Saturday, July 28, 2007

This post is dedicated to Ads [not really]

There’s one place on the net that really cheers me up, every single time I visit it.

Ads of the World.

It could be because I’ve come across some really special work here. Special in ways that are hard to describe; special because it’s kept me smiling for days and days after; special, to me specifically, because it’s told me things that I’ve craved to know – of ideas and minds at work, of potential explored, of inclusion in forums like The Work and One Show; of hope for a certain luminous career.

Bizarre isn’t it? Advertising and hope, for me, sometimes go hand in hand.

But of course, like with all great ideas, some of the work here is terrible. It makes me want to slap up a bunch of shallow writers and art directors, who’re too busy jerking off on over-dosages of marijuana, whiskey and self-importance to even consider that their first job is to caress and love and adore and carefully fashion each word and image they send out into the world, so that it says exactly what they intend it to.

The other day I came across a series of ads. The copy looked lengthy. However, because of some of the comments [thank god for some people who love their trade enough to whet everything] I decided to read each one.

I’ll let you decide for yourself, what you think.

When our shoes wore out
Torture me
Nanko
Monster
Money lender
May God forgive you
Crime against humanity
Life and death of a Bhopali child

Okay, maybe I won’t. As with all else on my blog, it gives me great pleasure to tell you what to think about these ads. Specifically about the person who wrote them.

Indra Sinha; he writes like butter. Read the last one especially, and you’ll know what I mean. He’s clearly among the finer writers I’ve read on the net [which shows how ignorant I am, because he's a legend, they'll have you know]. Really, Ivan deserves a thump on his back [because I might never have discovered Indra, who I first thought was a woman -- obviously, I can't say enough how ignorant I am, so let's just move on.]. And the best I can do with my newfound adulation for this star is to buy his books.

If you want to read more from him, here’s his blog.

And, whatever you do, don’t ask me why I’m giving him a plug, when he doesn’t need one from an itty-bitty inconsequential arse like me. I’ll just do a stomping raving Rumpelstiltskin on you.


Have an interesting, ejyoocative, smooth read my dollies; this is my early Diwali gift to you.

15 comments:

Anjali Deodhar said...

very nice....!!!

Ben Ditty said...

I'm sure your plug will do wonders for him!

H said...

CF: so which one did you like? welcome here.

Ben, ummm, I'm not sure about that. ;-)

houseband00 said...

Here's the trick in advertising: anything will work, just as long as you can make the client smile. =)

Is Diwali coming 'round again? My, how the year has passed. =)

H said...

ummm, I'm not so sure about that. Ask any self-respecting art-director/ writer, I think they're likely to differ, quite markedly.

Diwali is still a good three months away. :-D

Ben Ditty said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ben Ditty said...

Is there a Diwali Claus?

H said...

;-) sometimes, Ben, and he's called Ravana.

Or was it Ram?

or...

ummm...

shite. I'm confused.

Lizza said...

Appreciated your early Diwali gift. Checked out his blog and enjoyed reading the posts on the front page. Must look at the ads too!

H said...

Liz, [I'm beaming], I knew you'd check him out. :-D I am so glad you liked reading him. The ads are great. especially the last one. see, how I re-re-repeat myself.

This tiny-winy gift is inspired of course by your own magnanimous gifts each saturday.

R said...

A lot of the ads made for the gas tragedy victims are heart rendering.
Speaking of ads, my favourite one is
the Honda Accord ad(the one that took 660 retakes and a million dollars.) It was sheer technical brilliance.

H said...

I'm really pleased you read through them Julia :-) [oh, and I'm Indra's self-appointed secretary].

Yep. that ad's really really cool. But it kind of defeats the purpose when you know how many retakes it took eh?

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Whenever I miss long copy, I go back and read ads like this one.

It takes real hard work and a magic pen to write such stuff.

Great post, mate.

Oh yeah - and thanks for the link titled "they'll". It helped em discover your blog.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Whenever I miss long copy, I go back and read ads like this one.

It takes real hard work and a magic pen to write such stuff.

Great post, mate.

Oh yeah - and thanks for the link titled "they'll". It helped em discover your blog.

H said...

Farrukh, hello and welcome. I should thank you, for being so gracious about that sneaky, stealthy link. I'm nodding my head off in agreement over that magic bit. He's quite something.

I'm sort of also beginning to piece together why we [in India] don't produce brilliant copywriters as frequently as we should. :-/