MxMIndia

Category: BLOGS

  • It was Christmas yesterday, and A N Chorrea brings you a list of gifts that the various media sectors (not including advertising) could do with from Santa

    The Anchor: 8 gifts that Indian media sectors could do with from Santa Claus

    By A N Chorrea

     

    Newspapers:

    Ethics: Getting rid of paid content. It may exist in sections of some publications like The Times of India and Mid-Day officially, but there are many which practise it on the sly. Nothing wrong with newspapers being run for profit, but don’t run to the government for DAVP ads and various concessions.

     

    Radio:

    Content: Getting rid of paid content which exists here too in the form of commercials coming under the garb of RJ mentions. Also, one could do with differentiating content other than the jockeys.

     

    Entertainment television:

    Ideas: Save a few shows on each of the GECs, there is not much of a choice between the various general entertainment channels. While one isn’t very sure of the case with the regional languages, perhaps a few fresh ideas may not be a bad idea.

     

    News television:

    Content: You need to look at the content on the Hindi and English channels very closely to know that all that’s said against news TV isn’t all untrue. While the old argument that news doesn’t necessarily have to be about politics holds, but often it’s stretched beyond imagination. The recent Zee News-Jindal case (and the consequent Broadcast Editor’s Association decision) also doesn’t speak too well for the genre.

     

    Digital media:

    Good content: It’s been the flavour of many seasons, but the content needs to get really compelling for people to befriend the digital mediums of web and mobile. The time is right, and advertisers are waiting!

     

    OOH:

    Order: Oooh, aaah, ouch! Among the first media sectors to get majorly affected by slowdowns, the sector needs some serious rethink on how to grow bigger and more robust

     

    Experential media:

    Science: There is no disputing the role of BTL and events in a client’s life, but the sector needs some quick order in the way it works. The practitioners need to move out from the roles of event managers into influencers of public behaviour!

     

    PR:

    PR: Yes, the PR sector needs some heavy duty PR to be taken more seriously by clients and the media. But for that some quality talent needs to make its way to the business.

     

    A N Chorrea is a senior industryperson writing under a pseudonym

     

  • The question on everyone’s mind is this: How will his retirement from ODIs affect the champ’s advertising career?

    Anil Thakraney: The challenge for Brand Sachin

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Okay, so Tendlya has finally decided to hang up his large boots. At least from the limited overs format of the game (though am certain his IPL ‘career’ will rock on, too much moolah at stake to let that one go). However, he still seems keen to play test cricket, though many (including me) believe he ought to have resigned from that too.

     

    Anyway, the question on everyone’s mind is this: How will his retirement from ODIs affect the champ’s advertising career? I think it will get hit big-time. For the simple reason that one-day cricket is where the crowds come in, it also allows a player to play a blazing inning. Advertisers would therefore be keener on this particular format. In any case I seriously doubt if at this old age Sachin will be able do anything spectacular in test cricket. All this therefore means there’s very little chance of bagging endorsement deals from here on. So then what can Sachin do to extend his brand franchise?

     

    Well, if he opts for the commentary box or if he turns into a cricket coach, that wouldn’t interest the advertisers one bit. Brand managers like to put their monies only on active players. This is the reason why ex-cricketers like Dravid, Ganguly and others have disappeared from the ads. Sachin’s role model therefore has to be Amitabh Bachchan. He needs to find a path which will either help him remain in the public eye, or the man is able to directly change lives. Just as Bachchan discovered KBC, Sachin needs to explore opportunities in that space. Or, since he’s already an MP, the newly minted politician can dive right into social work. As an example: The anti-rape campaign, which is on top of the agenda for the nation. That would help build the image of a hero who cares for the aam aadmi. That could also result in certain advertisers getting interested.

     

    The point is: Who’s advising the man these days? The right adviser will help Sachin extend his career for many more years (just like Big B). The wrong adviser will ensure Sachin becomes history as far as endorsement deals go. What is of no doubt here is that we are about to witness a terrific case study in human brand marketing.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Yet another cool ad from Nike. In my books, amongst brands that have managed to captivate the junta’s hearts and minds by selling powerful attitude, Nike ranks tops.

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hEzW1WRFTg[/youtube]
  • Ranjona Banerji salutes Times Now's Arnab Goswami as the most vocal defender of women's rights

    Ranjona Banerji: All Hail Arnab Goswami, the Dragon Slayer!

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The media behaves like a doggie when it gets a subject that it can really get its little teeth into. You know (or perhaps you don’t) the routine: dog finds scrap of paper, a sock, your homework, the dining table and decides it belongs to him or her. It then throws it about, growls at it, drools all over it, picks it up again, rips it a bit and then hides it in a secret place. Sometimes, if the object is a bone, the doggie will gnaw at for days and woebetide anyone who tries to take it away.

     

    That is how the media behaved with Abhijit Mukherjee, Congress MP and son of the President of India Pranab Mukherjee for his astonishingly sexist remarks about the female protestors that gathered in Delhi after that terrible gang rape of December 16. Once the clip of Mukherjee’s “highly dented and painted” phrase went viral on Youtube and social media on Thursday morning, could the TV channels be far behind? Here it is, in Bengali however: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmw0XBvTW78

     

    Mukherjee initially put up some resistance but that only made it worse and it was quite funny listening to him trying to answer Arnab Goswami’s question about whether beautiful women should not be allowed to protest or students should not wear make-up.

     

    By the evening however, Headlines Today told us that Mukherjee had got a rap on the knuckles from daddy and his sister was breathing fire at her brother’s foolishness anyway. So now Mukherjee was all contrite and woebegone as all he would say is that he was very sorry and he withdrew his remarks. Nidhi Razdan’s face as she tried to figure out what “dented and painted” meant was a scream. For the record, it is an expression commonly used by car workshops to advertise their services: They repair dents in cars and paint them. I have never, I confess, used it to describe women before.

     

    But it was on the Newshour that male chauvinism got its finest vanquisher. I have seen Goswami on women’s rights before and he is intractable and brooks no opposition. A finer champion of women’s rights I have rarely seen and I am not being snarky here. That strange man who is so popular on TV channels for some reason, Rahul Eshwar, stuck his foot in his mouth soon after the programme started. Goswami promptly stopped his chauvinistic regressive rubbish, told him he didn’t know what he was talking about and ignored him after that. He once more castigated Mukherjee for his denigration of women who by this time wouldn’t even look at the camera and soon ran away.

     

    Rahul Navrekar and he got into a side-splitting spat in which Goswami was at his sarcastic best. He made short shrift of Vani Tripathi of the BJP who would not answer his question about Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s sexist comments made four years ago about lipsticked and powdered women protesting on the streets after the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. The only people who got a sympathetic hearing from Goswami were Brinda Grover (who demolished all male superiority and political arguments with refreshingly old-style feminism), Umang Sabharwal (who started the Slutwalk which so upset Eshwar’s male sensibilities) and Roshan Abbas who said all the right things about gender equality.

     

    The Abhijit Mukherjee episode once again demonstrates to our politicians and other worthies that the technological revolution means that little is secret or hidden any more. You can’t run, you can’t hide and you have to be clear that sooner or later, that doggie is going to get you!

     

  • Ranjona Banerji reviews the coverage of the Delhi gangrape on news television and newspapers and gives her verdict on what worked and what didn't

    Ranjona Banerji: Arnab – the mascot for the new feminist movement?

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The protests and the aftermath of the Delhi gangrape continued to be top focus for television news and for some extent, newspapers as well. This included some amount of “soul-searching” on the media’s responses to the events as they unfolded, especially on Rajdeep Sardesai’s CNN-IBN. I found it most intriguing that on Sunday night, he included TV news in the category of “creative media”. Is that a Freudian slip or perhaps just an honest appraisal of the way TV news channels see themselves? Even if print journalists are sometimes accused of embroidering stories I cannot imagine a senior newspaper person admitted to “creativity”. Something of a bad word in my day but then that was a while ago.

     

    However, Sardesai did try to have a meaningful discussion on his channel’s “agenda for change” theme. Since there were no representatives from political parties, the discussion did not turn into a melee. CNN-IBN is sometimes more professional in the way it covers news than its competitors but it also seems afraid to take on a subject head on.

     

    Headlines Today continued with its somewhat breathless coverage, looking to create excitement and manufacture rage. Sometimes it is spot on and sometimes it remembers that is started as “smart news for smart people”. It can however be commended for the exposure it gave to the Shambhavi Saxena story – how Twitter was used to expose police arrogance.

     

    NDTV is a sort of schizophrenic channel trying to be sober and grown up sometimes and emotionally charged at others – especially when Barkha Dutt shows up. She was not on ‘We the People’ for some reason although she appeared to have been on Twitter in the weekend, judging from the number of retweets.

     

    Arnab Goswami wins hands down again for his reading of the pulse of the people and his championing of women’s rights. On Saturday – he had to make up for being absent on some key days – he once again took down the men on the channel who seemed to be sexist or who tried to obfuscate the issue with some political waffle. At this rate, he could be made the mascot of the new feminist movement which is emerging.

     

    **

     

    The Hindu took on the government and patriarchy in a front page edit on Sunday. Newspapers have taken this post-rape protest far more seriously than they took the Anna Hazare-Arvind Kejriwal led anti-corruption movement and with good reason. This protest may be smaller in numbers on the ground but it is about the repression of and violence to half of India’s population.

     

    All the columns in the Sunday Times – Swapan Dasgupta, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, MJ Akbar – took different looks at the protests but all had very telling insights. Sidharth Bhatia in Outlook examines at the year of protests and how and why they fell apart. Ayaz Memon in the Mumbai edition of Monday’s Hindustan Times reflected on how this was not a year to be proud of. Indeed.

     

    **

     

    Two things I could not understand. One is the need to give the Delhi gangrape victim a series of invented names, monickers, tags: Amanat, Damini, Nirbhaya and Braveheart, India’s Daughter and so on. It all sounds contrived, like an attempt to draw maximum tear value out of her death. The profusion of names and labels also confuses people and will lead to the victim herself being forgotten.

     

    The other is the self-congratulation by TV new channels on not showing the girl’s funeral. Please.

     

  • The creative director killed that one thing which makes Pidilite advertising shine: Entertainment. And that's nothing to laugh about

    Debrief: Fevikwik: 2012 ends on a low

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Well, sad to report that the last ad I review for the year 2012 didn’t leave me amused at all. Even though all that the protagonists do in the ad is keep laughing out loudly. In fact, that is the central idea in the new Fevikwik commercial.

     

    I watched a couple of TVCs, and in each two brothers are seen guffawing away. And being bumbling fools, they keep breaking things around them. Then they apply Fevikwik, and the mad laughter carries on. The core thought I guess is this: When you have Fevikwik around, there’s no worry over things smashing and crashing. And exaggerated laughter is used to jazz up the idea.

     

    Must say I am both, terribly disappointed and irritated. Disappointed, because this maha bore ad comes from the house of Pidilite, from whom we have come to expect superlative advertising. And irritated because the creators of this ad, in their excitement to be wacko, overlooked one very significant problem: It’s no fun at all watching two adult men continuously laughing, and laughing hysterically at that. While this approach does make the communication single-minded, the non-stop laughter makes it unbearable. In short, the creative director killed that one thing which makes Pidilite advertising shine: Entertainment. And that’s nothing to laugh about.

     

    Anyway, even as we end the year on a bad note, here’s hoping to see smashing work in the New Year. Work that will make us, the viewers, laugh.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilxRbt1T8s0[/youtube]

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 0 to 5): 1. Not funny. Not funny. Not funny.

     

  • Here's what I would like to see happen in the New Year

    Anil Thakraney: Badly mangta in 2013 – TV reporters who report, not incite. Freshness in papers. Controversy-free TV measurement. Fewer celebs in ads….

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Here’s what I would like to see happen in the New Year. These are random demands, in no particular order:

     

    1. Innovations and freshness in newspapers and magazines. For their own healthy future, editors need to stop recycling content already put out by the internet and television.

     

    2. Less juvenile chatter by radio jocks, and more music. Also, a limit on ads. Don’t kill the goose that already lays very few golden eggs.

     

    3. A little more objectivity in television debates. Is that too much to ask for? Perhaps it is.

     

    4. And some new voices, please? Quite tired of the same thakela faces, night after night.

     

    5. Less hysteria in the Hindi news channels. A pipe dream, but one lives in hope.

     

    6. No more stories of journos caught demanding money for news. Or canoodling with fixers and agents. Not ever again.

     

    7. TV reporters will report. Not incite mobs. Repeat. Report. Not incite mobs.

     

    8. A strong No 2 at Times Now.

     

    9. Unity amongst ad agencies. No bitching, only constructive meetings.

     

    10. More public service work from creative directors. Anti-rape campaign, anyone?

     

    11. Better creative work in the digital domain. It’s high time this happened.

     

    12. Controversy-free television viewership measurement study.

     

    13. No more hit-and-run journalism. Let’s leave that to Arvind Kejriwal. Hoping for sustained coverage of important stories.

     

    14. Scam-free ad award fests.

     

    15. Self-censorship in the media coverage. No one wants an external monitor.

     

    16. TV soaps will move at a quicker pace. And Bigg Boss will feature at least a few intelligent participants.

     

    17. At least a couple of reasonably good press ads.

     

    18. Fewer number of misleading ads. They give the entire ad world a bad name.

     

    19. Fewer celebrities in ads. More impetus on the idea.

     

    20. To break the monotony of political news, female news anchors to sex up. To get nicely ‘dented and painted’, as that moronic son of Pranabda would put it.

     

    Happy New Year! Cheers!

     

  • Questions on what happened in medialand that you’ll not find being raised elsewhere

    Which magazine’s review of ‘Satanic Verses’ lit the fire, according to Salman Rushdie… 12 Politically Incorrect Questions in the MxMIndia LookBack Quiz 2012

    Okay, if the announcement on Friday made you think we’ll have some explosive questions for you, you are in for some disappointment. However, this is a quiz with questions you’ll not find being raised elsewhere.

     

    1. Name the journalist whose exposes got former President Pratibha Patil to give up claims on land reportedly reserved for Defence Personnel in Khadi Cantonment near Pune?

    2. Which RediffusionY&R ad starring Sachin Tendulkar saw the BCCI asking the advertiser to pull it off?

    3. In September this year, this officebearer of a regulatory body expressed regret over a statement of last year rubbishing media people. Kaun?

    4. In what seemed to be an endorsement of the Jindal Steel and Power’s charges against the Zee News and Zee Business editors, this association of TV news editors chose to sack one of the editors from the primary membership of the body and as its treasurer. Name the body.

    5. What was the name of the apparel shop in Ahmedabad that opened in 2012 and drew international outrage?

    6. Which pre-release review of the book ‘Satanic Verses’ bearing the headline ‘AN UNEQUIVOCAL ATTACK ON RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM’ is said to have sparked off protests and the eventual fatwa on writer Salman Rushdie? Or, as he writes in his memoirs ‘Joseph Anton’, the match that lit the fire?

    7. Some months ago, Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta wrote about how a publication he worked for was referred to as ‘Islam Today’ and ‘Pakistan Today’ by its detractors? Which publication?

    8. What section of the Information Technology Act got a Pondicherry businessman arrested for reportedly posting messages termed offensive by Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti?

    9. Which senior journalist was refused a visa to Pakistan to travel with the delegation accompanying then foreign affairs minister SM Krishna?

    10. His anti-government cartoons led to his arrest and protests against freedom of expression even as not many cartoonists thought his lines were in good taste. Remember his name?

    11. Which South India-based newspaper group has been in the news over the termination of its IPL cricket team and a variety of other financial issues?

    12. And by far the biggest news of the Indian M&E sector was TAM and its principals – Nielsen and Kantar – being taken to court. This one’s a sitter: Name the widely own media biggie representing one of the defendants who got into warring NDTV through a series of interviews and company statements?

     

    Answers:

    1. Vinita Deshmukh. She wrote on Moneylife.in.

    2. The ad promoting the Sahara Q Shop

    3. Who else but Markandey Katju, Press Council of India chairman who said in an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN that he had a “poor opinion about most media people”.

    4. The Broadcast Editor’s Association (BEA)

    5. Hitler (with the Swastika!)

    6. An India Today review of the book ‘Satanic Verses’

    7. India Today’s Gujarati edition (Shekhar Gupta’s article: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/conspiracy-of-the-lazy-faithful/1047245/0)

    8. Section 66-A

    9. Praveen Swami, Resident Editor, The Hindu

    10. Aseem Trivedi

    11. The Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle

    12. Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP. Kantar Media is a part of WPP.

     

  • What a wasted opportunity! The makers of Snickers did two commendable things. And then they went ahead and blew it nice and proper

    Debrief: Snickers: Rekha ki vaat lagaa di!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Oh no! What a wasted opportunity! The makers of Snickers did two commendable things. One, to think of veteran movie star, the ultra reclusive Rekha. And two, to convince the lady to sign up for the first ad of her life. And then they went ahead and blew it nice and proper.

     

    This is the trash they’ve conceived: When a dude gets hungry, he starts carping like an aged heroine. (Sexist? I think so!). So, inside a moving car, when a chap is famished, he transforms into a crabby Rekha. Until he’s fed Snickers, after which he becomes ‘normal’ again. Another guy turns into a cranky Urmila Matondkar, haha!

     

    Now, the idea isn’t bad per se. That, hunger can change your mood drastically, is a promising thought. But the interpretation is quite silly, and it’s not even remotely funny. Also, they have made Rekha look bad, and that’s unforgivable. They should have watched the commercial Havells Fans made with the late Rajesh Khanna. Khanna was projected as the man he was perceived to be; larger than life, living in denial of his faded stardom and full of attitude. Which made the connect with that ad strong. This is what Snickers should have attempted with Rekha. Sadly, they haven’t even tried to capture her popular image of an enigmatic star. In this ad, anyone could have been cast.

     

    Anyway, I am hungry now, but will avoid Snickers. What if I turn into a fiery Mamata Didi? You’ve all had it then.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46BDzyoBSnY[/youtube]

    Rating: (On a scale of 0 to 5): 0. Poor rendition of idea. Rekha wasted.

     

  • A N Chorrea list six reasons why Arnab Goswami should be given the Bharat Ratna

    The Anchor: 6 reasons why Arnab Goswami should be given the Bharat Ratna

    By A N Chorrea

     

    1. He generates extreme emotions in his viewers: the man whom many love to hate and even more hate to love.

    2. He has a single-minded devotion to rid India of all its malaises

    3. His brand of journalism rubbishes all that one was taught in media school that as a journalist one ought to be neutral. Takes a position as a journalist like few others

    4. The more he damns his guests, the more they love him

    5. You can read him from his body language. He lets his body do his talking

    6. He shows his human side when he meets someone powerful: last year when he interviewed Raj Thackeray, he was soft and gentlemanly and let him off easily.

     

    A N Chorrea is a senior industryperson writing under a pseudonym

     

  • The Delhi tragedy should serve as a major turning point for us in the media. Despite all the good work, one thing we have lacked in so far is doggedness. We must demonstrate it this time

    Anil Thakraney: Media’s New Year resolution: Not to move on

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Make no mistake about this: Had the crowds not revolted and had the media not kept up the pressure, for sure the horrific Delhi rape case would have become just another sad statistic. The case would have languished in the courts for years and years, exactly what happens in most rape cases. In fact, the cops wouldn’t have demonstrated the urgency to nab the culprits.

     

    However, the real struggle begins now. As the crowds thin out, as other stories take centre stage, the rape case will turn into one more story to be covered. That is in the nature of the media. This must not be allowed to happen. Each one of us journalists, whatever be our field of specialization, must take a solemn oath to not take our eyes off this tragedy, and to keep the relentless pressure on till justice has been delivered to the dead girl and till real change happens in the laws and, more importantly, in their implementation. Till special courts are created all over the nation and till all rape cases get dealt with inside six months. This is going to be a long struggle and we must be prepared for it.

     

    In that sense, the Delhi tragedy should serve as a major turning point for us in the media. Despite all the good work, one thing we have lacked in so far is doggedness. We must demonstrate it this time, and it will become a precedent for the future. The government’s desire has and will always be that the media will forget about stories with time. We must show them that it will not happen on this occasion.

     

    What’s the fear? That the viewers and the readers will get bored with the continuous coverage of the same story? Well, let’s give it a shot to check if that will indeed happen, or if that’s an unfounded notion we in the media harbour. Perhaps the problem lies in our heads. To my mind, the Delhi rape must be used as a lesson to change the way we function. It should not be business as usual. We owe it to the women and to the children of this nation.

     

    Every single one of us in the media must make this change our New Year resolution. Personally, I have taken an oath not to ever move on from this issue. Even at the risk of boring you to death.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Yesss! Exactly my feelings, because India is swarming with stinky, sweaty people. Partly because of the weather, partly because of the over-crowding and partly because of poor self-hygiene. This is one desi ad accidently created abroad.

     

     

  • … but only the content format will change. The Anchor will now carry the One Big Ideas from the MxMIndia Annual 2012

    The Anchor: 4 reasons why the ‘MxMIndia’ Anchor is taking a Break…

    1. All good things need to take a break. So, while the Anchor will exist, the content format will change

     

    2. It’s not easy getting people to write the Anchor. Yes, it does require chasing several times.

     

    3. A N Chorrea, our anytime anchor-writer, is on a holiday. So what if he has ‘anchor’ in his name… even he needs a break!

     

    4. Starting tomorrow: Get set for the ‘One Big Ideas’ from industry captains… culled from the MxMIndia Annual 2012!

     

  • I am fully with the rest of the journalists who believe that Zee did the right thing. Even if the case is in court, the janata has every right to hear the man's version

    Anil Thakraney: Zee News’s coup

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    There are two distinct points of view on whether Zee News did the right thing with their one-on-one interview with the Delhi rape victim’s friend, who accompanied her on the bus. The Delhi cops are naturally pissed off and have threatened legal action against the channel. That’s because the cops came out quite pathetically in the said interview.

     

    Some media folks believe that Zee should not have carried this story. One, because the case is sub-judice and the friend’s (he’s the key witness) testimony in public may affect the trial. Two, they believe it wasn’t morally correct to exploit an injured victim for TRPs and make him relive the tragedy all over again, that too just a few weeks after it happened. While there might be a point in this line of thinking, I smell something burning out here. Because this was a journalistic coup for the channel.

     

    I am fully with the rest of the journalists who believe that Zee did the right thing. Even if the case is in court, the janata has every right to hear the man’s version. Because he had lived that very unfortunate situation, he knows better than anyone else on what exactly transpired that night. And what he said is pretty alarming. It was not just the criminals who did the rape victim wrong, the hangers-on who stood and did nothing and the cops who took their sweet time to react are also party to the girl’s death. These issues have to be exposed and discussed in public, because only then will real change happen. It won’t happen just by punishing the culprits.

     

    I also liked the way the anchor handled the interview. It was professional and to the point, minus the hysteria (unusual for a Hindi news channel). And the anchor very rightly kept away from the rape itself. In fact, the victim wasn’t discussed much, and this we must appreciate. All in all, full marks to Zee News. This was a much needed effort after the channel’s senior personnel had been accused of trading news for money on another story.

     

    And Zee News should ignore the nay-sayers. Every single media brand in this nation would have killed for this interview.

     

    ***

     

    PS: I am a little confused on why the media chose to keep the rape victim’s identity a secret long after she had passed away. This not only doesn’t make sense, it’s unfair to Pratibha Murthy, Nayana Pujari, Jyotikumari Choudhary and many others. And if you are wondering who these girls are, then that saddens me. It is the loss of public memory that one finds most depressing.