MxMIndia

Category: BLOGS

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews nightly news and the morning papers in Freaking News

    When the media got it right

    By Ranjona Banerji

    The death of Apple founder and innovater extraordinaire Steve Jobs dominated TV headlines on Thursday and front pages of newspapers on Friday morning. Jobs acquired cult status soon after he launched the Mac in 1984 and bucked the giant corporate hold on the world of the computer. At the time, stories about him and his band of doping, way out anti-corporate merry geeks abounded. Soon after, he left Apple to found Pixar animation and also made his mark there. His return to Apple in the late ‘90s however was to a different world and it was here that his old reputation melded with his new creations and made Jobs into a giant icon. It can very safely be said that the media control of world opinion played a massive role here. From a small – if highly respected – cult figure for a few fans and aficionados, Jobs and Apple became highly sought-after bastions of the tech world. Ironically, his co-founder Steve Wozniack can currently be seen on BBC Entertainment, on an old series of Dancing with the Stars, a programme which specialises in making B and C grade celebrities dance.

    GK Chesterton’s aphorism that journalism “largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones Dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive” however does not apply here, as it so often does. Sometimes the media does get it right and undoubtedly Jobs was a pioneer and a rebel. His untimely death from pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 may instead prove the other wise saw that those whom the gods love, die young.

     

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    Dassera being a holiday, the rest of the TV day was dependent on the never-ending fascination with the Omar Abdullah mysterious custodial death case, the bail application of Gujarat cop Sanjiv Bhatt and the latest leg of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement in Hisar, Haryana. Unlike TV, newspapers are now openly telling us about Hazare’s connections to the RSS and BJP, bolstered by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s declaration in his Dasera speech that his organisation did support Hazare’s fast at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi in August. The fact that Hazare and his team – Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi – are on an anti-Congress campaign in Hisar also makes the connection clear. But where TV continues its blind hero worship, newspapers continue to do their job and present all sides and angles.

     

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    A little spat developed between Infosys mentor Narayanamurthy and India’s most populist writer Chetan Bhagat when the former criticised IIT students. But much as the media tried to go to town on this, it soon became evident that public interest was limited. Narayanamurthy took it no further and it is possible that the rest of India has other things to bother about.

  • PR agents are often abrupt and rude. Indisciplined too, perhaps influenced by their bosses. And their egos massively inflated because they believe they ‘own’ the stars.

    Anil Thakraney’s Hard Knocks: A problem called film publicists

    Part of my work involves doing big, detailed interviews with movie stars. And meeting these mighties is often a tedious process. Interviews get cancelled at the nth hour, or the star will arrive hours late for a pre-arranged meet. And therefore instead of it being a routine story, the ritual turns into an exercise in testing one’s patience. Of keeping your cool. Most filmi journos, for whom actors and directors constitute a regular beat, have reconciled with the waiting game.

     

    Though I must mention that an interview with Amitabh Bachchan starts sharp at the appointed time. On the occasions I have met him, I never have had to twiddle my thumbs. So if the ultra-big and the ultra-busy Big B can be so disciplined, it makes you wonder about the younger stars. Perhaps they get some jollies out of making journalists wait? Or they are simply disorganized folks, and haven’t been brought up to value other people’s time.

     

    And what makes things worse is the role played by the star’s PR agent or Publicist (or whatever fancy title they’ve acquired these days). Except for very few senior agents, who are a little more professional, I have often had rotten experiences with these front men and women. The job of representing movie stars (and close proximity to them) seems to give these people a false sense of self-importance. And the boom in the media, which also means a boom in celeb journalism, has resulted in too many journos chasing these PR agents with interview requests. And this has made the fronters feel even more powerful.

     

    The PR agents are often abrupt and rude. Indisciplined too, perhaps influenced by their bosses. And their egos massively inflated because they believe they ‘own’ the stars. As journalists, most of us have learnt to live with these ‘obstacles’ enroute to meeting the actors. Some junior reporters even indulge them, so that interview requests don’t get turned down, and gossip about rivals keeps pouring in. And the show goes on, as it should.

     

    But a few of them have gotten so drunk on their access to celebrity, they refuse to leave the room even AFTER the interview begins. They continue to hover around like a nasty presence, like ghoulish shadows. Completely ignoring a basic principle of journalism: That the best interviews (at least for the print medium) happen one-on-one, and it’s in their interest if the discussion with their bosses is insightful and meaningful. I have had PR agents politely evicted from rooms, but some die-hards still won’t get it. They’ll hang around despite being ticked off.

     

    I hope one day we see some degree of professionalism come into this job. So that meetings with film stars can be a joyful ride. And not a pain in the you-know-where, which it often is.

     

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    PS: My best film interviews, in my own judgment, have so far been with Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan… in both cases there was no middle person involved. And with Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor, because their agents were wise enough to leave us alone.

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews nightly news and the morning papers in Freaking News

    So near, but yet so far

    In one of those delightful ironies which make life interesting, Karan Thapar’s The Last Word on CNNIBN featured three newspaper editors to discuss the question of whether the media did enough to get details about Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s illness.

    Here you had four journalists discussing “the media” as if it was some animal in a zoo, with whom they had only spectator contact. N Ram of the Hindu, Kumar Ketkar of Divya Marathi and Chandan Mitra of The Pioneer could not explain to us what their own newspapers had done to inform their readers about Gandhi’s mysterious illness. What is this “the media” they are talking about? The media is them.

    Instead they discussed a colonial hangover, the love or Jawaharlal Nehru, respecting laws of privacy, fear of Sonia Gandhi and a host of reasons for the media’s failure. This would have been okay if the panel was not made up of three working editors of three newspapers.

     

     

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    The television media’s insistence that J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah answer questions about the custodial death of a National Conference worker lead to a almost-funny situation where anchor extraordinaire, Arnab Goswami of Times Now, was rendered silent by Abdullah’s belligerence. As Goswami demanded answers (for the sake of India), Abdullah asked some pertinent questions about the way investigations are conducted in India, which left Goswami lost for words, looking down and away from the camera.

    Team Anna representative Kiran Bedi was in a similar situation on Times Now later when she could not answer a simple question from Kumar Ketkar: if Team Anna claimed that the whole country was with them why were they so frightened of getting a two-thirds majority vote in Parliament? Bedi had no answers for Ketkar or indeed for Goswami or the analysis put forward by Crest’s political editor Arati Jerath.

     

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    The lack of depth of TV is exposed again and again whenever there are no dramatic events to follow. Print journalists have to come to the rescue every time – whether on TV or in print – to provide perspective and analysis.

    This constant desire for drama and old-fashioned Indian style “jatra” at prime time sadly shows up TV on the slow days.

     

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    Newspapers are luckier of course because the front page presents whatever the editorial team considers to be the bog news of the day. It is a boon to decide what to choose when you don’t have to look for the loudest guests and try and save the nation at every given moment.

    The big problem for newspapers – especially in English – is the same one which irks Infosys mentor Narayana Murthy about the standard of students at IIT: bad English and bad grammar. Chetan Bhagat can perhaps get away with it, but newspapers should not.

    Examples of boo-boos big and small are welcome.

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews nightly news and the morning papers in Freaking News

    Time to take the government head on

    Ranjona Banerji

    Much as it was interesting to watch members of Team Anna squirming and dissembling to explain their foray into electoral politics on an anti-Congress campaign or hearing the speculation about whether LK Advani’s yatra is about him trying to become PM again, more attention needs to be paid to the government’s attempts to control the electronic media.
    Much as TV news channels can be annoying, irresponsible, depth-less and sometimes sense-less, they are an integral and important part of the media and have to be protected against government interference. The government would not dare to cancel newspaper registrations for five transgressions of some standards law; there is no reason why TV should be subjected to such harsh and illogical treatment.
    Both the print and broadcast media need to take the government head on. Since so much media dirty linen, soul-searching and hand-wringing is now done in public there is no reason why the public should be left out of this discussion. Do we need the government to control the media and decide on transgressions? Do we need better or more stringent internal control? How far does freedom of expression go (as far, it must be said, as various Indian laws allow)? Why aren’t FM radio channels allowed to carry news broadcasts? Do we want to go back to the days of an exclusive government-controlled broadcast media?  The media may be a pillar of democracy but it is not an organ of the government. It has to be independent and critical.
    It is imperative that these issues be discussed. The Times of India carries an edit on the subject but that is insufficient. There needs to be a larger debate.

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    The death of ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh – who had been in a critical state for two weeks – was covered comprehensively by both TV and print. Attempts were made to make the obits objective rather than merely hagiographic, which is amazing when you consider the completely adulatory writings which followed the death of Apple’s Steve Jobs, a man, it appears, who could do no wrong or at least be held accountable.

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    The Champions League came and went and almost passed under the radar. This is a new for cricket in India and it is probably down to fan fatigue, overkill and India’s miserable performance in the UK tour. At any rate, it proves that hype can only take you so far and sometimes, somewhere, reality sinks in. And apparently, no one cares.

  • The Indian mediascape is lined with ads that make false/exaggerated promises. The dubious list is long.

    Anil Thakraney’s Hard Knocks: The damned misleading adverts

    So, finally the government has woken up on the issue. No less than the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has gotten into the act. The plan is to come up with policies that can control the malaise of misleading ads.

    Well, to be honest this should have been done a long time ago. The Indian mediascape is lined with ads that make false/exaggerated promises. Health drinks that will make your child grow tall. A magic lotion that will sprout hair on that bald pate. Cars that give you outstanding mileage on Indian roads (wow!). The dubious list is long.

    Yes, the ideal solution is self-regulation. But it will never work, there are just too many brand managers ready to play mischief for that extra market share point. Therefore unfortunate though it is, we do need some powerful and implementable regulation in force so that consumers don’t get fleeced.

    However, and this is the crux of the problem: More than policies, we need hard punishment delivered to the offenders. Because penalties for misleading ads are very light in India, it becomes tempting to cheat. In the US, consumers can file for huge sums in damages if a brand has lied to them. And they do often get rewarded with the big bucks, and quite swiftly too. This ensures that brand managers think many times before misleading their consumers. In India, harassed grahaks have to do a lot of legwork at consumer courts; and even when the ruling is in their favour, the compensation is a pittance.

    So let’s have the regulation in place by all means. But there needs to be severe penalties spelt out to discourage mischievous marketers.

     

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    PS: Ads for cars have seen a sudden surge; almost every other commercial is for a gaadi these days. Guess sales are down because of massive hikes in price of petrol and diesel, and there’s a bit of panic in the auto companies. But instead of offering cash discounts and other usual freebies, why don’t they offer schemes like ‘Free 10 litres petrol every month for one year’. That’s actually just Rs 9,000, but it could strike a chord with a junta reeling under murderous fuel price hikes.

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews nightly news and the morning papers in Freaking News

    Shock & Amusement

    Ranjona Banerji

    It was a very amusing day yesterday in TV land. First, LK Advani’s luxury bus got stuck under a bridge. By the way it takes a great stretch of imagination to call a luxury bus a “rath”; if they want to evoke Mahabharat-type chariots of fire images they should at least have some accompanying horses (not horsepower) and some of those metallic swan wings you see in Indian small towns on carts that are all-in-one marriage bands.

    But the drama of the day was provided by poor Prashant Bhushan, Supreme Court lawyer, core group member of Team Anna and all-purpose activist. As he was about to give an interview to Times Now, a group of men walked into his chambers at the Supreme Court and proceeded to beat him up, with the cameras rolling.

    The images are shocking and whoever saw it was very distressed. Times Now shared its footage with everyone else so there was universal shock and horror at this sort of uncivilised hooliganism. There was some confusion over who these goons actually were – Bhushan said that one told him he was from the Sri Ram Sena, and then the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena took “credit” for beating him up. Bhushan’s “crime” was to suggest that the army should leave Jammu & Kashmir, the Armed Forces Special Protection Act should be scrapped and if no other solution can be found to the Kashmir question, a plebiscite should be held. These views, according to all these Senas, are distinctly anti-national, thus justifying the attack.

    Different TV channels took different approaches. NDTV decided not to speak to the perpetrators so as not to encourage them, CNNIBN took a similar stand, Headlines Today and NewsX immediately went out and found them and Times Now at first did not make it clear that all these Senas were connected to the Sangh Parivar but pussyfooted around. Then as the night progressed and Arnab Goswami got more into it, he revealed that some of the attackers were former members of the BJP youth wing.

    The subject dominated TV debates and the BJP and RSS spokespersons sputtered their way through the debates. The most amusing of all was Bhim Singh of the Panthers, who had a peculiar faux Brit-solid Punjabi accent who talked to himself through the programme. The upshot was that Bhushan’s views on Kashmir were anathema to them but they were forced – on account of the public outrage – to condemn the violence. It’s a fine line and they were called out on it several times.

    This largely meant that Advani and his bus were given cursory attention.

    The other issue was the very clear links between the RSS and Anna Hazare’s movement with an intriguing debate on why both the RSS and Team Anna were on the defensive about it.

     

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    By comparison, it must be admitted, the morning newspapers were decidedly dull. In Mumbai, a huge thunderstorm took the front page. One main accused being acquitted by the Delhi high court in the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar added another twist to a very strange case.

    Even the Bhushan story got short shrift (perhaps there was nothing left to say after TV had milked it). Of course, newspapers did carry editorials bemoaning our uncivilised response to unpleasant opinions. Well, what else can they say?

     

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    Vijay Mallya’s sale of a chunk of his Force 1 shares to Subroto Roy and Sahara was the other big story everywhere. After the smiling pictures of all have run their course, perhaps we need to see some stories on why Mallya is selling so much?

     

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    Shah Rukh Khan dominated most TV channels after 10 pm – publicity for something or the other – including a long interview with Barkha Dutt. Goswami continued with saving the nation and did not get down to such frippery stuff – doubt if he ever does. He did however end his prime time show with a demand that Anna Hazare come clean on his links if any with the RSS. Interesting.

  • The report that Amitabh’s still-to-be-born grandchild is likely to be a boy was setting the country back to the dark ages

    Hard Knocks: No superstitions please!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    The Times of India Mumbai’s colourful supplement, Bombay Times, is not something you read. At least I don’t. It’s a fun thingy one usually glances through. Especially with all the, er, oomph on display.

     

    However, cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle noticed something extraordinary in their issued dated October 12, and immediately tweeted about it. (Harsha engrossed in BT? Hmmm.) The paper reports on its cover that Amitabh Bachchan’s still-to-be-born grandchild is likely to be a boy. And this stunning forecast was given to them by a numerologist called Sanjay Jumaani. Harsha tweeted this: “i do hopebombaytimes realise they are promoting blind faith and irrationality by putting “numerologists” on their front page.”

     

    He is absolutely right, of course. And this is something newspapers should be very careful about. Already some of the vernacular news channels are super busy propagating myths about snake women, angry demons and other frightening creatures… in their lust for TRPs… and the last thing we want is the English press to be doing ditto. Not only will such an article result in a longer queue outside Mr Jumaani’s door, it will have more parents rushing to fake babas and other charlatans to predict the sex of their unborn child. In fact, these crystal ball gazers will become a threat to the livelihood of illegal gender test clinics!

     

    Guess it was an editorial error of judgment on the part of Bombay Times. Whether they admit to it or not. But it must serve as a pointer to the rest of us in the media. One of our jobs is to move the nation forward by creating awareness and carrying out sharp analysis. And not to set it back into the dark ages by promoting superstitions. The vernacular channels are already doing a fine job of it. Let’s leave it to them.

    PS: Chanced upon this outstanding international Coke ad. This is the sort of work they should be doing inIndia. And not that ridiculous ‘Brrrr’ stuff.
    [youtube width=”500″ height=”300″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dHOzw5KSlE[/youtube]
  • Ranjona Banerji reviews nightly news and the morning papers in Freaking News

    The Empire seems to be wobbling other stuff standard

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    This is a mini review, as I look forward to the weekend and all the creativity which newshounds are forced to display. Cooking shows and endless movie stuff is the usual fare on TV, long features and short forays into the unusual are on the menu for newspapers.

    Meanwhile, the Times of India and Economic Times appear to have great glee in the Guardian expose on the Wall Street Journal’s dodgy circulation game – buying back unsold copies in some transatlantic transactions.  You have to feel sorry for Rupert Murdoch; the Empire seems to be wobbling. Perhaps India’s biggest newspaper group is sending a warning to NewsCorp with regards to its India intentions?

    The fact that Blackberry has started working again may end our global hysteria with different telephones and their features and failures. CNN however did put a hilarious clip about one of its staffers having a bit of a hissy fit on the stories they were missing because of the BB collapse at a news meeting.

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    The fact that members of the Sri Ram Sene or Sena and Bhagat Singh Kranti whatever beat up Anna Hazare supporters in Delhi seems to be a clear indication that they are looking for cheap publicity. But what a way to become famous!

     

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    The fact the Information and Broadcasting ministry has had to issue a clarification about its licence-cancelling law is only a minor victory. The battle to stop government control of the media has to continue.

     

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    There is a cricket match on today. Will the media turn all its attention there or will corruption, law and order, terrorist attacks continue to dominate? Hmmmm…

  • I really have a bad feeling about the so-called India’s most expensive film Ra One, and its debacle will hurt the SRK brand considerably.

    Anil Thakraney: Brand SRK needs help

    Celebrities are brands. And just like detergents, condoms, noodles and cars, they need to build and nurture their brand image. Because that’s what ultimately decides their performance in the market place. People like to be associated with desirable brands. And that’s also the reason advertisers like to associate their brands with celebs. To have the values of the celeb brand rub off on their own brands.

     

    When I examine how Shahrukh Khan has been going about building his own brand of late, it kind of confuses me. Clearly the actor isn’t really thinking out here. Let’s first study his movie brand. Instead of competing with Aamir Khan, and experimenting with new forms of cinema, he seems to have made it a mission to target Salman Khan. Perhaps in reaction to the success the latter has enjoyed with his recent mindless action films. SRK is now taking his brand into the ‘Mine is bigger than yours’ space. Completely ignoring his own core brand strengths, which is the soft, vulnerable, caring, sensitive, romantic persona… the image that endears him to his fans… and is now trying to compete with a macho star on values alien to him. I really have a bad feeling about the so-called India’s most expensive film Ra One, and its debacle will hurt the SRK brand considerably.

     

    Next, his choice of brand endorsements and his performances in them. You’ll notice glaring fault lines here too. Not only is there no attempt at being discerning, which once again Aamir Khan is, SRK agrees to endorse just about anything that comes his way, and acts the same in every commercial, convinced the buyers will buy into whatever nonsense he does on the screen. Frankly, it’s embarrassing to watch him in ads for Hyundai i10, Linc Pens, Videocon and many others. There’s another cringeful ad he’s done with wife Gauri (it’s so silly, can’t even recall the brand name). Guess baniyan and chaddi brands are next up. If this continues, and his movie career stagnates, SRK will find the going quite difficult.

     

    Celebs, like all brands, must fiercely guard their value. So that it remains powerful, relevant and enduring. The hit-and-run approach won’t work. Guess SRK badly needs a brand manager.

     

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    PS: Watch this brilliant ad from Pro Infirmis, a Swiss organization that supports handicapped people. THIS is the way to use emotion in advertising. A big hug for the creator of this advert.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”300″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFWr-CKMWGY[/youtube]

     

  • Every corporate has the right to decide where it parks its monies. But in Sahara’s case, the F1 investment seems a bit out of character. Almost like a ‘wannabe’ decision, so to speak.

    Anil Thakraney: No Sahara for hockey

    Must say I am quite confused why the Sahara Group would want to invest in Formula 1, an extremely niche, up market, Page 3 sport. Sahara, at least to my mind, has always had the image of being the aam aadmi’s organization, and their association with Indian cricket for all these years is par for course. And suddenly, out of the blue, they tie up with Mallya’s UB Group, and invest a whopping $100 million in the F1 team.

    Yes, every corporate has the right to decide where it parks its monies. And I can understand Mallya’s interest in F1, not just as an extension of his own flamboyant, high profile personality, but because of all the booze brands he owns. However, in Sahara’s case, the F1 investment seems a bit out of character. Almost like a ‘wannabe’ decision, so to speak. How much value they’ll eventually get out of the association remains to be seen. And am not sure if Sahara will acquire the image they probably desire.

    But the real pity is this: One sport that’s crying out for serious investment in India is hockey. Not only is it our national game, it’s a sport that connects with the masses. It may be dying because of little support from the corporate sector and the sports associations (the players have to demand meager prize monies when they win big tournaments!) but it’s still the aam aadmi sport. And this is where a company like Sahara ought to have shown interest. Not just for noble reasons, but also because they can own hockey, promote it, and make it their own. And capitalize on it once the popularity grows again. In any case hockey, in terms of branding, connects well with Sahara’s image. (By the way, I am aware the group has pitched in with prize monies on occasion for the hockey players but it’s not the same thing as owning the sport.)

    The hard truth is this: US$100 million may have been invested. But F1 in India will always be perceived as a UB Group event.

     

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    PS: Must read. An open letter to Barkha Dutt by a blogger. Good points on why social media needs to be taken seriously.

     

    Link: http://marchingonthesand.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/open-letter-to-barkha-dutt/

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews nightly news and the morning papers in Freaking News

    English channels slipped on Kejriwal attack

    By Ranjona Banerji

    Tuesday evening demonstrated just how far Indian television has to go when it comes to simple reporting. Around 6 pm, Arvind Kejriwal, key member of Team Anna, has a slipper thrown at him at a rally in Lucknow. The English news channels had to borrow the feed from others, fair enough. But instead of concentrating on what exactly happened – there was evident confusion at the site – they promptly started asking other members of Team Anna for their views. The Team members were as clueless as the poor viewers, since we were not told exactly what was going on. Switching to Hindi channels was a major relief since they decided on reporting first and comment later.

    Of course, it was not till the morning papers arrived that we had a clear picture. The who, what, why was set down in print and the comment was minimal. Also, having teased us with running text about cracks in Team Anna, the channels got carried away by the slipper-throwing and forgot all about that.

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    BS Yeddyurappa got the full scorn of the media as he rushed from hospital to hospital to avoid stepping into a prison cell. This is hardly surprising and it is interesting to see eminent panellists openly laughing at the antics of our high-up-theres. Either the channels have got tired of our permanently outraged usual “experts” or someone in the dial-an-expert department is looking for variety. I never heard Mohandas Pai say a word in the Times Now discussion on the former Karnataka chief minister’s health problems but he laughed constantly. Renuka Choudhury was her usual acerbic self.

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    The Occupy Wall Street movement is now getting good coverage in Indian newspapers and the business and corporate community in India is also responding. Of course that could be fear that they will feel a similar backlash. Ever ones to take responsibility, several felt that graft was a bigger problem that corporate greed in India. Yeah sure.

     

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    Publicity for the upcoming Formula 1 race in Delhi is one full swing and newspapers and TV channels tripped over themselves to show us exactly the same stuff as “exclusive”. Let’s watch a bit to see if F1 will overtake cricket in this country.

     

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    Brand Equity on Wednesday carried an interesting article on the new Levis (Go forth) and Nokia (Epic Dramas) ads, which look at the problems of being young with an edgy feel to them.

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    The news that the Maharashtra state Election Commission will be tracking paid news for the upcoming elections might serve a warning to media houses that they are being watched. Which in this instance is not a bad thing.

  • Honda Brio: Not a Love Story (with apologies to Ram Gopal Varma!)

    Anil Thakraney’s Debrief: All you need is…

    The Honda guys have finally realized there’s an aam aadmi in the Indian market. So they’ve launched a hatchback called Brio, and it’s affordable. (Jazz, their other hatchback, is much too ridiculously priced… one can buy a nice sedan at Jazz’s price point.)

     

    The positioning for Brio is rather interesting… ‘Brio loves you back’. The commercial features a guy and his girl romancing. At the same time, the bugger also romances his Brio. This love-all saga goes on till the poor guy discovers his lover has been cheating on him. But instead of burying himself in booze, he returns to his car. Why? Well, because as the ad says, Brio loves him back!

     

    Despite the fact that the desi middle class doesn’t buy cars for love… they buy them mainly for economy and resale value… I think the concept of love does have potential. But the execution messes things up, because it’s a convoluted tale. The ad has to establish love between the two human beings. Simultaneously runs the story of the chap’s love for his car, and this requires many car shots to be showcased. And in this dual love story, things get rushed through, the cutting is too fast, and the victim is emotion. And what’s love without emotion?? You only see a mish-mash of many visuals. To make things worse, the video don’t sync well with the languid, easy paced background score.

     

    Bottom-line: Promising idea let down by a not-very-smart script.

     

    [youtube width=”450″ height=”250″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQJ4OOupGHE[/youtube]
    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 1.5. Didn’t feel the love.

     

    Anil Thakraney’s ad review column DeBrief appears twice a week.


     

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