The Chicken Rules

Long time readers, (hang on a mo…are there even readers for this blog anymore?) will know of my fascination with the word, technique and magnificence that is the FLIP.

A simple method that opens up a world of ideas for the starved writer.
The flip can be used in two main ways

• On a problem – Flip your problem around, flip the brief, flip the before in the before and after, flip a case study, flip the time lines, flip the servicing guy. Apply the flip on the problem or the message you need to communicate to see if you can get that idea. Look at the whole thing upside down and right to left (left to right in the arabian countries). Flip popular perceptions, flip research findings, flip social taboos
• On the solution – Flip your idea, turn it upside down, flip the headline, flip the visual, play with the order of the words, take the logo up and the headline down, flip a previous ad, spoof, spoof yourself, does the ad work better with an after, before the before? Flip.

Some recent campaigns that Flipped

– Surf Excel: Daag achcha hai / Stains are good (Flipped a perception) – Adidas: Impossible is nothing (Flipped a line, flipped a positive line and made it more powerful)

Jim Aitchison’s Cutting Edge Advertising.

Ever wish for somebody who’s made it big in your field of work to come home one day, give you some tips and pointers to you over a cup of hot coffee? Ever wish to get into the brains of the top pros and see what gets them kicked? Well, with this book you can.

That’s so not a cutting edge beginning for a review. Let’s see if I can better it. Here goes.

Throw out every damn thing you hold dear! Throw out everything you’ve ever learnt. Throw it to the ground, stamp on it and grind it into dust. This, and this is the only way will you be really creative. Learn things anew. See things from a different perspective. Learn to love what you do. Learn to love words and what they are capable of.
That, folks, has been my takeout from by far the best book on Advertising. Or as David Abbott says, by far the best book on print Advertising.

Every page filled with heavyweights in the industry, from Indra Sinha and Neil French to David Abbot and Bob Barrie. So much so, turning a page is a real pain. So much to learn, so few pages. A little tip here. A big idea there. A fantastic way of looking at things everywhere else. Combined with neat little examples and you have a book that will practically sell itself. And it has. Incredibly well, too. They even came out with a second (Cutting Edge Commercials) and third (Cutting Edge Radio) and a revised edition of the first. In short. A brilliant book.

Nah! This still isn’t a good enough review to call cutting edge. Let’s see. Get out! Get out and buy this book if you want to be in advertising!

Well, almost.

One question I’ve been asked is why are advertisements often very misleading, or something like that. My answer is that advertising is just a reflection of the society – and if the current society is false and superficial in nature, advertising will be farcial too.

All performing, commercial and other art forms are a reflection of the society they are in – if they didn’t, the art form would be shallow and meaningless – advertising is just the truest – cause it is able to show the society as it is – like holding up a mirror at us – so we can see us as we are – and not as some abstract concept on a canvas or a 35mm screen of moving images – advertising is, and this point bears repetition – the truest barometer of any society

The question arises – how can advertising be the truest – and why not
the other forms?

Other art forms such as paintings, movies, dance etc have an individual’s imprint in it. It has been created by one person – or a group of very likeminded individuals – a painting has at its core, the painter’s life and ideas- the painter leaves her or his signature, an imprint on the painting.

The same is true of movies and dance – a movie, even though worked on and created by many individuals – the final product has the strongest imprint of one individual – the director.

But Advertising – commercial art – is unlike the others. Because it is a truly anonymous art form – in that sense it is the entire society’s creation –
It doesn’t have the imprint of just one creator – a copywriter, an art director – the agency management – the client – the ad film maker – the director – the actors – the press – the censor – each and every one of them shape and craft the ad – leaving behind their own prejudices and likes and dislikes – often mutilating the ad beyond recognition – just like in everyday society – where a million people leave their imprints on it –
Also, one of the most important requirement of a good ad is that it be
relevant and topical – in that it shows what’s current – and if the current hot news is pornography – you can bet your ass that advertising will reflect it – if only to ride on porn’s popularity.

There is a saying in the agency circles – clients deserve the advertising they get. Be it good or bad. I also believe that the society too gets the advertising it deserves.

This is something I have been intending to write for ages. Frankly, this is of no interest to the general readers who come to Chicken, or to Selective Amnesia. But of the few times I’ve raised this topic in forums and at agencies, I was asked to hush and keep quiet. If I don’t talk about this now, I will never.

Enough of a Preamble.
Advertising experts and gurus and clients and marketing executives and the all important client servicing people have a very favourite mantra – “The customer is not a moron”. Immediately after which, they turn, look down at the customer and proceed to talk to him or her in the simplest, most idiot proof language possible. Why do you want to purposefully dumb down your communication? Why would you want to say something as friggin simple and obvious as “A for apple” in your communication? Why would you want to put a picture of a fridge and say “This is a fridge. It is used to cool foodstuffs so they keep longer”?

I have a theory. Or at least, an opinion. I believe puns and clever jokes are more appreciated than they are made out to be. I have taken it as my personal mission to do advertisements that leave a little bit for the consumer who reads, sees or hears my advertising to connect up the little dots I leave and come up with the answer himself.

The entire Indian advertising industry is riddled with self-respecting (read: those who think too much of themselves) people who think advertising shouldn’t be clever. What’s the alternative? Dumb advertising?

My best kind of advertising is the one that doesn’t say it all, does not talk to the least common denominator (about which later) and has a little puzzle in the communication for the reader/viewer to decipher and come up with a solution. I think the involvement there would be higher, brand recall better, and you get to project an image of a peer, rather than the adviser/professor/big guy most indian brands project.

A conversation I had with Ravikiran on the new Indian Airlines commercial is the basis for this post.

I am of the opinion that the ad sucks big time. And I don’t think I will change it anytime soon. But then again, I ain’t no expert, and so take this post with a pinch of salt. Or Krystal.

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Charu, taking time off from her reflections points me to an Indian Express, (not rated high in my list of newspapers, though) story.

The story is about the return of the Green Devil, that lovable, brash little mascot/brand-ambassador/icon/mnemonic device of Onida, one of the better known Indian TV and Electronics Brand.

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One of the best headlines ever written, Economist’s “I never read the Economist – Management Trainee, Aged 42” is the yardstick by which most business publications measure their ads on.

Err, test post