I finally managed to activate my own domain and decided to use it to host my WordPress blog. You can view my new site here.

It is still work in progress and will be updated soon. The advantage of hosting a WordPress blog in one’s own domain (instead of using WordPress’ free blogging service - which is fantastic by the way) is that one can upload custom themes, plugins and generally have more control of the design aspects. Please bookmark the new site.

I hate scam ads. What pisses me off more than scam ads for obscure or invented clients (Wee Poke Yu Acupuncture, Chinchpokli), are the scam ads for well-known clients.

Wonderbra would perhaps the top the list among ad students and junior writers for a spec ad. As Copyranter puts it in his inimitable, ‘I hate everyone’ style: “There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and somewhere in the world. right at this exact moment, an ad student is working on a spec campaign for WonderBra”.

Coming to this specific ad, (created by Publicis Paris, via), this is perhaps among the subtlest of the Wonderbra ads.

Apart from Wonderbra, the other brand which gets the creative guys drooling is the ad for a 4×4. When I saw this ad for Volkswagen Touareg, my first reaction was: ‘Hey, it’s so simple, why didn’t I think of it?’. It captures the ‘off-the-road’ idea beuatifully. But apparently, this idea was executed by Fiat earlier.

I visited the newly opened Reliance Timeout store in Bangalore last weekend. The press releases said that it was an ‘entertainment’ store focusing on books, music and toys.

I walked in and I first saw the ‘Books we recommend’ section. It also had an assortment of magazines. My first thought was to compare it with the specialist book shops like Crossword and my favourite Magazines shop (which, er…focuses on magazines). I asked the nearest shop attendant about the DVD section. He in turn looked for help from some other attendant and he in turn looked around for help. First thought - why on earth start a store without proper training of employees? I got bugged and decided to do a walk about. 

The toys section was fairly elaborate. They also had a little play area for kids. Nice touch. I also noticed a stationery section. I did not venture explore it but again thanks to the recent ads & press releases, I was thinking: ‘Hmm, when I have Staples to check out in Bangalore, why come here for stationery?’

The books section had the usual titles - humour, crime, management etc. I also noticed a fairly ealaborate regional languages section. I wanted to enquire about books by Carl Hiassen, but I assumed that the attendant will not know.

The music and DVD section had the usual chart toppers but I could not find ‘24 - Season 4′ DVD set. I remember seeing it at Music World and I thought: ‘Hmm, isn’t the music & DVD collection wider elsewhere?’

The ground floor also had a limited collection of perfumes (the image of a wide selection at Shopper’s Stop flashed through my mind). A part of the shop is still being finished (the electronics section on the first floor).

This got me thinking: if the experience of shopping at these ‘general’ stores is not going to be mind blowing, I would rather prefer shopping at specialist outlets - for books, electronics and so forth. In terms of verticals, I thought Reliance got it right with their jewellery store and the footwear store (Footprint). But with Timeout, unless they offer a wider choice and improved shopping experience, the other specialist outlets would be my preferred choice.

Another media byte for Apple…another debate about the ‘cult’ of Apple.

I guess the average PC-user in India will wonder what the fuss is all about. For me such articles are vindication of much that I admire about Apple and what has made me an Apple fan too. I may not ‘defend’ Apple through vitriolic posts on the blog world, but in my own small way I influence my PC user friends. Like, after weeks of gentle persuasion from me, a colleague of mine planning to buy a laptop has bought a Macbook. Hootzah! Apple, mera commission?

Satyam is reported to be the first Indian company to sign up as sponsor and official IT services provider for the next two editions of the FIFA World Cup in 2010 and 2014. Seems like big deal for Satyam.

I am wary of such deals and the resultant media coverage. One can understand why relatively low profile brands seek such associations. Sporting events like F1 formula racing and soccer world cup provide great scope for visibility and fast-track brand recall. ING for example must have decided on Renault sponsorship for the same reasons.

But with Satyam, I have my doubts. I don’t know much about their IT services. But with their consumer businesses I always thought of the brand as a wannabe. I have always thought of them as copying the likes of Yahoo & Rediff.

I was also most disappointed with their Sify iway ventures. A few years ago they were all over the place in Indian metros. But I have never experienced great speeds or service there. After a recent visit to one of these iway centres I could notice the thinning crowds (thanks to broadband at home?), bored iway executives and printers that did not work. I somehow thought that the entire effort was half hearted.

I felt this ‘half heartedness’ even with their other services. I bought a domain name from their registry services. Not that I expected a human to call after that - but there’s been no attempt to sell me anything, no contact. That’s still fine. But the ‘no contact’ policy seems to be applicable even to their customer service. I enquired about website hosting and I got a mail from them 4 days ago promising a 24-hour response. Nothing yet.

Anyway, I guess Satyam is trying to propel their image among a totally different audience with their FIFA sponsorship. If it does good to an Indian brand globally, who am I to whine?

A classic McDonalds ad. I remember seeing this in the mid-90s in one of the global reels at the agency. It is still fresh in my mind!

One of the potential time wasters in offices is the brainstorming meeting. Handled well, it can produce great results. But sometimes it can lead to disaster.

There’s this old commercial for Budget Rent-a-Car which spoofs a typical product-idea brainstorming meeting. And in the process highlights what they are actually good at - offering ‘budget’ rent-a-cars.

This ad is part of a series. One other ad, is the hilarious ‘Rent a ranger for a day, be a ranger for a day’.

Contextual ads are all the rage in online media placement. You know, the kind you see when you get an email from someone in say, Burkina Faso. You are likely to have a cute ‘Holiday package to Burkina Faso’ ad next to it.

I came across these 2 examples of the ‘best and the worst’ of contextual ads at Copyranter.

Hilarious! Talking of which, I love the acerbic wit of this blogger at Copyrant. He is very opinionated and does not seem to spare anyone!

There’s a new global campaign for Fedex. For years now, Fedex and their agency (BBDO) have produced great business building work for the brand. Even when producing stuff for the Super Bowl (whose ads border on the bizarre), they have managed to strike the right balance between relevance & creativity. In the US, its part of daily parlance to say ‘fedex the document to me’, a la ‘I googled for this’.

In the ’80s they had the educative, category creating commercials with the ‘when its absolutely, positively has to be there overnight’ series of TVC’s. I particularly recall a TVC where the CEO growls at his assistant about a package having to ‘absolutely, positively has to be there next day’. The assistant in turn growls at his assistant with the same mesage. And so it goes on till it gets to the mail room boy. He simply picks up the phone and says, ‘Hello, Federal’. And then there was another one about this guy making a presentation to whole bunch of poker-faced fat cats. They are not impressed with his presentation ‘coz he is simply showing shadows of animals like a dog, on the screen, using his fingers. You see, his slides (we are talking 35mm slides here, youngsters) did not reach in time.

And then there was this Fedex MBA commercial, where a lady tells a young intern that using Fedex.com is so easy, even an MBA can do it.

The Superbowls have seen their fair share of great Fedex ads. The one with Burt Reynolds mocking the ‘genre’ of Superbowl ads was simply great.

The generic promise of ‘on time delivery’ is common for all courier brands. Some have translated this attribute into a benefit of ‘vital for your business success’. In India, Blue Dart had a great insight about ‘what travels in a courier package is more than the content - its your reputation’.

The latest campaign from Fedex is on similar lines. The thought being that Fedex is behind the scenes of any business’ successful operation. It passes the first test - noticeability. The mirror image of ’success’ lettering is attention grabbing. It thern forces you to read the entire ad. And when the penny drops, you go ‘Aha!’. Nice.