their brand in the consumer’s subconscious mind, thus guaranteeing a good recall.
However abusing your audience’s attention is a dangerous thing. Showing skin to get attention and then trying to sell completely unrelated products like coke! (Coffee I can still understand, but coke??) I would feel cheated and talked down to. Another thing to keep in mind is the amount if nudity sufficient to grab eyeballs and what is too much thus considered offending. How much is good enough?
Well, these are questions without any objective answer and probably it more depends on the openness and the daring levels of the marketing manager, and the amount of risk the company would like to take with the brand.
Mean while, have a look at this Taj Mahal ad targeting the right audience, in the right manner, with very clever use of words.
update: The opening statement in the post, “In bollywood, only sex and shahrukh sell”, was apparently made by Neha Dhupia, and not as mentioned. Thank you P.
Google, in all these years, and more recently facebook. These two websites have been taking over our personal lives like never before.
Social networking sites have become a way of expression for many, and life would have sure been incomplete without these sites. The whole world has shrunk, and it is quite important in this global village where we live. These media have also bridged borders and brought about cross-cultural understanding and sensitivity.
I have been reading “The Facebook Effect”, and though it is a book more to do with the founding of facebook, it gives good insights of the effect, and the difference facebook has made to our lives. As Mark Zuckerberg, in “The Social Network” puts it aptly, “I would want to take this whole social experience, and put it up online for everyone to interact”.
It is interesting to see the local players also acting up swiftly to this new medium and using it effectively. Social media marketing is a completely new industry that has come into place in marketing.
We have heard of the gogola (selling golas made of mineral water) branded completely with google. Now here comes the chat bhandaar who does something similar.
I recently saw “THE SOCIAL NETWORK”, and what a movie (the review would soon be up). The movie got me thinking about the phenomena that facebook has become, and how much and integral part it has become in our lives. One of my friend, pursuing her MBA, had recently stated, “ we are in an age, where early morning instead of running for the newspaper, we run to the laptop, to log on to facebook!”. Needless to say, she had said this on facebook.
This got me into a discussion with a friend, who should we add on FB? This friend had spoken about her occasional cleaning up of the friends list from her profile, and also the way in which she accepts all family and friend requests, just to remove them a couple of days later( they would not come to know unless checked again!). The bigger question is, should a person add his/her boss on facebook?
There must have been a hazaar people telling you not to add your boss. It would just open a door for the boss to spy on you, and be in complete control of you, even personally! In this post, as always, I would like to estabilish why you should actually befriend your boss on facebook.
You get to know your boss on personal level, and can use this effectively in your next appraisal.
Learn the norms of the higher level. FB would allow you too peek into the life of your boss, and you would get a fair know how, to behave and the kind of life your boss and other superiors live.
Want to get back to your boss? Put up pictures of the party last night, with loadsa alcohol and women drooling around. That 35 year old, self considerate coolness of your boss would all turn green in envy. Show him, You have a life!
In case you want to put up a tantrum, but are scared of doing so. Or maybe, If you want to express your displeasure over something, but are unable, try putting it up as your status message, in a very diplomatic way. Well, this assumes that your boss is smart to decipher it.
In almost all cases, we want to tell something to our boss (you are a jerk!), but we don’t be able to. FB would be the right place to tell him so.
And the best part, the government is with you( the US government!).
…Facebook — a place where you’re free to share your true feelings about your employer with all your closest Internet friends. And now you can do so with the confidence that the federal government has your back.
That’s because yesterday the National Labor Relations Board sided with a woman fired from her job after making critical remarks about her boss on Facebook. The woman made the comments during off-work hours from her home computer.
Federal labor law protects workers against reprisal for talking to colleagues on their own time about employment conditions, including comments critical of bosses. And that right extends to employees regardless of whether they’re part of a union.
It’s the same as talking at the water cooler. The point is that employees have protection under the law to talk to each other about conditions at work. (Source: Blog )
Adding to the commitment of updating regularly and adding in more features and making this blog more fun, I announce today the addition of a new column. A new talk show, or should we say chat show?
BEER WITH BHARAT.
Let me welcome the first guest to the show.
I know this person from his birth, and exactly 3 years, 1 month, 11 days and a couple of hours I guess from the time I was born. We have shared all kind of memories, and to credit him he has always been there. He was my primary lender during my broke engineering days, and I can completely trust him with all the antics. My partner in crime, please welcome my own Brother JATIN JHURANI.
Claps please.
BJ: So, Jatin, how do you feel coming to the show?
Jatin: I feel exhilarated, and to top it I am the first guest, makes it much more awesome. Thank you so much for the invite, and the honour.
BJ: So Jatin, tell us something about yourself.
Jatin: well, for the benefit of the audience( you know everything bro!), I am just done with my engineering, and am now working with a software major.
Jatin Jhurani
BJ: So, without wasting anymore precious digital estate, let me get into the groove with my questions.
Jatin: Wait! Before we go ahead, one KF please .. live life king size. Afterall, it is called BEER with Bharat.
BJ: Cool, KF premium please. Now to begin..
Jatin: Wait wait! ( sipping his beer!). I have a small thing to tell. Rather a small thing I wanted to ask you.
BJ: Go ahead.
Jatin: If on talk shows with coffee, or Koffee, people say know your neighbours, what should a beer talk show say?
BJ: Well, it is not a beer show.. ahem!…
Jatin: know your neighbour’s wife after getting drunk(PJ..:-))
BJ: Jatin, it is a family show, no profanities please. Now shall we continue.
(Jatin signaling to go ahead, sipping his beer)
BJ: Tell us one thing about yourself, which you think not many in this world know.
Jatin: well, lot of things that people do not know about me. But to single out one, I would say, people do not know that I am good, or rather very good to people who are good to me, and well very very bad to ones who are bad to me!
BJ: Whoa! Okay, so be careful guys! Next question, What kind of free gifts do you most crave, and why?
Jatin: Anything that comes for free and the person doesn’t expect’s anything in return or atleast doesn’t expect something of the same kind in return. ( smiling!). Which person would not like free gifts?
BJ: What has been your most frustrating experience till date?
Jatin: Well, there was this one time. I had bought four tickets to hyd and the waiting list was from 158 to 161 and when the final chart was prepared. My friend’s ticket’s got confirmed but my ticket was at waitingList 1. It could not get more frustrating than this.
BJ: Favourite movie?
Jatin: Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, because it shows u the importance of family and Chak De! India because i learnt the imp of having determination and confidence in order to achieve the goal. If u ask me to select one then it is K3G.. after all family is family
BJ: Ah!, So K has one more admirer huh! Favourite book?
Jatin: It has got to be 2States. Well, he tells you different ways to impress your Mother-in –law. Much required these days
BJ: Okay, now we this is some info. Impressing mother in law. favourite holiday destination
Jatin: Araku (a hill station near vizag). The main reason being it doesn’t requires any pre-planning and an awesome place , the temp remains in single digit’s through out the year
BJ: I am sure also because it has some fond memories attached to it.
(Jatin frowning)
BJ: I am talking about the beer we had in the balcony of our room together. Okay Jatin, tell me this and be honest. When did you last take a shower?
Jatin: Shower… exactly 3:45:42 back(present time 11:42:38am). I am in office right now dude.
BJ: 3 things you would like to do before you die?
Jatin: In no particular order,
For my enterprise to go public
To propose my life partner at the golden temple.. Rab ne bana di jodi
To do some social service, not that because me interested but because my mom loves doing it.
BJ: okay, social service huh! 20 years down the line, Jatin Jhurani would like to be remembered as?
Jatin: As, THE JATIN JHURANI. What else?
BJ: Okay, that was quick. What is one activity you could do all day, and still not get bored?
Jatin: Facebook, Blogging, hours and hours on cell and the cell connecting to one only number. Sorry can’t reveal all the secrets here!
(smiling sheepishly!)
BJ: Sure, we do respect your privacy here. Before moving on, one thing I was curious about. What is the recent spurt in activity on Facebook of late?
Jatin: Well, In this busy life . An easy way to be in contact with people and to get updates of your loved ones. Funniest thing is that people are completed addicted to it today. Let me give an Ex: Recently I over heard a grand ma’s talk with her grand daughter while in a hospital..she tells her grand daughter, “Sweetheart, please promise that you would look after my farms in Farmville, after I die!!!”
BJ: Totally agree with you. Now for the last question, One incident during engineering that you think changed your outlook on life
Jatin: My friend, not dostana, who kept on motivating me throughout my final year of engineering. And today whatever success I have, a little credit of it goes to her.
BJ: very well said Jatin, and you have been a wonderful guest. I could not asked for a better way to start this off. I hope, and am sure, I would get you back to the show very soon. Now before you leave, I would ask you for one picture to be taken, to be permanently fixed on this pitcher of fame.
Lots of draught here.
So this was it guys. This was Jatin Jhurani, my brother, for you. I would be back with much more excitement, much more fun, and sure a whole lotsa beer soon. Keep watching, or rather, keep reading.
p.s.: Anyone who would want to be featured here, please fill in the contact form, or shoot me a mail at bharatjhurani (at) gmail (dot) com.
In my quest of reading books of all kinds I recently stumbled upon Train to Pakistan – a historical novel by Khushwant Singh published in 1956. I had bought this book a long time back, but never had the time or intent to read it. It just got lost in the middle of the other bigger volume books I guess. A week back I started reading it, and could not put it down till finishing it. It is a small book(about 200 pages), and is over 50 years old, but still feels so fresh and new. It recounts the Partition of India in August 1947.
Instead of depicting the Partition in terms of only the political events surrounding it, Mr. Singh digs into a deep local focus, providing a human dimension which brings to the event a sense of reality, horror, and believability.
Truth meets fiction in this very well written episode of one of the most violent times in our history. Mr. Singh must have himself been witness to this mass gory, and it shows in the writing. The trauma and tragedy of partition have very well been captured through the characters and their simple stories. Indeed, the book has been scripted in blood.
Story
It is the summer of 1947. But Partition does not mean much to the Sikhs and Muslims of Mano Majra, a village on the border of India and Pakistan. Then, a local money-lender is murdered, and suspicion falls upon Juggut Singh, the village gangster who is in love with a Muslim girl. When a train arrives, carrying the bodies of dead Sikhs, the village is transformed into a battlefield, and neither the magistrate nor the police are able to stem the rising tide of violence. Amidst conflicting loyalties, it is left to Juggut Singh to redeem himself and reclaim peace for his village. Is he able to?
Partition has left many scars in the hearts of several Indians and those tragic days still haunt the new India, the memories of that tragic period still makes people shiver, and being a sindhi and hearing these stories from my grandma, I completely relate to it.
Imagine being ousted from your house, friends, family, everyone and packed off to some distant land, like a courier package. All this, only because you are circumcised, or you are not!
A must read for any one, who wants to get a first hand feel on the happenings of those times. A big message from the book would be that this kind of holocaust should never ever again happen anywhere, and the pain and torture is simply irreversible.
I have been reading “The Facebook Effect”, and though it is a book more to do with the founding of facebook, it gives good insights of the effect, and the difference facebook has made to our lives. As Mark Zuckerberg, in “The Social Network” puts it aptly, “I would want to take this whole social experience, and put it up online for everyone to interact”.
