MxMIndia

Tag: Cartoons

  • MxMIndia spoke to Nina Elavia Jaipuria, EVP & Business Head, Sonic & Nickelodeon (India), on the importance of an online presence, and how one kids' channel can differentiate itself from the others

    Need to change to be at par with Gen Y: Nina Jaipuria

    Nina Jaipuria

    By Meghna Sharma

     

    Gone are the days when children had to wait for morning or evening slots to watch their favourite cartoon characters. Today, they just have to browse through the various kiddie channels available to catch their favourite shows and characters anytime.

     

    The children’s genre has grown manifold in the past few years with more and more channels launching and bringing international as well as local shows to the Indian living room.

     

    So, how does one stay ahead in this race? And the answer is as simple as – move with the times. There is no doubt that the world is moving online. And the latest addition to the digital world are children who have grown up on ipads and smart phones. Hence, kids channels alone cannot survive on television alone. Most of them have a very active online avatar to attract their target audience.

     

    MxMIndia spoke to Nina Elavia Jaipuria, EVP & Business Head, Sonic & Nickelodeon (India) to find out why is it important for a channel in the kids genre to be online today, and how their channels are different from the rest.

     

    Why is it important for a channel to have an online presence today?

    There are a couple of reasons why one should be present in the digital platform. Firstly and foremost, it helps one to engage with its audience beyond television. It also helps the brand to enhance its presence. It gives a touch-feel-play experience so helps the audience know what the brand is all about. And lastly, it makes it a two-way communication wherein the brand can have a dialogue with its TG and know their likes and dislikes which further helps the channel to know and alter according to what the audience wants.

     

    For us, staying ahead is important and therefore, an online presence helps us create a ‘cool’ imagine among our TG. One has to keep on changing with time if they want to stay at par with Gen Y which is online almost 24/7.

     

    How can a channel benefit from this?

    In the past few years, the traffic online has increased and a majority of them are kids/youth. Therefore, an online presence gives us an idea about what children prefer today. Which indeed helps us to create a strong community based on their likes and dislikes. For a channel, it is important to have this two-way communication rather than seeing it as competition.

     

    What online activities does your channel indulge in? What is your online budget?

    Apart from various (100+) games and videos, we have a lot of contests on occasions like Friendship Day, Fathers Day etc wherein children can win gift vouchers. We also have e-cards as well as paint and print app. For the youth channel – Sonic – we have created a special section ‘TechnoSonic’ which features futuristic gadgets which interests a certain age-group. Also, we have a strong presence on social media where we want to build a strong online community!

     

    Most of our marketing budget is spent on BLT activities like school or mall activities. However, online presence is also very important for us. Thus, an appropriate amount is spent on the digital space as well.

     

    There have been debates about the need for kids’ channels to be more responsible about the content they show. What is your take?

    Yes, I do believe that broadcasters need to be careful about what is shown as children’s minds are easily influenced at that tender age. Therefore, we also believe in gaining the trust of ‘gatekeepers’ ie parents. Most of our children have a moral message like good’s win over evil. Even the language used is very safe.

     

    Even online, we monitor what is posted on our websites. For instance, if an offensive word is found, we delete it immediately. And regular offenders are even blocked.

     

  • In Freaking News, which appears every Tuesday and Friday, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    [MJR] TV leads to early onset of maddening rage

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Sometimes, television viewing can be seriously injurious to health. On Monday night, I tried to wade through TV discussions and only landed up with all the signs of early onset of maddening anger which soon developed into full blown rage. And I didn’t even venture further than two channels – Headlines Today and Times Now.

     

    On Headlines Today, the discussion was about the decision to ban all cartoons in textbooks. The guests were all having hysterics, the anchor – Rahul Kanwal – tried to say that vital airtime should not be wasted this way but the panellists were having none of it.

     

    This makes one wonder whether this format of prime time discussions on the news of the day is working any more. Night after night, we watch these so-called experts descend to the worst examples of civilised behaviour. Nothing fruitful is discussed as a result.

     

    One panellist could not even distinguish between a political cartoon and comic books. The first was not suitable for children apparently while the second were Archie comics and all that are fine she says. Clearly she has not read too many comics or cartoons – regardless of the unintended hilarity of her arguments. All I know is that her first name is “Kakoli”, since the channel never repeated it after that.

     

    Cartoonist Suthir Tailang also gave up after some time, the gentleman from the Bahujan Samaj Party just yelled incessantly, the comic lady continued with her routine and the anchor ended the whole farce.

     

    * * *

     

    On Times Now, we shifted to another dimension. Editor in chief Arnab Goswami decided that the government had to step in to save General VK Singh’s reputation as the army chief edges closer to retirement. This is in response to a Press Trust of India story about how some official in the Cabinet secretariat is apparently going to be blamed for leaking the army chief’s letter to the PM about India’s lack of defence preparedness.

     

    The panel was full of former army officers, both them and their moustaches bristling away about how the army was all good and everyone was all bad. Where do they get their accents from by the way? Sometimes they sound like London meets Ludhiana or Kota meets Kanada or more likely Billy Bunter in Bundelkhand. Forgive me, I’m just more used to Salman Khan’s Mumbai meets Manhattan. Do you think they teach accents at the IMA? I concentrated on their accents because it was impossible to understand what they were saying. But anyway, they all went off on their own tangents with India demanding answers and the country wanting to know every two minutes.

     

    The only voices of sanity were Kumar Ketkar, editor of Divya Marathi and KC Singh, former ambassador to UAE. But since they did not join in the general outcry to save the army chief, they were shunned. Ketkar was roundly castigated for suggesting that VK Singh was “hobnobbing with Anna Hazare”.

     

    In all this, no one asked (or dared to ask) why the government should save VK Singh’s reputation when the general himself had scant concern about it during his date of birth fight and especially after the spanking he got from the Supreme Court.

     

    Anyway, by this I had burst a few blood vessels and could not even watch Jon Stewart’s Daily Show to restore my equilibrium.

     

  • Cartoon cannot be promoting somebody, cartoon is always attacking somebody, says Hemant Morparia

    The Anchor: Hemant Morparia on 5 reasons why cartoons can be more lethal than text

    By Hemant Morparia

     

    1. Cartoons are about satire

    Now satire is something that all people in power fear, because the last thing they want is ridicule. So when they face ridicule from ‘janata’ which they are trying to rule over, that is the last thing they would want. For them to appear ridiculous to a reader is a deadly blow.

     

    2. Cartoon is about making somebody laugh

    Why does that person laugh… because he recognizes that there is some truth in that. So there is some truth being outed, a cartoon cannot be bought. You can have a paid media, there could be a planted story but a cartoon cannot be a plant. Cartoon cannot be promoting somebody, cartoon is always attacking somebody.

     

    3. There is an agreement

    There is an agreement between the cartoonist and the reader on the kind of implicit sense of truth. Reader seems to understand that the cartoonist is trying to say something which is true and correct.

     

    4. Cartoon is also something that cannot be edited

    You can edit a text piece but you can’t partially edit a cartoon. Whereas if it’s an article which has a lot of data, different points of views, and so on, that could still be a plant or not telling you some relevant things.

     

    5. Cartoon is an honest voice

    And the reader also knows it. Cartoon is far from being bought.

     

    Hemant Morparia is a well-known cartoonist. Other than a daily pocket for Mumbai Mirror, he toons for various Indian and international publications