By Jaideep Shergill
I decided to have an occasional stab at compiling some oddities and such from the smorgasbord which is our world, the highlights and lowlifes of the world of media, marketing, PR and communication. So here goes:
1. Fly in the ointment? Raghuram Rajan’s non-continuance, non-extension, exit or whatever else one would like to anoint this move as, has caused quite a storm especially since everyone in the media and some seem to know more about everything that happened (or didn’t) than even Mr Rajan himself. I loved what Rajan said to a leading newspaper recently- “I’m still here for two-and-half months in this job. After that I’m going to still be around somewhere in the world, probably a lot in India, so don’t write me off”
2. Can Cannes?The winners’ list at the PR Lions has recently been announced at the ongoing Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Indian agencies had pinned their hopes on this category on the back of the shortlist they had received, four in PR. Unfortunately, none of these shortlists converted to any metals. A total of 84 Lions were given away in PR.
Serves the advertising firms right for masquerading under the PR category considering how little they respect and understand the PR business to start with.
3. Storm in a tea cup: Nikesh Arora’s exit from SoftBank owing to the fact that Masayoshi Son choosing to hang around longer has caused a lot of stir in the business world and feeding frenzy has begun. A victim of retirement reversal, Nikesh is grabbing all the headlines this week. Once again everybody in the media always knows more than the people at the heart of the story. On a lighter note, Rahul Yadav (remember him, enfant terrible? aka The Housing.com boy) has been enjoying putting up fun posts about Nikesh Arora’s exit. Déjà vu?
4. Feed Salman to Ramsay Bolton’s hounds: Salman Khan is still making news for all the wrong reasons and is also receiving lots of support for the shameful remarks he makes. We still have PR pros, celebrities and media moguls defending him. For god’s sake, can we get over with the celebrity hangover in our country? I loved what a friend posted on Facebook recently: At least we know its Salman tweeting since every tweet has at least one spelling mistake and another friend put this up: It’s reassuring to see every tweet in support of Salman Khan has at least one spelling error. Salman needs to be quickly fed to Ramsay Bolton’s hounds especially since their next meal isn’t so certain after the hounds just gobbled up Ramsay himself!
5. “You’re in the great game now, and the great game is terrifying”- Continuing with the Game of Thrones narrative (minus Salman), what a great PR story this one has been and who would have thought so. Season after season, GOT continues to amaze and confound us with one of the greatest PR stories in recent history. Now, coming in at 69 minutes, the finale of the Game of Thrones’ sixth season will be the longest episode in series history, meaning there will be ample time for the show to both tie up loose ends and set the groundwork for next year’s premiere. Dubbed “The Winds of Winter,†Sunday’s installment will look to King’s Landing to see the outcome of both Cersei Lannister and Loras Tyrell’s trials — a storyline that many believe will come to a fiery conclusion.
Jaideep Shergill, Co-Founder Pitchfork Partners Strategic Consulting LLP is a PR and communication veteran and has always been contrarian about most things, drawing extraordinary amounts of irk and ire from industry peers. He can be reached at jaideep.shergill@pitchforkpartners.comÂ