| And this despite the fact that I am not his fan! Needless to say, my four-year-old grandson is as enthralled with it as I am. Being older and wiser I can share with you why I like the ad. |
| It's a topic I always talk about when I come across an ad that seems to have handled it well. And that is celebrity advertising. We see it a lot in India and very rarely do we come across ads that use celebrities well. |
| The wisest route will be of course to use the celebrity for what he or she has become famous for. It is not easy, because most often the celebrity bears a tenuous relationship with the product being advertised. So we end up with ads where they look forced upon or they play roles unrelated to their prowess. |
| Now just imagine how difficult it must have been to use a martial arts star like Jackie Chan to sell a bike. Chan is known for his trademark technique of using props like chairs and ladders to perform his stunts. |
| Even though the ad is a bit long-winded, it manages to capture the grace and poetic panache Chan is known for, yet, quite credibly, connects it with the bike. And for that the ad rates high on my popularity chart. |
| The film's production values are extremely good but the script could have been worked upon. But after all those gravity-defying stunts, who really cares what the beginning was all about? |
| What I've learned The Trust Factor Sometime during the early years of Mudra's partnership with DDB, I was invited to a DDB conference in Pattaya, near Bangkok. Now in those days this was the kind of perk that even a Chairman looked forward to. |
| Sponsored international trips to hobnob with your international network were not at all commonplace as they are today. |
| It really was the ultimate reward. I decided to take a senior colleague with me and chose someone who was bright. |
| After the conference was over and just before we returned, he, very matter-of-factly, informed me that he was putting in his papers when we land. |
| It was like he had thrown cold water over my face. Truly that was the last thing I expected after I had just rewarded him with what several others in Mudra longed for! |
| This was not all. Mine was a classic experience of putting all my eggs in one basket and losing them all. Here was the man for whom I had used my offices to get him his first job. And then I helped his brother get a job. |
| And then I took care of his brother's and his wife's medical expenses. And he served me with devotion and sincerity for a long, long while. One would think that the stage was set for a 'happily ever after' story. |
| But life is full of surprises and one of my accountants discovered that the family's money was being depleted from the banks. A probe revealed that it was this very trusted gentleman who had forged our signatures and helped himself to our money. |
| I have no explanation how 20 years of trust can suddenly mutate into betrayal in the 21st year. Nor have I picked up identifiable 'signs of treachery' from this experience. But I have learned one thing. |
| Betrayal is a reality that we all have to live with. But for every Brutus in my life, there have been at least six or seven rich relationships that have delivered amply on the trust factor. And that though betrayal is the 'unkindest cut' of them all, it definitely should not stop us from trusting again. |
| Because without trust, relationships can never be built. And without relationships we really don't have a life or a career for that matter. Email: agkbrandconsult@yahoo.com |
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