Where is the rationale!? The t(c)rap in Ads!

Watching this new Volkswagen Beetle commercial and a series of Ford commercials(this, quite an old one may be but this is the first time I ever watched it) on youtube is making me ponder about this topic!!

When we purchase things(when I mention it as things, I mean it!) what is that we look at?How and why do we decide to buy one thing over the other? Rational?Emotion? how do we come to the conclusion!? Clearly, is it not a logical decision?

Lets look at this best example I can recall to quote -

BMW ad of its M5 series - I suppose this has remained one of the greatest commercials ever in terms of the message it communicated with no single word uttered! The commercial puts the world speed record jet car somewhere in a desert racing at its top speed and halted. All to show that this jet car speed was parallely filmed using a camera fitted to BMW M5!! Sheer driving pleasure! Ultimate driving machine! whatever be the tagline. It is just so effectively conveyed to the audience with no frills attached!! Instead of just touting it as driver-oriented, no-compromise ultimate driving machine, all it does is a clear display of its engineering excellence which is what will be the reason to buy one!

The Ford commercials (One more reason series ads) shows of varied people speaking about their car and captures emotions like no less than a movie! Duh!!!

Then there is this new VW Beetle commercial in India which projects the buggy car as the perfect gift for the daughter's wedding!!Phew...are you kidding me!!? And even better, it is tag-lined as 'Fittingly Expensive'!!How else could VW justify their cute little bugsy car for a whopping 25 lacs!!? Also not to mention the offensive message that might spark up about 'dowry' and stuff!Gimme a break!!!!!!and please bring up the logical reason to buy a car!

Well no offence intended but just suspecting the approach of emotional advertising when a strong message can be conveyed with solid rationale for a purchase! Why does the rational reasoning has to be replaced!? Or does it really replace? Ofcourse, ads are dramatized means to convey the fact but the rationale to purchase it should eventually be conveyed to the targeted audience!

This reminds me of a quote by Jack Trout "If you only have 30 seconds to state your case, skip the seduction and sell your heart out!"
So very true Mr.Trout!

Atleast common sense please!!

Alright!it's been long time since i blogged, thanks to the Bangalore traffic, it really makes me feel that i should write this.
Another reason, off late i have got back on my 2 wheeler to work like the good ol' days of riding to Hebbal, back in 2007!
But these days, I must say that its really crazy out there on the streets!

1. Who ever said that footpaths are meant for pedestrians!?ask the super-bikers please!

2. We don't discriminate on the basis of color! even if it means jumping the traffic signal!!

3. I am driving a bigger vehicle and you better give way to me first (well, actually i don't even want to notice the smaller ones,shooo...shooo...)

4. Here cometh the BMTC bus driver !!!!!The bus-stop is on the left side but who cares!?I always keep to the right of the street while driving and darn!i don't care i can anyway swift-switch to the left for the stop.
 5. Wonderful cab drivers,especially the Indica ones and the auto-rickshaw drivers!Traffic rules!???..duh!!
 6. Who cares if its a hospital zone,I honk!honk, honk and honk!!till you get the hell outta my way!

7. Oh there comes an ambulance! let me follow it up(seems like those 20 bikers are all anchored-up to it) to get through the crazy traffic!

8. I stop my car ,who cares if it just blocked the whole damn street!Whoosh...outta nowhere i bang open the car door and you expect me to look out for a vehicle or pedestrian beside!??

9. Oh yeah the 'lost lots' we are and the traffic flow does not even affect us!we just stroll on the main roads like taking a walk on the sands on the beach!we love it and we probably have selective hearing so who cares about all the honking?

10. I do see the jammed up traffic but I honk hoping that would work wonders to clear traffic!

11. I am the traffic police, oh is that a traffic jam that i see there!??...well ***YAWN***!!!


12. I am driving left on the lane,there is long lined up traffic ahead and behind me.Driving,driving...still on left,a traffic signal;oh well i just changed my mind, let me take a right turn here

13. What if you drive slow, keep to the right on the street! Now, I am forced to over-take from the left!perfect!
 14. What do you mean!!?what is driving etiquette!?are you crazy or something!?

We don't need no regulation, we don't need no false control!!Honking seems like the stress-buster!
Okie dokie.... well, HELL JUST BROKE LOOSE here!

Is Mr.Bingham right!?

Watched this movie 'Up in the Air' couple of months back with my good sweet buddies.We saw this movie,had a great time and as always had some post-movie discussion.
But this film left me intrigued days later albeit must admit that it had been playing on my mind quite often.

'Up in the air' is a smart movie with nice blend of humor and harsh reality of the today's dehumanizing economic situation that we are all part of. George Clooney(Mr.Ryan Bingham) is the monster manager hired by big companies to fire people, a damn atrocious job - being downsizing manager(in simple words, hired to screw employees' happiness);all he is ambitious about is to join the elite goup of the few 10 million milers(Sophisticated Clooney does the best justice to this role, of course! :) )


Enters Natalie, a young enthusiastic tech-savvy woman who thinks has a better idea to do Mr.Bingham's job - fire people via video conferencing. This approach not only adds on to the top of an already cold-hearted job out there but also slims Bingham's chances towards his dream goal of racking up more flier-miles which enforces him to convince that her idea is not the way it is gonna work by taking her along to fly with him across many places in US to give her the up,close and personal experience of the job. And as Bingham says in the movie 'To know me is to fly with me'! so off goes Natalie with him.


Another strong character in the movie is the intelligent business woman named Alex whom he happens to meet and she effortlessly matches his fancied status and one of the best part in the movie is their introductory scene,when both of them are seen flaunting their respective cards,one after the other to brag of their member-only privileges!!

These are three main characters of the movie and back to the interesting line,Mr.Bingham; who also sometimes goes around delivering 'motivational' speeches to corporates of how to pack all the important stuff of one's life in a backpack, the stuff here being the relationships and emotions :) - one of the intriguing part in the movie!And what he tells about this 'stuff' is, that it is an excessive baggage in one's life that has to be relieved off.But he unknowingly ends up with one such 'stuff' with Alex and when he eventually realizes that he has lost it, he gets back or probably reminds himself that he belongs 'Up in the air'. This seems to me like how much ever we try to relieve the backpack, getting in that deep water is very much innate to our human nature.

And another amusing part is the fine-woven conjunction where inspite of his claim that he belongs 'Up in the Air', he actually realizes that he could once even miss piling up his precious flier miles to actually stay grounded but is anyway disappointed,so back he goes to his alleged place - is it just an escapade from the compelling experience that he was quite obviously bound to feel?

Like Bingham mentions once, can he just burn his backpack 'stuffed' with all the important things in one's life and walk away undaunted!?
How long can he just hang in 'Up in the Air' or can he actually belong there forever like his home?
Or are all the 'stuff' in our lives-from relationship to jobs, just short-lived like being 'Up in the Air'? :)

26 by 26!

Well, this is the first time ever i am attempting to blog :)

And the reason to start now??actually off late I have had a strong urge to write this and if you find the title kinda weird...probably its for you to figure it out :)

Here let me hit straight to those 26!!

1. Believe that miracles can happen,it might give you hope when most needed.

2. It feels good to wish a person who knows the art of saying 'Hellloooo'.

3. Face is not the index of mind; only situation reveals a person.

4. Every woman has a man in her and every man has a woman in him

5. Traveling alone can be altogether different kinda fun but it is important that you don't feel lonely during the journey.

6. Don't compare - either persons or places, they are just what they are - different from each other.

7. Men can and do cry,they are human too and it is just okay for them to cry.

8. Step out of your comfort-zone,you will learn to view life in a broader perspective.

9. Be who and what you are,pretension irks.

10. Have a song in your heart!

11. Music feeds soul(might be too deep a word but i have no words to define that ecstatic and mystical feeling)

12. The most important part of any relationship is 'communication'.It could make or break it all.

13. Your attitude defines you,it is everything and all that you can carry at any point of time.

14. An educated and civilized need not be a literate.they are two separate things.

15. The loveliest and most elegant of all manners is to be polite.

16. If we don't remain open to change, we fade.

17. It is good to face a short financial crunch early in life to know the value of money.

18. Dont take yourself so seriously. No one else does! :D

19. Books are kinda like travel supplements- you can just sit in one place yet you travel far.

20. Being unhygienic really sucks, it sucks big time.

21. You cant get along with people for long if your frequencies don't strike.

22. Anger,sarcasm - two things none would like to handle

23. A person deserves second chance but not the third

24. Dont audit life!!!

25. In Ozzy style :), there is a person living in your head who is mad,keep him alive but behave normal

26. No matter what, nothing stops, life goes on, people move on...