Subways?

What do you think when you hear the word subway?

If you think the Subway sandwich ..then you are in a overwhelming majority of people in India.Why?

Surely Subway is not that big and omnipotent a brand to have that instant recall.

Subways and skywalks are missing from the Indian architectural milieu. It is because that we have so few of them in India. There are some here and there ,but not nearly enough.

In Europe, I gather, they stop their cars for pedestrians to move, in India we only stop for cattle.. where cattle are speed inspectors. It is about time we pay attention to the sidewalks, skywalks and subways..India revels in mixed traffic so subways should be made so that people can cross streets without disrupting traffic and risking lives.

This is not to denigrate or anything ,its just the way it is.Sharjah has it..so does Abu Dhabi.I am not saying that the Sharjah or Abu Dhabi municipality is the best in the world, but they had a sense of building subways that would enable smoother traffic flow. It does make sense to make subways so that pedestrians don’t have to mix with live and mixed traffic.

Especially in India where there are so many people teeming on the roads and foothpaths wherever there is a footpath.

Sure Mumbai has some subways .Not the least at the CST junction for people to cross the DN road and you hear about Milan subway on western line only during monsoons.. Bangalore has a huge,dusty and pathetic one in Majestic for people to cross from bus station to Bangalore city junction – but finding its entrance is a task in itself!Interestingly, there is a hidden subway in Ahmedabad – one that connects old IIM-A campus to the new IIM-A zone.. but it is private and immaculate..
Subways can be clean, cooler than the heat outside, ideal for advertisements and a place for cultural freedom and expression in the form of graffiti !!

Walking and crossing roads shouldn’t be potential hazard..and I wait for the day when in schools ,children will be taught to always take the subways to cross the road . It is not that great an engineering feat to pull off – I wonder if we really have got good town planners who have given this a thought.

Robbed at knife point

What would you do if you were robbed at knife point?Would it be something like what Julio Diaz did?

Julio Diaz is a social worker who lives in New York City and every night at the end of his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx. Julio stops for dinner at his favourite diner.

One night in February 2008 , as Julio stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn. He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached him and pulled out a knife. The boy ask Julio for his money and Julio handed over his wallet.

As the teen began to walk away, Julio told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

The teen look at Julio with a puzzled look on his face than said to Julio, “Why are you doing this?”

Julio replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.

Julio later told reports: “You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help.” He and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth together. During dinner the manager, dishwashers and waiters all stop by to say hi to Julio and his teenage dinner guest.

The teen said to Julio, “You know everybody here. Do you own this place?”
Julio replied, “No, I just eat here a lot.” The teen said, “But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.”

Julio said, “Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?”
“Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teen said.

Julio asked the teen what he wanted out of life? The boy couldn’t answer and his face got very sad face.

When the bill arrived, Julio told the teen, “Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ’cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.”

The teen didn’t even think about it and he returned the wallet. Julio than give the boy $20, Julio also asked the teen’s for the knife and he did give his knife to Julio.

After the evening was over Julio told his mother what happened and she said, “You’re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.”

Julio Diaz said “I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”

Do you think this one dinner could change the boy’s life? What comment do you have about what Julio Diaz did? Would you do the same?

Snapshots from Singapore

The whole 2 hours were just eye -candy.Just Fatangg entertainment. looooved it.

RedBull car in during the race
Merlion in night sky
Aerial view of the street circuit.
Marina bay in full radiace.
Of course,the SingTel grid-girls
One of the high speed corners
Media coverage of Grand Prix
F1 fever in Singapore

“The racing lights stay on late into the night as F1 tourists, drivers, engineers and other pit crew, walk, scooter and cycle around the circuit. Officially they're looking for bumps in the road, camber changes and breaking points.

Unofficially they're looking wide-eyed at this beautiful city and inhaling the night air with that unmistakable flavour of the Singapore Grand Prix.”-

Steve Dawson(F1 commentator)

Resident ,Singapore.

Docomo- do the new !

Docomo is on a roll because its brilliant, simple and clutter breaking schemes are being backed up by an equally excellent advertising campaign .

After faltering initially in the mobile telecom sector with Tata Indicom,Tata has become the category trend setter with Docomo.

It remains the few left in the telecom sector not to ever use star celebrities. It doesn’t need to ever .Telecom is a service .That Docomo provides with excellence and the hence already has that intangible irrepressible brand buzz.

Because it came up with pay per use..which gave the impression that the other operators were cheating us with higher tariffs.

Then came their pay per site plan especially targeted for social networking addicts at just Rs.10 a month. The two ads featured a guy obsessed with his muscles and another with an aunty obsessed with knitting.

Advertising is about customer insights.No one would ever give ISD calls at 1 paise/sec pulse ..but Docomo will in the Gujarat sector ..cos gujaratis always have and always will call their non resident relatives and friends in UK and US.

And how’s this for an ad banner tagline?

Because Gujarat lives outside India too.

To the point and straight to the point.It is as if they are saying, try not to buy .With such schemes it’s almost irresistible.By the way the advertising agency is Draftfcb+ulka.

Docomo has been a game changer with its schemes and clear cut advertising

Each of its ads showcases the situation very subtly and metaphorically. It manages to do what is very difficult to achieve – simplicity and elegance. Docomo has kept it simple, even its instruction manual.

They didn’t overcharge, they didn’t decide for us, didn’t put restrictions, they just played fair.

Docomo is true to its tagline.Do the new!

Why Dabangg rocks

Why Dabangg rocks

Because its critic proof

Because it is spoofy yet has a core

Because it has unmistakable faith in the lead

Because the shirt knows when its time to let go

Because it is a movie designed to be exactly what it is

Because it brought back ticket scalping at single screens

Because Zandu balm was never used as it was in Dabangg

Because the action scenes have a graphic novel like quality

Because the producers were quite literally Dabangg -fearless

Because it gives 10 new dance steps to do in Ganesh visarjan

Because before this you never knew there was a word called Dabangg

Because it has clap traps and whistle hooting moments every other scene

Because somehow Dabangg has Malaika’s 12^th blockbuster item number

Because even fastrack couldn’t think goggles could be worn behind your shirt

Because every so called intellectual is lying if he says he didn’t like it one bit

Because it exploits something inexplicable – the star power of Salman Khan

Because Salman mouths dialogues that would make anyone else saying it look like an idiot and does things only he can carry off.

Emmys 2010

The 2010 Emmy winners were quite different last night. Really, some of the 2010 Emmy winners were brand new, as the standard Emmy winners had rather of a firm time. The winners were a merge of old and new and some were still surprising picks.

Outstanding Drama Series: Mad Men

Outstanding Comedy Series :Modern Family

Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad

Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad

Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Edie Falco ,Nurse Jackie

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Directing for a Comedy Series: Ryan Murphy, Glee

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Eric Stonetreet ,Modern Family

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Jane Lynch ,Glee

Directing for a Drama Series: Steve Shill, Dexter

Writing for a Drama Series: Matthew Weiner & Erin Levy, Mad Men

Writing for a Comedy Series: Steven Levitan & Christopher Lloyd,Modern Family

Reality Competition Program: Top Chef

Outstanding Miniseries: The Pacific (HBO)

Which shoe,Jimmy Choo

I wanted to buy myself a pair of shoes, a good pair, a decent pair for every day wear, for daily abuse, for rough use.I was trying to get the best buy at a reasonable cost, so understandably there was no brand loyalty .But I wanted a branded one too. So among the plethora of brands,the question is which shoe?

Woodland, to me looks like leather mounted on couple of small rocks ,not aesthetically appealing .Puma has some nice designs ,but 4k for a pair is too much .Out of budget .I had had a Nike once ..had bought it in 2004 for 1695/-and wore them for 3 years until they just gave away from all sides.

But now, for that amount, I would hardly get anything in a Nike store. The price range has jumped up exponentially .See, the problem with sneakers across all the sports brands is that below 2000, I will get stuff that would seem like Power shoes from the 90’s and better designs are in the range of 4-5 thousand.

When I look though magazines, I think why not a Jimmy Choo?

Alas but sadly, that much retail therapy would do me more harm than good. I want to have them, but I can’t .Disappointed at the high rates, I went to an iD store as I had a discount coupon for a 10% off. Really nice designs and very trendy footwear and excellent value for money .Somehow I came out from that too, maybe because I already have an iD.

Finally I went to the rack where Converse were displayed and it began to make sense to buy one of those kicks. Courtesy the sale and offers at the mall, the cost of a classic blue converse was pegged at 1095/-.At that price,it’ a pretty nice option. Its branded,recognized, canvas shoes that are all terrain all weather, durable and helps your youth quotient .No wonder people are sporting the All Star Converse a lot these days.

The forgotten 1980's

Why is the 80’s forgotten decade?

It can’t be said that 80’s weren’t eventful.

We had an Asiad, put a man in space ,had a high profile assassination of Indira Gandhi ,became world champions for the first time at anything at Lords, the discovery of precocious child prodigies in V.Anand and Sachin Tendulkar, the birth of people’s car Maruti, smuggling and the rise of Dubai and Sharjah , and the end of cold war.

The eighties had countless kitschy and loud movies but also Jaane bhi do Yaaron and independent filmmaking. It had Hum Log,Fauji,and Wagle ki Duniya .The 80’s gave Bofors and scams, Rubik’s cube, Betamax tapes, the VCR,Walkman and audio cassettes, styroprints leotards, disco lights,Madonna ,Farrah Fawcett hair styles,Pacman ,Super Mario Brothers.Its not that nothing happened ,but still it is not romaticised as the 70s and neither is it seen as a decade of significance and harbinger of change as the 90’s.The eighties are seen as regressive and decadent and frowned upon .

I recently read in Times that the 1970’s are paid tribute because the people in power or making films belonged to that era. Isn’t it enough with the tributes..maybe they just are fascinated by the sensory things like el Camino cars and polyester shirts nylon stockings and bell bottom pants.

The reason probably that is because the 80’s is sandwiched between the 70s which is seen as the era of retro-glossed and candyflossed over and again in films and 90s which is just too close in memory to be classified as yesteryears. In India atleast the 80s is a dark decade, still chugging at along the Hindu rate of growth ;where somehow things were just not the same and they would never be the same.

A huge portion of India was born in the eighties and raised to puberty in the nineties. See even fashion changes every 25-30 years -its cyclical .So that ways it’s about time the 80’s make an appearance.

Asking for sixties is too far fetched, but the portrayal of eighties and its identity and characteristics is deserved .In fact there is a lacunae and an opportunity to produce something really new. There was a Tamil film called ‘Subramaniapuram’ in 2008 that was beautifully set in the eighties and one of the biggest hits in Tamil that year .Arvind Adiga’s between the assassinations is a novel that is set in the eighties .Another such idea is –the rise of Dawood Ibrahim.‘Once upon a time in Mumbai’ and the even better but under appreciated Vishram Sawant's ‘D’ left off Dawood’s story in the 70’s when he snatched power .How he spread and magnified his presence is a story yet to be told...why not carry it forward into the eighties.

Entourage top 10 episodes

Entourage opens with the star of the show Vincent Chase awaiting his debut film’ release ‘Head On’ with Jessica Alba. Vince is living the player's life in L.A. Along for the ride are his best friends: Eric and Turtle, who grew up with him in Queens, New York and Vince's brother, Johnny Drama. The boys spends most of their time relaxing at Vince's house in the Hollywood hills, shooting hoops, playing rooftop golf and entertaining ladies at the pool. But its not all about Vince, else it wouldn’t be called Entourage ..isn’t it.

Initially it does feel that the entourage is mooching off Vince’s stardom and money but they stick through a lot together and ultimately its about male bonding .

Season 3 has been the best until now.So, heres’ a list of top 10 entourage episodes

Talk Show Season 1, Episode 3

Partying after a boxing match, Vince runs into Jimmy Kimmel, who immediately does his best to get Vince to commit to an appearance on his show the following night. The encounter in the green room with Sara Foster and the whole interview on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live ‘ goes off super fabulous which makes a great night for Vince and his entourage ,with more after party to follow.

The Scene Season 1, Episode 7

Eric is concerned over the choice of director, an Indie loose cannon named Billy Walsh, for Vince's new film. The tension is caused because of a particular bold scene written by Walsh in the script of Vince’s next movie –Queen’s Boulevard as Vince has second thoughts about doing the film. All the while, Drama lobbies for a supporting role, while Ari finds he can't mix business with pleasure.

New York Season 1, Episode 8

E has an epiphany while waiting outside for Vince to finish with one of his lady friends: he wants a title commensurate with his responsibilities. After seeking advice and support from Ari, he gets to work on pitching himself to Vince. When their dinner meeting ends on a sour note, it looks like Vince's entourage will be minus one. En route to the airport, Drama points out to Vince that he will never find a person better suited to be his manager. A few last minute surprises occur on both ends out on the tarmac.

Exodus Season 2, Episode 13

Classic Ari Gold episode. Drama and Turtle stalk Mandy Moore to prove to Vince that she’s cheating on him. Ari is deemed a traitor by his boss Terence and is fired from the agency, and Lloyd proves his loyalty to Ari amidst Ari’s tirade of stereotypes and racial slurs directed at any minority in his path. Ari insults thick and fast, anyone and everyone along the way, as only he can.

The Release Season 3, Episode 8

Vince and the entourage receive news that ‘Queens Boulevard’ will be receiving a nationwide release but not in its intended black n white version coloured so that studio can cash in on Vince’s Aquaman image. Ari is at his best when a little under pressure to deliver. Ari must compromise with a rival to avoid threats from a group of aggressive agents and ultimately forms Miller Gold. Watch how he says the new agency name sounds like a beer ! The press address by Vince is a must watch as he exposes the studio executives.

Vegas Baby, Vegas! Season 3, Episode 9

Non-stop laughs throughout. Seth Green has always had the number on E, and he continues to push E's buttons, insinuating he had a prior relationship with E's girlfriend, until Eric finally snaps, and a good old fashioned brawl ensues. Ari sweats as he finds himself a few hundred grand down at the blackjack table. But, the funniest story line revolves around Johnny Drama. Drama heaps so many compliments on his personal masseuse that the man, though not gay, thinks Johnny is and winds up waiting for Drama in bed, feeling obligated to perform whatever duties his client wants. Johnny just freaks out !!

What about Bob? Season 3, Episode 11

Ari and Bob have a hard time agreeing on how to pitch the Ramones script to the studios. To get rid of Bob, Ari sends him to the wrong studio. This results in both Ari and Bob selling the script…to both Universal and Warner Brothers. The ranting between Ari and oldie Bob is such roaring laughter. Drama is in a panic, as his pilot begins shooting. His monologue has been lengthened and there’s only one way to calm his nerves, only the whole crew is listening as he still has his mike on .Whoa, embarrassing!!

Sorry,Ari Season 3, Episode 12

Vince and the guys begin to look for other agents to represent him. Ari, hearing of Vince's shopping, fights with all his might to get back the movie. While looking at other agents, Vince realizes they are just too corporate for him and the "scumbag" Ari is the best in the business. When everything fails, Ari tries to win Vince back with a corporate-style presentation himself when all Vince wanted was an apology from Ari as a friend. This backfires because the boys find Ari to be just like everyone else now and fire Ari as they walk out of his office.

Welcome to the Jungle Season 4, Episode 1

A behind-the-scenes documentary about the filming of Medellín in Bogota, Colombia. Billy and E clash on the set about keeping the film on track. Billy becomes attracted to an actress which ends up disrupting the production. They go over budget and behind schedule and hire one of the best writers in the industry Steven Gaghan for a whopping fee but all in vain.Refreshing change from the normal LA life of Vinny and the boys.

Return to Queens Boulevard Season 5, Episode 12

A broke and out of work Vince returns home to New York ,as has fallen so far off the radar that directors are reluctant to let him audition after the failure and straight to DVD release of Medellín.Vince reconnects with his high school sweetheart and E stalks Gus Van Sant ,also in New York pitching for Vince. Meanwhile, Drama invests in a bar near home in NY and we get Martin Scorcese’s cameo as he calls Vince.

Open letter to Genelia

Hi Genelia!

You must know for sure that you are seen as the recently discovered endorsement magic woman who can help brands fly off the shelf. And why not too? You appeal to the very crucial demographic of India – the twenteens with their purchasing power and increasing aspirational hunger.Your current brand portfolio has Cadbury's Perk, Coca- Cola’s Fanta, Spinz, Dabur Vatika, LG Cookie, Virgin, Margo, Garnier and Fastrack.

Getting ads is not a problem for you , but getting ads just so you are perky and cute is-because then every there is the same tone to every ad campaign. Preity Zinta was considered bubbly and grew tired of her image .Once stamped with an image ..it sticks until you yourself wear out .

The girl-next-door image has helped you bag a record number of endorsement deals, because of what ad agencies call, your natural ‘vibrant youth image’. The perky, sparkling and spirited teenage image of yours is exploited in the ads of Fanta, Spinz Talc, as well as Spinz Deodorant, Perk, Virgin Mobiles, LG mobiles, Garnier light fairness cream and many more.It is fantastic that you have got so many brands in such a short span of time and your popularity here down south is way higher than in the north.

However, the idea should to be remain a classic and not be a passing two season fad who can be replaced conveniently. Being selective brings exclusivity and being omnipresent creates overkill and boredom. You should be pick and choose as and when you can .

Although I should give credit to you and Fastrack.

Fastrack changed the method of branding by association and piggy backing on a celebrity’s image .They campaigned with a tagline ‘sweet no more ’ and tried to fit you , into their brand image and not vice versa as seems to be the case with other brands ;be it FMCG, beauty care or lifestyle.

You are no plain Sandra from Bandra and seem smart .So I think you should sustain momentum and balance out your portfolio. Choose judiciously and avoid overkill. I think you can do it ..if you do so or not , remains to be seen.

Regards.