Here we are at it again: our awards for the most outstanding, albeit dubious, achievements in the year. Please do remember this is a fun feature that MxMIndia carries annually and the objective is to enjoy at the expense of others and ourselves.
The Sound and Light Has Gone From Our Lives Even If It Is Temporary Award
to Arnab Goswami
formerly of Times Now and not to be seen nor heard since November 15, 2016. The Nation Wants to Know when its favourite Shouter Outer will be back on air. The Nation definitely knows that we can Never Ever Never Ever Ever Never manage without him. The additional tragedy of the Silence of Arnab is the collapse of industries for ear plugs, anti-anxiety and hypertensive medicines
The Kate Moss Model of the Year
to Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India, for being the face of Reliance Jio and PayTM, a first in Indian history from the time of the Ramayana at least! However, he has also been the face of Clean India, Clean Ganga, Get an LPG Cylinder, Pay Your Taxes and every other government scheme so we are used to it but also not used to a Prime Minister being used by corporate India… O wait, right. Okay.
Is Less Really More Award
to Rahul Gandhi
for unleashing Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal’s earthquake on Narendra Modi and having to settle for an aftershock
We Shall Still Pretend We Are Not Journalists Award
to all journalists
who ignored the evidence presented by Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi on bribes taken by the PM when he was CM and other politicians as well.
Are we a News Channel or a PM PR Agency Award
to both India Today and NewsX
for being unable to decide between one prime time host and the next what to do with journalistic ethics and taking on the establishment.
Best (&Worst) Copycat Award
to NewsX
for trying so hard to be Times Now and not matching by either decibels or bombast.
Most Loyalty Points in the PM’s Reward Programme
to Swarajya magazine
for giving up the freedom inherent in its name to try and be as pro the BJP and the prime minister as it can, even more than the BJP’s own IT Cell.
How To Confuse Conspiracy Theorists Award
to CNN-News18 and the whole News18 group
for sometimes being pro-government and sometimes anti-government, even before demonetisation.
The King Midas Award
to Raj Nayak
He proved wrong all those those who thought he was inviting trouble upon himself by taking charge as President of the Advertising Club. Not only was Goafest 2016 a huge success, but one could well we see some old warhorses return to the platform in 2017.
The Republic of GroupM Award
to CVL Srinivas
Even as individual agencies rise and shine, in the last year-odd the holding entity, GroupM has gained much prominence in India with Srini at the helm.
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The ‘Main Bhi Arnab Goswami’ Award
to Navika Kumar
The new lead anchor on Times Now’s nightlies believes she can be another Arnab Goswami. Shout out loud, flared nostrils, but without even a quarter of the charisma her former bossman had.
The CM-turns-PM Award
to Saurabh Varma
The bosses in Paris believe only he could shore up the group’s creative fortunes in the country, so what if he’s the youngest of the CEOs. Varma was made CEO of Publicis Communications, the holding company of group agencies Leo Burnett, Publicis Worldwide & L&K Saatchi & Saatchi
Flipkart Best Shopper Award
to Ashish Bhasin
For picking up agencies left, right and centre and growing Dentsu Aegis Network to be the #2 media services network in the country. From what we hear, a few more agencies will get gobbled up soon.
The Lokesh Rahul Best Debut Award
to Rahul Joshi
for a fantastic performance interviewing the Prime Minister on CNN-News18. The interview helped change the fortunes of the channel in terms of ratings, and for someone who we don’t (ever) see on telly, this was a super start.
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The Adhuna Akhtar/Bhabani Award
to DNA
The newspaper has undertaken the maximum number of image makeovers in its 11 years of existence
Let’s Prove We Are Patriots by Attacking Journalists Award
to the lawyers of Patiala House Court
for forgetting about that Constitutional stuff they had apparently never heard of.
More Power to Plagiarists Award
to firstpost.com and to other media houses
for deciding that our thieves are our thieves and yar boo sucks to journalism, integrity and such frivolous stuff.
Head in the Sand Award
to all those who still insist that Opindia.com is not a PR exercise run by the BJP.
And, finally, Lifetime Achievement of the Year Award
to Demonetisation
for reminding some journalists that they are journalists, unleashing more misery on India than any other scheme in recent times, creating more Modi jokes in 50 days than we have seen in two-and-a-half years and making everyone equally unhappy except terrorists, the corrupt, counterfeiters and digital payment companies.
And, just one more:
The Narendra Modi More Out of the Country Than In Your Own
to MxMIndia
There have been charges that we are concentrating more on our custom content business than our own. We’re correcting it. But will ensure this award goes off the shelf soon.
Contributed by Ranjona Banerji, Pradyuman Maheshwari and a few readers who have requested anonymity