charukesi July 30th, 2004
At a time when in-programme advertising and product placements are getting unbearable (shudder shudder), I saw an ’ad’ on the tv serial Sanjivani (India’s answer to ER) that made me stop and smile. In the scene, a character playing a senior doctor explains to a child’s parents about the ORS (Oral Rehydration System) of WHO. The scene was woven into the day’s episode and the message was very clear and arresting. (I now remember reading somewhere that this ad was also to be run on the other popular medico serial Astitva on Zee TV)
Apparently, last year on the same day, ORS ads were run as part of the popular tv serial KSBKBT (and if you don’t know what means, can we meet up please? Would be such a pleasure). An Integrated Marketing and Research Services poll of 298 women showed 71 per cent recalled the ad. And repeated in the serial just following it.
I again quote from the HT report, Samit Sinha, of Alchemy Brand Consulting, finds the kind of recall in KSBKBT phenomenal, but not surprising: “The future will see a convergence of advertising and entertainment and the ad message will come without it screaming at you.”
Impressive, but scary…. While it is great for an ORS kind of product, imagine the possibilities…. Subliminal advertising and persuasion at its best worst…. Imagine watching an ad and not even realising that you are watching an ad…. AND being influenced by it…
Incidentally, there has always been a debate about the power of subliminal persuasion…. Since the initial days of Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders (1957)….. Does it really work or not? What do you think?
charukesi July 30th, 2004
The rain gods have finally smiled (ok, frowned, considering the state of clothes which don’t dry and walls which leak) upon Bombay…. The annual ritual of train stoppage happened yesterday…. And with it went our building’s main cable…. Which has stopped the lift and the cable television service (which was restored first, which makes me think about the priorities of people - but then they don’t all live on the seventh and top floor of the building) and the internet service (don’t even ask me how these are connected).
And as if things were not jolly enough, Reliance woke up last morning and decided that enough was enough - and promptly blocked my outgoing calls. The latest assault from Reliance in our ongoing battle for the bill…. (They want me pay it and I want them to send it first. Sounds fair?)
So, I spent all of yesterday sipping masala chai and watching the rain pitter-pattering on my windows (though my mood was nowhere as cheery as it sounds now)…. With no way of communicating with the outside world… It is a different thing that I went through a bad two months or so recently when I chose to cut myself off from the outside world, but it is all about the power of choice…. As opposed to being forced…. Very scary feeling…..
And now, well into my second such day, when the cable internet serivce has come thorugh, what do I do first? Blog about my experience! Did not even pause to admire my Calvin wallpaper once or laugh over my junk mail (there are many pastimes that an idle mind devices)…..
Am I back on track or what?!
charukesi July 27th, 2004
It is like you never blogged….. Ouch! That hurt, Chandru… That public memory is short, I knew… But after almost a year of blogging, it’s like I never blogged 
I’ve been away for just over a month and… Patrix in typepad and Jivha lost in cyberspace somewhere….? And what else ?
But I cannot complain…. Looking at the speed with which the public has forgotten Vajpayee…. The latest, the NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) has issued instructions for redoing the skyboards to remoive images of the former PM who launched the Rs.54,000 crore national highways project, the world’s biggest ongoing infrastructure project (says yesterday’s TOI). That hurt too. The Golden Quadrilateral….. The Dream Run on Indian highways… Erase the face and erase the deed ?
charukesi July 27th, 2004
Thank you everyone who’s written in with your condolences….
Grandmoms (and granddads too) are indeed great people…. And I suppose they have all the fun…. Been there, done that - no responsibility and lots of fun pampering and spoiling their grandchildren…. How many times has your mother said to you in exasperation - I am waiting for the day when you have kids of your own… So they can sit back and smirk…. Imagine Calvin’s kids, for instance… And the supreme satisfaction his parents would get if they turn out to be anything at all like him!
As for my paati, she was everything a nice old lady could be….. And my mother misses her most…. After thirty-five years of living with her post-marriage….. feels strange to live alone, she says 