...because the future isn't Orange, it's Hutch.
Yes, I can see the cute doggy staring at me from those billboards. "Hutch is here." Hutch is also pink now. According to Naveen Chopra, VP-group marketing, in today's DNA, "We went through the whole colour palette but there were colours associated with other companies, so those were rejected. Through elimination we came to pink." Oh wow, morsels to a starving man?
Here's an article from the Hindu Business Line on the launch.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Thursday, November 17, 2005
3.5 crorse for this??
According to reports, Ford paid Abhishek Bachchan 3.5 crores to endorse the Ford Fiesta. That's a heckuva lot of money.
And for that amount, this is the best they could come up with??
And for that amount, this is the best they could come up with??
Agency - JWT
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
The Economic Times campaign..
Here's a really well done campaign for the Economic Times. Great visuals and minimal yet effective usage of text.
Ps. these are newspaper scans, hence the low quality. And the last one was bigger than my scanner could handle, so the copy is missing. It's the same as the others.
Ps. these are newspaper scans, hence the low quality. And the last one was bigger than my scanner could handle, so the copy is missing. It's the same as the others.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
20 Days In Kochi... Footprints Recapped...
I spent a month in Kerala, doing this -
FOOTPRINTS - This is an annual series of media seminars that the students of SIMC organise. It usually happens in 10 cities around the country, and is conducted entirely by us. Event themes, speakers, sponsorship, and all that jazz. The college doesn't help (they're more of a hinderance really). And we have to do this, it's a module worth 50 marks. If you flunk, you don't get a diploma. We chose to go to Kochi.
IN KOCHI - 7 of us went to Kochi, all first timers, the only footprints team this year to not have any, well, natives, for lack of a better word. Three of them knew malayalam, so we could communicate around. We stayed in a rundown hotel, for free, friend's contact. Kochi is a very cheap city. Printing, travelling, eating. Ofcourse, everything shuts down by 9:30, so that suxx. But the city is fun. It's quite clean, relatively open, no over-population.
The buses are great, huge windows and canvas shutters, so it's never claustrophobic inside. It's a joyride really. These drivers apparantly use brakes only at the stops, and drive like maniacs at breakneck speed. Narain Karthikeyan fastest Indian my ass.
THE EVENT - Our theme was "Sailing On The Banana Boat - Where's the Malayali Media Headed?" Sounds a bit corny, but we came up with it in a crunch, and never got around to changing it. We covered -
AFTER THE EVENT - Went to Roshan's aunt place, 4 hours from Kochi, forgot the name. Then went to Idukki, heheh, and proceeded on to the Periyar sanctuary. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, place. So green and lush!!
FInally, came back to bombay on the 31st night.
FOOTPRINTS - This is an annual series of media seminars that the students of SIMC organise. It usually happens in 10 cities around the country, and is conducted entirely by us. Event themes, speakers, sponsorship, and all that jazz. The college doesn't help (they're more of a hinderance really). And we have to do this, it's a module worth 50 marks. If you flunk, you don't get a diploma. We chose to go to Kochi.
IN KOCHI - 7 of us went to Kochi, all first timers, the only footprints team this year to not have any, well, natives, for lack of a better word. Three of them knew malayalam, so we could communicate around. We stayed in a rundown hotel, for free, friend's contact. Kochi is a very cheap city. Printing, travelling, eating. Ofcourse, everything shuts down by 9:30, so that suxx. But the city is fun. It's quite clean, relatively open, no over-population.
The buses are great, huge windows and canvas shutters, so it's never claustrophobic inside. It's a joyride really. These drivers apparantly use brakes only at the stops, and drive like maniacs at breakneck speed. Narain Karthikeyan fastest Indian my ass.
THE EVENT - Our theme was "Sailing On The Banana Boat - Where's the Malayali Media Headed?" Sounds a bit corny, but we came up with it in a crunch, and never got around to changing it. We covered -
- The current status of the media in Kerala
- Expansion across regional and national boundaries
- What they see in their future
- Upcoming career opportunities
- R. Pillai, News Director AIR Thiruvananthapuram
- Kamal - National Award winning film director
- T. N. Gopakumar - Host of Asianet's "Kannadi"
- Sebastian Paul - Journalist turned M. P.
AFTER THE EVENT - Went to Roshan's aunt place, 4 hours from Kochi, forgot the name. Then went to Idukki, heheh, and proceeded on to the Periyar sanctuary. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, place. So green and lush!!
FInally, came back to bombay on the 31st night.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Spidey 3 - The Sandman it is!!
Hah, this is great, some concrete casting news!! And now, Topher Grace, Electro, or Venom? Definetely not Ned Leeds, I hope.
But seriously, if they have Venom and Sandman in the same movie, i can't see how they could possibly play off each other. Unless the Sandman is just gonna be there just for a minor pre-credits fight. Or if they screw his character up like they screwed up the Scarecrow in Batman Begins.
But seriously, if they have Venom and Sandman in the same movie, i can't see how they could possibly play off each other. Unless the Sandman is just gonna be there just for a minor pre-credits fight. Or if they screw his character up like they screwed up the Scarecrow in Batman Begins.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Friday, November 04, 2005
Don't Quit Your Day Job Yet...
Hah! While doing a bit of ego-surfing (google: bottlehed), I stumbled upon one of my forum convos with good 'ol Jorgo. An aborted attempt to write a short story, it's pretty funny.
Hah, an abrupt end. No doubt Jorgo was flabbergasted...
JORGO
Today I came back from a walk and the wind was sweeping a piece of paper by my feet. On one side two lines of text were written. I picked up the paper, dirty from the dusty ground to read what was written on it.
Curiously, the lines read:
I love you, I love you. I promise, I will never play chess again
Doesn't that fuel your imagination somehow? I invite you to make up a little story around those facts... let's see what you come up with!
ME
K, first line...
He could never remember - did the horse thing jump in the l-shape, or was it the elephant?
JORGO
In the words of Sage: "Don't quit your dayjob yet." Somehow I wasn't imagining this as a comedy although I never let a good pun pass by myself (or a bad one, for that matter). Well, fair enough.
My story would start like this:
He had everything thought out until the last move. He had calculated all the possibilities, all the logical reactions and all the consequences. Yet there was one thing that he hadn't taken into account and that would prove his undoing: He was not only the player, but also a piece...
ME
You're supposed to continue from my line...
Anywez, i'll take off on your start
..unfortunately, he couldn't figure out which piece he was. The agility of the horse intrigued him, but a childhood trauma left him scarred, and forever vary of the L-shape (but that's a story for another day).
Ofcourse, he identified his love for peanuts as a sub-conscious desire to be the elephant, but the pachyderms never forgot, and he could barely remember his head if it wasn't screwed on...
JORGO
Elephant? Horse? He had come to a point where he couldn't tell game and reality apart. This damned addiction to eating peanut butter sandwhiches! One day his clogged arteries would put an end to his career as a chess master.
ME
But till that day, he'd treat life like a black-and-white chessboard...
JORGO
And now it was time to check the queen...
Hah, an abrupt end. No doubt Jorgo was flabbergasted...
Friday, August 12, 2005
Pune to Mumbai.. I watched Coolie
Yup, this is so much like old times. It's 3 in the morning and i'm surfing the net, and it's just an hour since i got home.
Did i have a good bus journey? Depends upon what you consider good. See, i had some cheese pav bhaji for dinner before boarding the bus. I could have easily left off the cheese, as i got more than an overdose on the bus. They played Coolie. Atrocious. Appalling. Aggravating. Absolutely lousy. This crap showcases everything that's wrong with bollywood. Insanely bad acting (everyone's hamming it up like there's no tomorrow), cringe-worthy innanities passing off for dialogues, and a plot so contrived, it's incredulous that anyone could actually have watched this without laughing their guts out atleast once.
And bollywood's trademark middle-finger to sense, sensibility and logic. One case in point - Amitabh's character uses the hawk as his election symbol. When he's on stage giving his speech, the bloody backdrop is that of a bald eagle. A bald fucking eagle. Does nobody in bollywood know the difference between a bloody hawk and a fucking eagle?
I swear, if this kind of stuff was played in our screening, i'm willing to bet some of would actually take the effort to stay awake.
Did i have a good bus journey? Depends upon what you consider good. See, i had some cheese pav bhaji for dinner before boarding the bus. I could have easily left off the cheese, as i got more than an overdose on the bus. They played Coolie. Atrocious. Appalling. Aggravating. Absolutely lousy. This crap showcases everything that's wrong with bollywood. Insanely bad acting (everyone's hamming it up like there's no tomorrow), cringe-worthy innanities passing off for dialogues, and a plot so contrived, it's incredulous that anyone could actually have watched this without laughing their guts out atleast once.
And bollywood's trademark middle-finger to sense, sensibility and logic. One case in point - Amitabh's character uses the hawk as his election symbol. When he's on stage giving his speech, the bloody backdrop is that of a bald eagle. A bald fucking eagle. Does nobody in bollywood know the difference between a bloody hawk and a fucking eagle?
I swear, if this kind of stuff was played in our screening, i'm willing to bet some of would actually take the effort to stay awake.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
The Island
It was a Michael Bay movie alrite. But for a moment there, i actually had hope. An interesting enough plot, competent acting from all involved, and well, no faults in diection.
It's actually half a Michael Bay movie, because things start blowing up only in the second half. That's also probably when he lost all interest in what he was filming, and let it all go to hell.
See, because throughout the movie, there was this constant sense of Deja Vu, if, that is, you've seen the Matrix, or Minority Report. It's the treatment, i suppose, or maybe the story. I can't figure it out. But whatever it is, movie manages to engage you in the first hour.
Supposedly set in the future, one that doesn't really seem all that futuristic, the story (SPOILERS) is about a corporation that's raising made-to-order clones to be used as organ donors and replacements. All this while, the clones are being led to believe that they're the only survivors of some kind of holocaust - contamination, i believe, was the term used. However, Ewan MacGegor's Lincoln Six Echo (yes, his name in the movie, there's a reason for it) begins to question his existance in their perfect, sanitised world.
As for the movie title, it's not really all that relevant. It's just a snappy, catchy title for the movie to have.
There are some logical loopholes in the movie alright, and a lot of times when suspension of disbelief is needed, but if you ask me, the only major conceptual fault lay in the fact that it's hard to believe the corporation's method were anywhere near cost-effective. Just to sell a single organ, an entire underground complex was created, incredibly huge holographic shields were used to hide that fact that they were underground, and the clones had every kind of facility needed at their disposal; the health clubs and swimming pools. I find it very hard to believe that some rich people would pay such a lot for some organs, enough to keep the entire corporation afloat.
That apart, Scarlett Johansen is pretty much wasted in this movie, but you don't hear me complaining.
P.s. Steve Buscemi is still da man!!
It's actually half a Michael Bay movie, because things start blowing up only in the second half. That's also probably when he lost all interest in what he was filming, and let it all go to hell.
See, because throughout the movie, there was this constant sense of Deja Vu, if, that is, you've seen the Matrix, or Minority Report. It's the treatment, i suppose, or maybe the story. I can't figure it out. But whatever it is, movie manages to engage you in the first hour.
Supposedly set in the future, one that doesn't really seem all that futuristic, the story (SPOILERS) is about a corporation that's raising made-to-order clones to be used as organ donors and replacements. All this while, the clones are being led to believe that they're the only survivors of some kind of holocaust - contamination, i believe, was the term used. However, Ewan MacGegor's Lincoln Six Echo (yes, his name in the movie, there's a reason for it) begins to question his existance in their perfect, sanitised world.
As for the movie title, it's not really all that relevant. It's just a snappy, catchy title for the movie to have.
There are some logical loopholes in the movie alright, and a lot of times when suspension of disbelief is needed, but if you ask me, the only major conceptual fault lay in the fact that it's hard to believe the corporation's method were anywhere near cost-effective. Just to sell a single organ, an entire underground complex was created, incredibly huge holographic shields were used to hide that fact that they were underground, and the clones had every kind of facility needed at their disposal; the health clubs and swimming pools. I find it very hard to believe that some rich people would pay such a lot for some organs, enough to keep the entire corporation afloat.
That apart, Scarlett Johansen is pretty much wasted in this movie, but you don't hear me complaining.
P.s. Steve Buscemi is still da man!!
Friday, July 29, 2005
Fargo on GTA San Andreas!!
Hah!
This is a hilarious and highly sarcastic view at the GTA Hot Coffee patch controversy. It's true, what the article implies. Larceny, robbery, and cold-blooded brutal executions with a variety of materials is all ok for teens, but the moment nudity hits the scene, it all goes for a toss. So the game is now AO. Adults Only. Hehehhe...
This is a hilarious and highly sarcastic view at the GTA Hot Coffee patch controversy. It's true, what the article implies. Larceny, robbery, and cold-blooded brutal executions with a variety of materials is all ok for teens, but the moment nudity hits the scene, it all goes for a toss. So the game is now AO. Adults Only. Hehehhe...
Friday, July 22, 2005
Not A Bad Day At All..
So it wasn't the best of starts. Kohinoor vs Kamasutra didn't get us the kind of response we expected, but we did learn we were arrogant and cheaters. Right, let nothing be a waste, always learn.
I got my conflict presentation done too. Saudi Arabia - Yemen border conflict of 1994. Crisp, short, and to the point. Not because I was concerned about audience reaction, but because I thought I was prepared, when I actually wasn't. So all I was doing was reading off the slides, and trying to find my way through the hard copy.
And the play. I slept through every alternate line in the first half. In the second half, I was eating some chinese in the mess. But I liked what little I saw nevertheless.
So another day, another lesson...
I got my conflict presentation done too. Saudi Arabia - Yemen border conflict of 1994. Crisp, short, and to the point. Not because I was concerned about audience reaction, but because I thought I was prepared, when I actually wasn't. So all I was doing was reading off the slides, and trying to find my way through the hard copy.
And the play. I slept through every alternate line in the first half. In the second half, I was eating some chinese in the mess. But I liked what little I saw nevertheless.
So another day, another lesson...
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Faux Pass?
"Faux Pass" is apparantly "Fau Paa" ??
Redneck dad to son, "How many legs dat dawg haf sonny?"
Redneck son to dad, "Fau, Paa!!"
Yup, I still got it.
Redneck dad to son, "How many legs dat dawg haf sonny?"
Redneck son to dad, "Fau, Paa!!"
Yup, I still got it.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Screenings at SIMC
We have screenings three times a week at SIMC.
So far,
SERIALS
Chanakya ep 1-3, progressively better
Mirza Ghalib ep 1-3, ditto
MOVIES
Ankur - decent
Nishant - fell asleep after the opening credits
Charandas Chor - Damn funny for the first 20 minutes, then degraded and put me to sleep. Then saw the last 30 minutes.
DOCUMENTARIES
Jack The Ripper
Search For Atlantis
The Leopard Son
ROCKUMENTARIES
A Hard Day's Night - Unfortunately, fell asleep midway. Saw the beginning and ending.
OTHERS
U2 - Live - forgot where (actually it was a free lecture, not a screening really)
All these are in the afternoon, after food, in a room without a/c or proper ventilation. No wonder most of us fall asleep. Atleast, I do.
So far,
SERIALS
Chanakya ep 1-3, progressively better
Mirza Ghalib ep 1-3, ditto
MOVIES
Ankur - decent
Nishant - fell asleep after the opening credits
Charandas Chor - Damn funny for the first 20 minutes, then degraded and put me to sleep. Then saw the last 30 minutes.
DOCUMENTARIES
Jack The Ripper
Search For Atlantis
The Leopard Son
ROCKUMENTARIES
A Hard Day's Night - Unfortunately, fell asleep midway. Saw the beginning and ending.
OTHERS
U2 - Live - forgot where (actually it was a free lecture, not a screening really)
All these are in the afternoon, after food, in a room without a/c or proper ventilation. No wonder most of us fall asleep. Atleast, I do.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Week 1 - SIMC
Wow. It's not college, it's a bloody boot camp. No earings or tattoos for guys (I was the only one with an earing), my roomie got yelled at in front of the entire class and had to cut off his pigtail, plus, get this, no shirts or kurtas with any any kind of slogans/symbols/messages are allowed. I kid you not, these are official rules.
Oh, and we have no day off. Sure. we have no lectures on thursday, but on that day, we have to do our social communication project. Meaning, working with an NGO for atleast 8 hours.
Daily timings are 7 to 7. Yup, an hour of yoga/aerobics/gym in the morning, followed by lectures starting at 9, each for an hour and a half. Half an hour break between each and an hour for lunch.
Kinda saving grace - class strength is about 96, with only some 25 boys.
But what the heck, if it makes a better man out of me, shucks, i'm game.
Oh, and we have no day off. Sure. we have no lectures on thursday, but on that day, we have to do our social communication project. Meaning, working with an NGO for atleast 8 hours.
Daily timings are 7 to 7. Yup, an hour of yoga/aerobics/gym in the morning, followed by lectures starting at 9, each for an hour and a half. Half an hour break between each and an hour for lunch.
Kinda saving grace - class strength is about 96, with only some 25 boys.
But what the heck, if it makes a better man out of me, shucks, i'm game.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Off To Pune!!
I'm leaving in two hours.
Two years @ SIMC, Post Graduate Diploma in Communication Management (Advertising).
I'm gone!!
Two years @ SIMC, Post Graduate Diploma in Communication Management (Advertising).
I'm gone!!
Monday, May 30, 2005
Star Wars ep III - Revenge of the Filth
Saw the movie a few days back. I didn't enjoy it. Too much. Sure, I was only interested in the fx, but good lord!! The dialogues!! They are appaling, embarrasingly cheesy. Just. Plain. Bad. I can't believe the actors didn't choke on their vomit while mouthing these inane atrocities.
The Padme-Anakin romance, it's as bad, if not worse than what we saw in Attack Of The Clones.
Plus that persistant "stupid" vibe that the movie has to it. Gaping plotholes. Droids just standing around not shooting, stormtroopers in heavy armor taken out by one lousy shot, so called Jedi Masters killed like blind ducks in a barrel, and incredulous leaps oflogic like Obi Wan leaving Anakin alive.
However, the main reason I dislike this trilogy, is because it take away from the mystique of Darth Vader. While I intensely dislike the Star Wars series, Darth Vader himself is immensely cool. However, by giving him a back story, and justifying his slide into the Dark Side, his capacity as a being of pure evil seems diminished. After all, he really embraced the dark side just to save his wife, a very noble cause indeed.
Moral of the story, stay away from girls. They lead to destruction and chaos.
For a more biting review, check out Ep III on Ruthless Reviews.
They also love The Phantom Menace.
And they have a link to Star Wars dorks in costume.
Orson Scott Card, whom I know as the writer on Marvel Comics's Ultimate Iron Man, has his own take on the Jedis. I quote - "Memo to would-be Jedis: in the new movie, the knights are elitist, dictatorial, and unconvinced that good is an absolute."
Read it - Under the Influence by Orson Scott Card : No Faith in This Force.
Enjoy. The ripping apart of.
The Padme-Anakin romance, it's as bad, if not worse than what we saw in Attack Of The Clones.
Plus that persistant "stupid" vibe that the movie has to it. Gaping plotholes. Droids just standing around not shooting, stormtroopers in heavy armor taken out by one lousy shot, so called Jedi Masters killed like blind ducks in a barrel, and incredulous leaps oflogic like Obi Wan leaving Anakin alive.
However, the main reason I dislike this trilogy, is because it take away from the mystique of Darth Vader. While I intensely dislike the Star Wars series, Darth Vader himself is immensely cool. However, by giving him a back story, and justifying his slide into the Dark Side, his capacity as a being of pure evil seems diminished. After all, he really embraced the dark side just to save his wife, a very noble cause indeed.
Moral of the story, stay away from girls. They lead to destruction and chaos.
For a more biting review, check out Ep III on Ruthless Reviews.
They also love The Phantom Menace.
And they have a link to Star Wars dorks in costume.
Orson Scott Card, whom I know as the writer on Marvel Comics's Ultimate Iron Man, has his own take on the Jedis. I quote - "Memo to would-be Jedis: in the new movie, the knights are elitist, dictatorial, and unconvinced that good is an absolute."
Read it - Under the Influence by Orson Scott Card : No Faith in This Force.
Enjoy. The ripping apart of.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Viva La Indian Railways
So my mom wanted to book train tickets for some of our relatives, from Chennai to Bombay. She calls up the Indian Railways helpline, but their servers are down and a recorded message asks you to check back later.
Never fear, the internet is here. Or so we thought. Mom wants to check ticket availability. Since I'm not sure of their URL, I do a quick google search. I take the nearest link, the FAQs at IndianRail.gov.in (which incidentally has this helpful suggestion for optimum viewing - "Best viewed at 1024X768 resolution with Internet Explorer (default settings) and Other browsers"). They have a link to internet ticket reservations, which takes me to the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation site. Sure enough, they have an option to check availability. I click on it, looking forward to quick check, when a login page opens up. Must have clicked the wrong link, I think. I try again. Same page. Damn, so i have to register just to check for ticket availability. Nevermind, i say, it'll take me about five minutes. So i go through the motions, fill up a standard form, and submit it. There, that's done. Let me check the ticket availability now. I click on the link, and it takes me to a different website.
Let me recap that. I register on the site by filling out a form, login again, and when i try to check availability, it TAKES ME TO A WHOLE NEW SITE ACCESSIBLE DIRECTLY BY IT'S URL! SO WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID I NEED TO REGISTER FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE??
So onto this suckass new site, I enter the train number. Then the page reloads and i have to select the exact train, from a list containing all of one choices. And then when it refreshes again, i have a wide choice of three days to check, today, tomorrow and the day after. Great, I wanted to check for next month.
God bless the Indian railways, cuz I sure as hell aint gonna.
Never fear, the internet is here. Or so we thought. Mom wants to check ticket availability. Since I'm not sure of their URL, I do a quick google search. I take the nearest link, the FAQs at IndianRail.gov.in (which incidentally has this helpful suggestion for optimum viewing - "Best viewed at 1024X768 resolution with Internet Explorer (default settings) and Other browsers"). They have a link to internet ticket reservations, which takes me to the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation site. Sure enough, they have an option to check availability. I click on it, looking forward to quick check, when a login page opens up. Must have clicked the wrong link, I think. I try again. Same page. Damn, so i have to register just to check for ticket availability. Nevermind, i say, it'll take me about five minutes. So i go through the motions, fill up a standard form, and submit it. There, that's done. Let me check the ticket availability now. I click on the link, and it takes me to a different website.
Let me recap that. I register on the site by filling out a form, login again, and when i try to check availability, it TAKES ME TO A WHOLE NEW SITE ACCESSIBLE DIRECTLY BY IT'S URL! SO WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID I NEED TO REGISTER FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE??
So onto this suckass new site, I enter the train number. Then the page reloads and i have to select the exact train, from a list containing all of one choices. And then when it refreshes again, i have a wide choice of three days to check, today, tomorrow and the day after. Great, I wanted to check for next month.
God bless the Indian railways, cuz I sure as hell aint gonna.
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