MxMIndia

Tag: Abhinav Bindra

  • The industry is high performance-led. There is subjectivity, appreciation, rejection and dejection, notes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Mental Health & A&M

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Sanjeev KotnalaAt the end of May 2021, women’s tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open to preserve her mental health. As if taking a cue, many athletes in recent times have been vocal on the subject. Fortunately, now it is receiving the desired focus. We, at least for the celebrity and sports personalities, are now agreeing, ‘It is OK to be not OK.’ And celebrating their courage to be open about it.

     

    In the Indian context, we have read about the mental health issues of Deepika Padukone, Virat Kohli, Abhinav Bindra, Tiger Shroff, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Shah Rukh Khan and many others. Many may say that it is easier for them to be open about mental health than an average person.

     

    Mental illness, also called mental health disorders, refers to a wide range of mental health conditions – disorders that can affect your mood, thinking and behaviour in personal and professional life. Mental illness includes depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviours.

     

    Reports suggest elite athletes experience mental ill-health at a rate comparable to the general population in anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and sleep disorders. We now acknowledge these superhumans – high-performance humans are also vulnerable to mental health issues.

     

    Which makes me look inwards in the Marketing Advertising community. Just like #MeToo opened up flood gates. People shared their experiences.

     

    Are we going to see people from Marketing and advertising now coming out with their experiences and issues? Personally, I doubt.

     

    The industry has all the environment that could lead to mental health issues. It is high performance led. There is subjectivity. There is a swinging of fortunes in approval, appreciation, rejection and dejection. There are creative blocks that make people question their abilities. Then some push confidently even when they are way behind their benchmarks. Loss of business, shifting fortunes, impossibility to predict and control outcomes. The growth. The layoffs. The repeating iterations. The questions about capabilities, abilities and capacity of someone understanding the problem. Long working hours, no control on timelines and expected to be working beyond office hours add to the problem.

     

    Like me, many of you must have seen cases of people that we never rightly labelled as mental health issues. Because no one wanted to accept such a problem. Theek ho jayega. You will overcome it. Let’s drink to it. ‘Come on. Burn out. Recharge. Are some of the stock solutions offered by colleagues.

     

    I am not a doctor but, like every advertising marketing professional, an observer of life. And that makes me sure that sooner or later, we will be able to question behaviour and have a place for the proper counselling. Maybe the HR and the stakeholders in the industry could initiate a debate on it and think of possible policies to address it.

     

    Campaign did a research survey on the subject. Which told us 71% feel that their organisations haven’t taken any concrete steps towards actively reducing workplace stress. Employees claim they haven’t been receiving considerate timelines and are even unable to sign off for the day post 6 or 7 PM. Additionally, they are dealing with the pressures of coming to the office and are expected to be available over weekends.  Exchange4media did a story that told us that as an industry, we are opening up to it. Times Network-initiated #ActNow to spread awareness, normalise conversations around the issue and sensitise people to be responsive to the mental health needs of others. The business insider did a story on World Mental Health Day: How to address the challenges of overworking in an ad agency. Not enough. And we know the reality.

     

    I may have spoken about the Marketing and Advertising Industry as I am a part of it. But I will not be surprised that it is an omnipresent problem. Police, sales, Manufacturing, Bureaucracy, and students are included in the list.

     

    We need an ecosystem that does not treat it as a taboo subject. Time we are a lot more open and inclusive in our reaction and acceptance of the possibilities. Remember, It is OK, Not to be OK.

     

     

  • Every Thursday, Ranjona Banerji will write about a grouse. Either spewing venom or tongue-in-cheek

    [MJR] Wanted: sponsors to cover the Olympics!

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The biggest sporting event in the world (no, not the FIFA World Cup) is due to begin in a couple of months. So how many Indian newspapers are going to send someone to cover the Olympic Games in London? This is where Indian sportspersons are hoping to make a breakthrough after Abhinav Bindra won the first individual gold medal by an Indian in Beijing. The Indian hockey team did very well in the qualifiers, leading to expectations that they will shine again in a sport which has won us eight gold medals but no one in India really watches.

     

    So what’s the grouse? The reluctance of Indian newspaper managements to spend money on newsgathering. The Olympics are not just any old event. They represent an ideal – of human endeavour, of a global spirit and a desire to push back boundaries of achievements. Editorials will declaim with thundering authority about the significance of “citius, altius, fortius” but when it comes to actually reporting on the efforts to get there, everything depends on a “sponsor”.

     

    That is, a newspaper or journal will often only cover an event like this if the marketing department can get someone to cover its expenses. One can understand the reluctance in the days when foreign travel was prohibitive and foreign currency limited by the government (yes, I know it almost seems like we’re back in those times!) but in today’s world, depending on agency feed is nothing short of laziness and taking your reader for a ride.

     

    Yet strangely, in the olden days (that is, when I was young), the idea of “junkets” was anathema and people I know lost their jobs for accepting favours. Over the years, managements realised, “why pay for something when someone else can be convinced to do it”. This is why so many sports pages – like The Times of India’s for instance – are so full of “sponsored columns” that there is hardly any place left for actual news.

    One doesn’t know yet of course how many newspapers are going to go for the easy route to the Olympics, but one hears rumours…

     

    Meanwhile, the entire film journalism community appears to be in Cannes for the film festival, where given the quality of our cinema, almost nothing makes it even within shouting distance of a tin palm, let alone a golden one. But visits to Cannes are now de rigueur on the junket circuit, so no dip in the newspaper’s bank balance there. And credibility? Well, we stopped worrying about that a long time ago.