Good Bye Blue Skies

My Experiments with Black & White.

Goafest 2010 - Did Digital Survive?

Goafest 2010.
Just like the oldest profession in the world - advertising, would like you to believe, this year was supposed to be a celebration of the freshest. And just like advertising, it failed to deliver this promise.

'No Scams This Year' was another feature being marketed right from the start, bringing about a lot of hope to the guys with more sincere & really published work. The first few minutes inside any of the rooms soon shattered this marketing myth as well. The entries shamelessly reeked of scam, another promise broken. Walking among the them felt like taking a virtual stroll inside the Archives. There would be succour if the work, scam undoubtedly, was at least fresh. This year saw recurring themes, ideas & rip-offs. The judges obviously, had to have a gun to their head while short-listing these. I shudder while another reason comes to mind, that the rest were just not good enough.

Another reason which had many seething was the bastard child treatment which Digital received. Once again a fact: bigger agencies are struggling to get their digital arms up & running consistently trying to convince brands that they have what it takes thanks to their mastery of traditional media. Unfortunately, a lot of clients buy into this, their brand managers being old suits who simply cannot comprehend or perceive the power of the medium. So their BIG idea on the internet (something which a lot of bigger agencies are shamelessly pitching & executing) is to have their TVC on youtube or God forbid, with an added bit of interactivity, which translates into a quiz based on their TVC. Many of these brand managers are thus, conned into believing that this works with inflated numbers & clicks which are bought at a pittance. This puts these agencies in a very comfortable place, thus, not changing, eventually asphyxiating & crippling the medium. What no one realizes is, that the online space can completely overthrow the traditional, lesser engaging forms of media. People WANT to talk, not only listen. Its in their blood & you can't stop them. The BIG FISH know this & are scurrying around, groping in the dark to make their mark in an industry they do not want to understand. But don't be fooled, they don't want you to know this. They make every attempt to appear calm, be in control, throw their weight around.

LOL (That's laughs out loudly for the uninitiated traditional medium oldies) @ the big fish, because the bigger are, the harder they fall.


PS: Some people might call this a mindless rant, sour grapes or pure insanity. i call it my opinion & you're free to oppose it. Buy me a drink & I'll be more than happy to debate this ;) (all the oldies - That's a wink by the way)

In This Picture

Screw the Spirit of Bombay!

For long have people slept, for long has this one sentence comforted us into our holes. 'The Spirit of Mumbai' is ignorance. It is loathed with 'calm down, it will be okay'. IT IS NOT OKAY! We have been beaten, bludgeoned, battered, bruised & yet we 'bounce back'. NO! Lets not bounce back. Get MAD! Get angry. Shout scream & cry. Weep Bombay. Weep for you are sleeping. Constantly saying that this is a bad dream & it shall pass by dawn. NO! It shall not. We slip deeper into the darkness & we stay silient.

This is a plea to everyone. Do not sit down. Do not let them take you into the night & kill you. Silence the ones who tell you that you cannot do anything. You can do EVERYTHING! Awake. Arise & feel again. Do not be insensitive. Do something about it. Join a movement. Take up a cause. DO NOT SUPPORT divisive politics. Condemn it. Refer to all terrorists as cowards. Do not glorify them. Glorify the heroes that have laid down their lives for yours. Here & at the border. Push the government to lay down firm policies & a federal terror law that NO ONE is above of. ACT NOW.

The Spirit of Mumbai does not it bounces back... the spirit of Mumbai wants to fight back & now is the time! Jai Hind!

FundaMENTALists!

Before I begin what some may call a very partisan & biased read, I would like to put you through an exercise. Nothing much, just a small & simple exercise, something that will be fun if you allow it. Here goes then. Simply spot the difference between these 2 pictures.

Now there will be those who will argue that one is human while one is a primate. Both look relatively peeved with something & both look like they could use a banana. Where the fruit is applicable is rather quite debatable. But for the other few who do not see any difference between the 2 whatsoever... congratulations.

Before you go up ahead & light those effigies bearing my image (how the hell do they get those so quickly? do they have a stock of them somewhere...I wonder) this post is not anti-hindu or anti- any religion. Nor is it as a call or a plea to help minorities that be burning off in the distance. Nor is it anti-monkey or any other sort of animal. This post is simply put - ANTI-FUNDAMENTALIST! Period.

The angry monkey you see above does not belong to a religion. His kind are found everywhere, set to stand up & fight for anything. Be it religion, caste, creed, colour of the skin, vegetable prices, unclipped toenails or bad breath. The 'Fundamental Fool', your typical unemployed 'nothing to lose' youngster transcends every boundary known to man. Religious or political.

These gems of society wail & wallow in self pity shouting out to the world that they have been wronged. They take to violence in order to claw back their rights. They are there because no one else bothers to take up such an issue. I reckon because everyone is out there with a job & a family to feed. But no, these guardians of 'our' rights & 'our' sentiments have to be out there restoring sanity to our world.

Every religion is plagued by this 'It hurts our sentiments' fundamentalist. Constantly trying to fight tooth & nail over a sordid issue that is frankly, worth less than a million buckets of human waste. Land, blasphemy, conversions, insults, the list is endless.

An appeal goes out to everyone with at least one ticking grey cell. PLEASE OPEN YOUR EYES. DO NOT CO-OPERATE. Refrain from acknowledging their propaganda let alone discussing it. These antics that they resort to, violence, murder, constant protest & the odd hunger strike is to distract you. Take you away from the real issues. Issues that them & their kind have no answers to. Answers that all of us need to ask...

Look Jesus! I'm saved!

"Down with Europe! Hey BTW, where are we?"
"Errrm... Europe."
"Shite."

"See Shoumak. I told you this would be better than any movie we could go for. Come on! You're missing out on the fun. Get stomping already!"


!!!! WAKE UP !!!!