Will she ever come back?

She was a happy go lucky girl. Full of life and exuberance. A girl who always wore a smile on her face, who always greeted people with a smile and a friendly hello! A brilliant cook, a graceful dancer, a caring daughter, a loving elder sister. She was everything that made her so special. But then, SOCIAL MEDIA happened…!

Like every new toy amuses a child, she got amused. But the only difference was, she never got bored of her new toy. In fact, her amusement kept on increasing with every passing day. She started spending hours in chatting with her long lost school friends. But sadly it made her forget about her parents sitting next to her, waiting for their turn to come.

The inventor had his good reasons to create SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM. But it was her fault that she carried away with it. Her friends taught her how to use it, but sadly no one taught her neither her friends that, where to stop!  The platform created to share knowledge, make worldwide friends and to bring the world closer, distanced her from the real world.

She is lost. Social Media has become her world. Her home. Her everything. We need to bring her back to the real world. The world where people Likes her for the person she is, where people Shares love, where people Comments for her generosity, where morning rises with tweeting of the birds not beeping of a cell phone. But the biggest question is, “Will She Come Back?”

          

If no one reads, then why do we write?

Don’t write so much! Write it short! Keep it simple and precise! Who’ll read such a long copy? Why write so much? These doubts and suggestions land me up with another set of questions, do people actually read ads or they just see visuals? It’s like asking, who came first egg or hen?  Answers are many, but conclusion ZERO!

The war between copy and visual is never ending! If it’s the visual that is going to take the cake, then why writers put so much effort to write in the first place. I’m sure these questions crossed every writer’s mind at some point of the time. As in an adagency every artist craves for something above the material aspects. We’re always looking for something more, that pat on back, that well done, that smile on readers’ face, creative satisfaction that brings change.

They say a picture says more than 1000 words. But if you ask me, a word creates 1000 pictures in mind. Different people interpret words in their own way. Like when I say LOVE, some of you will bring out the red rose that you have in your diary, some of you will think of your little toddler who’s waiting for you back home, some of you will remember the Aloo Paratha that your mother makes…!

In short, advertising is a creative agreement between Visual and Copy. Sometimes a visual drag the reader to headline; sometimes the headline brings him in the ad, in both ways the remaining element acts as a supporter. It need not be a long copy or an out of the box visual, just a simple piece of writing with an attractive visual is enough to take the reader on a journey that ends with him urging to own the product.So when next time your creative bud craves for a masterpiece of advertising, do ask yourself, I’m writing a creative piece of ad but is that enough?

The World of Advertising Exceptions

I get up every morning by 7 a.m. I take 8 hours sleep. I don’t have insomnia. I don’t have moustache, beard, or spikes. And I guess a girl with moustache and beard won’t look that appealing too.(kindly give a pause to your wild imagination.) I don’t smoke or drink. I hang out with my friends on every weekend. Yes, I have two days off on every alternate week.

By now you must have made your mind to close the article as you’re surely not here to read about my daily routine. I know it’s kind of boring too, but I don’t understand if the routine is so boring, why do we follow it so religiously?? And above all of it, I am not Rekha, Madhuri, Kareena or Alia, a celebrity whom you like to follow or read about. But maybe the next line will drag you back in the article. I’m from the industry, which has given Prasoon Joshi, R. Balki and many more such legends to the Bollywood, legends that are making their mark and creating difference.

I am from the advertising industry. An industry which is known for its creative work and with that also known more for people with the funky looks (girls with colored streaks, boys with funky specs, trendy  haircuts, and so on…), habits (smoking to release pressure, being in pressure all the time, drinking in sadness and drinking to give company to a friend in his sadness…) and behaviors (sleeping during the day, giving company to owls at night, meeting family on national holidays…). But this list comes with an asterisk as these could be worse if the deadlines are near.

Even I had the same impression about the industry. But it changed completely when I got to work in Thin-i. Thin-ian’s (our team) changed my perception. Yes, we (Thin-ian’s) belong to the same world as they all do, but we differ on the other parameters, we think different. Our work is funky, trend changing or to make it more convincing out-of-the-box, the term more frequently said by advertising professionals than actually used.

Though we call ourselves advertising aliens, we are just like others, but still different, as our thoughts set us apart.

You must be thinking, everyone says that, yes, right, everyone does, but very few actually show it through their work. And luckily we fall under that ‘very few’ category, as we believe it’s always beneficial to be on the minority side. So we really enjoy being so similarly different. As it sets us apart and still makes us a part of the advertising world.