This is one of the questions, jokes or snickers everyone is asked when they go out to sea. I later came to realise that these risqué dialogues and jokes are intended to harden up a ‘green’ sailor for the tough life ahead. And it is a tough life, even in this age of satellite communications and internet, even without the Somali pirates.
The advertising and commercial world, one would suppose is no less harsher. In some sense it could be termed rougher than a stormy sea as no one ever ambushes a sailor, intentionally, except for the sea and pirates.
In the marketing world, ambush marketing is an almost accepted way of life. We in India were taught about ambush marketing during the 1996 ICC Wills Cricket World Cup. The Pepsi’s “Nothing Official About It” campaign at the cost of the official sponsor Coke, still brings out a laugh. It was followed in 1997 by some unsavoury talk of rivalry extending into the cricket field.
Now almost 15 years later, there are whispers of dichotomy in Team India due to rivalling TV advertisements - ambush advertisement to be precise. The Dhoni - Harbhajan ‘make it large’ advertisements are at the centre of the controversy with Harbhajan’s mother getting into the act and claiming emotional injury - to her personally and also to her religion. What a hog wash!
Dhoni’s appearance in a liquor ad irking some is nothing new. A couple of months back we had protests by a marginal party, the PMK, against the ad in Chennai.
Here are the 2 ads in question - back to back - the first is the original Harbhajan’s Royal Stag with the catch line ‘Have I made it large?’, followed by the Dhoni starred McDowell one with the catch line ‘Do something different, not just large’.
I have subtitled them in English for non-Hindi speakers - do decide whether the Dhoni’s repartee is offensive for yourself; And don’t forget to smile.
BTW, today morning while waiting in line to fetch flowers, heard this quip from a middle aged lady, “Well if some one portrays a fat, uncouth sardarji as the father of my son (that is, my husband) as depicted in the ad, I too would feel like suing”
ROFLMAO!
The advertising and commercial world, one would suppose is no less harsher. In some sense it could be termed rougher than a stormy sea as no one ever ambushes a sailor, intentionally, except for the sea and pirates.
In the marketing world, ambush marketing is an almost accepted way of life. We in India were taught about ambush marketing during the 1996 ICC Wills Cricket World Cup. The Pepsi’s “Nothing Official About It” campaign at the cost of the official sponsor Coke, still brings out a laugh. It was followed in 1997 by some unsavoury talk of rivalry extending into the cricket field.
Now almost 15 years later, there are whispers of dichotomy in Team India due to rivalling TV advertisements - ambush advertisement to be precise. The Dhoni - Harbhajan ‘make it large’ advertisements are at the centre of the controversy with Harbhajan’s mother getting into the act and claiming emotional injury - to her personally and also to her religion. What a hog wash!
Dhoni’s appearance in a liquor ad irking some is nothing new. A couple of months back we had protests by a marginal party, the PMK, against the ad in Chennai.
Here are the 2 ads in question - back to back - the first is the original Harbhajan’s Royal Stag with the catch line ‘Have I made it large?’, followed by the Dhoni starred McDowell one with the catch line ‘Do something different, not just large’.
I have subtitled them in English for non-Hindi speakers - do decide whether the Dhoni’s repartee is offensive for yourself; And don’t forget to smile.
BTW, today morning while waiting in line to fetch flowers, heard this quip from a middle aged lady, “Well if some one portrays a fat, uncouth sardarji as the father of my son (that is, my husband) as depicted in the ad, I too would feel like suing”
ROFLMAO!
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