Every month, dozens of ad campaigns are launched. Some are good, some are outright bad and some are forgotten even before they are remembered! But there are a few that are beyond good – these are extraordinary as they strike a chord with the viewer; they simple yet not stupid and all-in-all, they deliver the message perfectly well. Here are four ad campaigns that, according to us, have clicked.

1. The Taste of Amul

If a brand’s value is to be judged by the ease with which it can be recalled, then Amul’s marketing campaign wins hands down.
With its clever use of topical events, Amul’s utterly butterly campaign—it has the distinction of entering the Guinness World Records as the longest running campaign—has won the brand several accolades.
Playing the role of a social observer, its weekly comments have tickled India’s funny bone since 1967, when Sylvester Da Cunha’s irrepressible Amul girl first had her say.

2. Campaigning like Tata:

Nearly everybody fell in love with the Jaago Re campaign of Tata Tea. The campaign showed simple aspects of our daily life, highlighted how we have forgotten our basic duties as citizens of India, and urged the audience to ‘wake up’. These set of ads stood out in the crowd and mostly focused on the functional aspect of tea. By picking up issues so close to the average consumer’s average day, Tata Tea was able to connect with the audience, and by bringing in an emotional angle to the whole experience of tea, the campaign was hugely successful. Major benefits of this brand extension include leveraging the existing brand’s equity to gain trust, cost saving and continuing on a trusted formula (in terms of brand elements).

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3. Negative publicity:

Television advertising is generally a thirty second audio visual clipping telling us the features and advantages of a particular product. Since the time span of an advertisement is so less, the advertisement should always be exciting, interesting and get the point through immediately. If we marry the concept that advertisements are always time bound and that human psychology is always attracted to controversy, we get the perfect form of advertising – controversial advertising. For example, the Amul Macho ads, with their obvious sexual overtures, were able to create quite a stir. Though they were eventually banned, but the brand was able to create awareness and separate itself from the competition.

4. Coz, dirt can be your best friend!

Who hasn’t seen the utterly cute Surf Excel ads? This campaign by Surf Excel is one of its longest running and one that has clicked with the audiences. In all ads of this campaign, the children are urged to get dirty and messy if it helps to achieve something good – like a smile on a loved ones face. This particular brother-sister ad is one of our favourites, is it yours?

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Every week I’ll be reviewing ads – TVCs, print ads, banners, hoardings – and bringing to you the best and bad of the lot. The battle of the ads has begun and it is time you start to take sides! You can agree or disagree with me, but you must feel free to express that.

Here we go!

BEST: Surf Excel Cricket Commercial

The Surf Excel Cricket Commercial complements the ‘Daag Acche Hai’ tagline really well. The message is kept really simple, the ad focuses on the USP of the product, with a really touching concept that makes the viewer smile. Eventually, along with the concept, the product attains a recall value among the potential consumers i.e. the mothers. Agency – Lowe Lintas. Link –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdLCKECd9M

BAD: Lays Baked Chips

The Lays Baked commercial could have been improved upon. Since it is the product is baked, the price is higher and it targets the higher middle and higher class of the society.  Thus a more thorough and mature concept would have been appreciated by the TG and that would help increase sales as well. It is the concept that sells the product, especially if you’re dealing with a niche audience. Also, I think more is expected out of Lays as a brand. This simply does not cut it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Agency – JWT India. Link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOd9Q3_VkBI

1. London Olympics 2012: Gagan Narang wins the Bronze medal in the Men’s 10 –meter air rifle

With an impressive overall score of 701.1, Gagan Narang became the first Indian to win an individual medal in the ongoing London Olympics. Narang placed third after Alin George Moldonveanu of Romania, and Niccolo Campriani of Italy, who scored 702.1 and 701.5 respectively. However, compatriot and gold winner at Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra, failed to qualify the preliminary rounds with a score of 594/600.
Following his victory at the Olympics, the Haryana government announced to reward Narang with a cash prize of Rs one crore for bringing laurels to the state and the country. Full story here.

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2. Vijay Kumar wins Silver in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol

Taking India’s medal tally to two in the 2012 London Olympics, Vijay Kumar won the Silver in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event. The 26-year-old Commonwealth Games champion, who comes from Himachal Pradesh is an ex-armyman’s son, and he held his nerves in the six-man finale. Full story here.

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3. 21 states go dark as three electricity grids collapse in a span of two days

More than 600 million Indians were affected as the North, East and North-Eastern grids tripped causing 21 states, including the capital, to go powerless.
The country’s worst blackout gravely affected the train services in six railway zones, with 300 trains coming to a halt. In Delhi, Metro rails stopped in their tracks inside the underground tunnels or several feet above in the streets due to the tripping of transmission lines, leaving the commuters stranded. Some 300 miners, who got trapped in coal mines in Bengal and Jharkhand as the lifts failed due to power outage, were rescued. The ex-Power Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde blamed the overdrawing of power by some states to be the cause of grid failure.

4. Chidambaram becomes the new Finance Minister, Shinde gets Home ministry

Following Pranab Mukherjee’s election as the new President, PM Manmohan Singh appointed P Chidambaram as the new Finance Minister while the charge of Home Ministry, which was previously held by Chidambaram, was given to Sushil Kumar Shinde, the now former Power Minister. Now, Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerapa Moily has been given the additional charge of Power Ministry. These new appointments however have not gone down too well with the opposition or the masses. Full story here.

5. Iconoclastic author, Gore Vidal, dies of pneumonia at 86

Celebrated author, playwright, politician and commentator, Gore Vidal, died of complications from pneumonia at his home in Los Angeles. Born as Eugene Luther Vindal Jr. on October 3,1925 in New York, Gore was known for his witticism and his wisdom. Beautifully written novels like, “Burr”, “1876”, “Lincoln” and “The Golden age” earned him the title of being the’ Oscar Wilde of the modern age’. Vidal was also famous for being involved in verbal altercations with many celebrities as he never minced his words in public. He is survived by his half-sister Nina Straight and half brother Tommy Auchincloss. Full story here and here.

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6. Michael Phelps creates history by winning the most number of Olympic medals

Phelps became the most decorated Olympian by winning the gold medal in 100 meters butterfly and bagging his 21st Olympic medal which was his 17th gold medal. In the London Olympics, Phelps has managed to break the 48-year record of Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina whose total medal tally was 18 medals. Full story here.

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7. Four blasts shake the city of Pune; 1 injured

A series of four well coordinated blasts shook the city of Pune on Wednesday. Fortunately, no damage to the property was reported and only one person was injured as the blasts were of low intensity. The places where the blasts happened were in the heart of the city. While two bombs were placed in cake boxes, the other two were attached to bicycles. A preliminary forensic report stated that the explosive material used in the blasts was ammonium nitrate. Full story here.

8. Hotmail relaunched by Microsoft as Outlook

In a move to counter Google’s extremely popular email service Gmail, Microsoft launched Outlook.com as the newer, better and Facebook-friendly variant of Hotmail. This new version has been given sharp new looks, social networking links and new features for handling junk and mass mail in order to compete with the popular Gmail. This revamped version will also allow the users to make internet calls through Skype. Full story here.

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9. India lifts ban on investments from Pakistan.

In a bid to improve the ties with the neighbouring country, the government lifted the ban on investments from Pakistan, which was the only country to face such a restriction. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board of India will review and approve all the proposals by Pakistani companies and individuals. However, investment proposals cannot be made for the sectors of defense, space and atomic energy. Full story here.

10. Blackberry maker Research in Motion ends standoff with Indian government; hands over the encryption key.

Bringing an end to its four year old deadlock with the government over providing encryption keys for its secure corporate emails and popular messenger services, the Blackberry maker Research in Motion(RIM) finally gave in to the government’s demands. The solution, offered by RIM to the government, has been developed by a firm called Verint and is capable of intercepting messages and emails and will make them available in a readable format. With this, India’s major desire of monitoring all communication on Blackberry smartphones on real time basis for security purposes has been satisfied. Full story here.

– By Deep Chhabria

After a fast run along the sea-facing promenade at Carter road in the ethnic suburb of Bandra, the first smell that tantalizes me is that of authentic chicken being smeared with fire at the junction where Carter road turns into the youth centric Khao galli. In this bustling and vibrant lane, rests Carter’s Blue – home to finger licking Lebanese and Mughlai food and the always crowded ‘adda’ of college students.

This quaint eatery was started in 2006 by Mr. Mehboob Khan and has a menu that comprises of more than 80 items with the traditional chicken shawarma being the crowd’s favourite. Being located in a prime and strategic spot, dishing out delicious food at very reasonable prices are the reasons behind this joints success – no wonder then that it is crowded for the entire time that it is open (12pm – 1am).

The menu offers ample choices and includes Lebanese delicacies like hummus, falafel, pita bread, etc. as well as Mughlai Kebabs like Chicken tikka, Reshmi Tikka, Sheekh kebabs, etc. The vegetarians needn’t feel left out as the Paneer and Mushroom Shawarmas and the vegetarian Kebabs are equally famous. The new entrant in the menu is the big sized chicken baida roti and trust me it is a glutton’s paradise for only INR 150.

“Quantity and quality are our pillars and we make sure none of them ever breaks,” said the owner (Mr. Khan) to me when my friend and I went to gorge on the delish food there. The fact that if offers delicious food for a reasonable price is what make it a hit among the students fraternity. For example, a very filling chicken shawarma with ample of chicken, fries, pita bread, garlic sauce, pickle, cheese (if ordered) is priced at a meagre Rs.110. Now that’s an offer one can’t refuse!

The feast I gorged on! 😀

Add to that credential list an extremely quick service and you have a winner! The joint offers take-away options and if you wish you can occupy the plastic chairs they place near the eatery; however, all in all this is a stand-and-savour kind of place.

Khana rating: 8.5 / 10

Knowing how to edit an article is almost as important as knowing how to write well. A well written piece, loses its sheen if it isn’t edited properly. Therefore we need to talk about a few sacred rules of editing, which can make a piece of good writing great.

1. I am pretty sure that most of us think that the first and foremost part of editing is to spell-check. But I would beg to differ. For although it is extremely important, it often happens that once we are done with it we think that that is all the editing we need to do. This is of course far from the truth. That is why I suggest that even before you spell check your article, you read it thoroughly to make sure that the sentences and paragraphs are in place, and that everything makes sense when put together.

2. Next comes the checking of spellings. The word processing spellchecker is not foolproof. So beware! Whenever in doubt, use a dictionary to check your spellings.

3. What follows next are grammar, capitalization, subject/verb agreement, tenses and word usage. Tips: verbs have to agree with their subjects, a sentence cannot end with a preposition and cannot start with a conjunction and infinitive words are not meant to be split.

4. Make sure that the sentence construction is up to the mark. Each sentence should have two parts: the subject and the predicate. Use sentence combining words wherever possible. And no sentence fragments please.

5. Avoid very long sentences as there are more chances of you making mistakes there.

6. Please do not use repetitive redundancies. They can put off a reader no matter how interesting the theme of your piece of writing might be. Avoid clichés as much as possible. Better still, avoid them completely. And while you are at it try doing away with comparisons as well- they are almost as bad as clichés. Try and be as specific as possible, using and choosing your words economically.

7. If you want your readers’ attention, talk to him. For this you need to do away with the use of passive voice altogether. Remember, you are not writing a novel.

8. The three things you must not do:
§ Do not repeat a point you want to stress on. Remember, understatement is the best as well as the surest way of putting forward an earth shaking idea.
§ Do not exaggerate.
§ Do not go overboard with your use of punctuation marks. They can kill an article when in excess. But do not forget to use them where necessary.

9. Avoid using quotations, similes, metaphors and rhetorical questions unless the point you are trying to make cannot be made without them. Avoid generalisations as well as one word sentences.

10. Keep the use of foreign words and phrases at bay.

11. We are not living in the Shakespearean era, so avoid old English. Use British English or American English, according to the demands of the article. In either case make sure your English usage is in the correct form. Avoid the use of funny English, unless you are writing a funny article of course.

12. Alliterations should be avoided. They sound good when used judiciously in poetry and prose, but will probably not have the same effect when used in an official or a formal document.

13. Always finish with sentence with a full stop. This is a very common oversight, but one that can easily be avoided.

14. Please place your footnotes at the bottom of each page and not at the end of the chapter. Make sure you number your notes and references correctly.

15. Bibliographical references should be in alphabetical order and in the proper format, for example, use the full name of the author and the book when referring to a book, the complete email address when referring to an email etc.

16. And last but not the least, proof read religiously to see if anything is amiss. Read forwards and backwards, read each sentence separately, making sure that each makes sense even when read alone. Double check if you feel unsure. But don’t overdo it. Learn to trust yourself.

Acclaimed Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once exclaimed that “Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.”

This seems to be the case with Indian politics. There are too many fools in multiple positions of power, and their foolhardy has corrupted not just power, but everything in its wake. India has always lacked in inspiring, well-informed and genuinely concerned leaders, ones who could display the potential to rise above shallow games of political opportunism and media-attention; but it has in excess, groups of corrupt and power-hungry politicians.

The ‘scam-period’, when various instances of money fraud like the CWG scam, the 2G scam and the Adarsh scam came to fore, is what comes to my mind now. What were these instances if not abuse of power and breeding of corruption? For a country that was reeling under the burden of mis-governance, these scams proved to be the final blow. People were angry and their discontentment was showing. Measures had to be taken to right the wrong, but who could possibly unify this country of ONE BILLION?

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Anna Hazare, a war soldier and a past recipient of various environmental awards, acclaimed for having repaired his broken village stood up to be the national crusader against everything wrong with this country – corruption, corrupt politicians, poor governance and so on. With credible and respectable people like Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal forming the core of the Anna Team and a plausible  workforce comprising of lawyers and IAS officials, Anna’s Army was raring to go.

Anna Hazare, the Leader

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Senior citizens gave their approval to Anna; housewives left their homes and kitchens to be a part of Anna Mania. The blue collar worker finally felt there was a leader that spoke his language and he willingly gave the cause his precious time and valued money. And the youth? Who can forget those pictures where the youth thronged the roads and public maidans and shouted anti-corruption slogans? They took over blogs/twitter/facebook proclaiming their support for Anna, discussing the Lokpal with as much fervour as they would discuss their college fest.

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The crowds turn out in LARGE numbers to support Anna

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The Youth unite in the fight against corruption

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But all this was a year ago. Where does the movement stand now? Where are the protestors now? Has Team Anna lost its sheen? Honestly, do we, the youth, care about the cat and mouse game that Anna and the government seem to be indulging in lately?

At Anna’s fast campaign at Jantar Mantar (in Jul 2012) where have the crowds gone?

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Che Guevara, the great Marxist revolutionary, is counted as one of the most exceptional youth leaders the world has seen. For Che was a man of action, and not just words. While Team Anna has tried, exceptionally hard, to lambast the government for its inaction against corruption, to abuse the media for being critical of its actions and basically, to disregard anyone who is not a part of their movement, sadly, all they have done is speak. Although their initial fiery speeches of a citizen revolt were counted as inspiring and revolutionary, the country is in a dire need of doers, as speakers we have many. While Team Anna has busied itself in enemy counting, the country has moved on, and so have the criminals.

A revolt or a political movement when staged, must be backed by proper understanding and maturity. While the Anna Army have been squabbling within itself and with the government, the country is sitting back and watching the tamasha unfold. The layman, who once was willing to fight the world with Anna for a better tomorrow, is feeling lost yet again. The hope that was so craftily created, now lays lifeless. It now seems as a lost battle.

Rift in Anna’s Army? Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan in a media interaction at New Delhi

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What is the future for Anna and his team? Will the movement meet its rightful end? There as much questions as there are complications.

But the ONE question that must be answered is: Will YOU, the youth, get together and re-ignite the fire and fight for a better India??

Do tell.