Secrets Out!!
In an attempt to impress, Beijing might have just lost a lot of fans. Using a “fake” singer to keep the image of perfection going, was probably their least perfect move.
The “scandal” has made it to every newspaper worldwide, turning the issue into a moral and political drama. I cannot help but wonder about the little girls?? What about Yang Peiyi and Lin Miaoke? Will they forget this as a childhood episode? Will Lin carry on with the image of a lip-sync, or as a exceptionally beautiful girl? Will Yang Peiyi become more confident or end up with a ‘low beauty’ image?
Have we successfully messed up the way the future generations perceive talent and beauty? How wise are our decisions on what is acceptable and presentable?
What was showcased to the entire world was no doubt an unprecedented display of glitz, culture, talent, technology and years of preparation, but is all that credible? When might it truly be?
King Turban
International Pageants may have failed to turn it into a style statement, Smart turban 1.0 might not have sold enough copies and training classes could be lacking attendance.
The countries powerful leaders may have failed to inspire.
Even music failed to set the trend.
Perhaps, Bollywood might help turn the tide.
In-program advertising
It is not enough to have a 10 second commercial aired every 5 minutes in the commercial break slot. With almost every brand, churning out commercials with great storyboards, memorable punchlines and characters, visibility is a constant battle. Celebrities’ endorsing multiple brands also dampens the exclusivity and uniqueness of the product.
The most obvious approach in such a scenario is to catch the audience’s attention by creating opportunities in the untapped prime time segment – the serial itself. Forget commercial breaks, welcome in-program advertising.
Although the concept of in-program advertising is no news, its presence on Indian television is greater now than ever before. While the Indian idol judges on Sony television channel sip Pepsi and Aquafina water on and off for 30 minutes, would the audience really remember the 10 second Coca Cola commercial?
Whether it is an anchor eating Maggie on a adventure show in a lifestyle channel or the Get Gorgeous girls checking their own pictures on Yahoo.co.in, in-program advertising is here for now.
So is television viewing minus the commercial breaks a possibility? Are brands, ad-agencies ready to take on this situation? More importantly, how are the viewers going to react to this?
Although it would be interesting to see how products are incorporated into the program, I don’t see many takers for a complete shift in how brands are advertised.
If cleverly done in-program advertising fetches the brand greater coverage and recall value, however how much of the brand to use is eventually the decision of the television channel and the writers.
An overkill may cause some harm to the brand but the negativity of the television viewing experience may keep the viewers away. Remember the movie Yaadien, which got a lot of flake for “over endorsing” and an eventual damp box-office response.
Idiot’s
There are days to fall in love, days to express them and days that make life ohh so perfect. I have everything figured out, actually we all have everything figured out. February 14 every year I will share my love for the current better half of my life, March 8 would be when I appreciate all women in my life, April 22 is when I sit in front of TV grimacing at facts about damage to mother earth and condemning everyone, somewhere in May will be time to make my mom feel special, June is for the father, September 16 I will think of the ozone layer .. so on .
Perfect.
It no surprise that when a news channal airs a piece on hectares of land getting washed away , the immediate concern is not how to prevent further calamities and provide shelter to the victims, rather discussing the disappearance of 150 crores is a far greater issue.
After all in a world where we are all so organised financial statistics are important – they are measurable ( compared to human or animal apathy), look professional, gives the political parties another topic to render irrelevant and more importantly how else do I get my TRP’s? The plight of the victims may catch the initial eyeballs but a banter between parties and the meaningless exchange of blame is far more entertaining. Breaking news material indeed.