Sugarcoating truth

Some truths are best told direct, but not always...

What I've liked
This is the second ad in a campaign that has already caught my attention "" the India Poised campaign. Even though I did like quite a few observations expressed in the first ad of the series, it was this ad with which I whole-heartedly empathised "" "The India File'"! Simply written, it has a ring of authenticity not normally associated with a marketer.

Even though copy written about a product or a cause might have a great deal of truth in it, the reader is always conscious that there is an undercurrent of selling in the interaction, however discreet it might be.

But this ad is straight as a die. It tells us in a simple no-nonsense manner a few truths about ourselves, without beating about the bush and then proceeds to inform us that we are very much part of the problem.

I like this direct approach even though later on in the column I make a plea for sugarcoating the truth! But yes, this is a truth that really needs to be told, without anesthesia as it were. I second the campaign's effort to do so. I like the fact that it is delivered without any literary flourishes or catch phrases. Had there not been that little logo at the bottom of the page, one would have thought that it was penned not by a copywriter but by some senior officer all too familiar with government procedures.

Such is the incisiveness of its insight and urgency of its communication. It almost reads like a chairman's memo, urging us "employees of this company called India", to pull up our socks and start contributing to the "bottom line" as it were. Yes. I like it very much. It is a "memo" whose time has come.

What I've learned
When honesty is not always the best policy!
I have spent a great portion of my career being "undiplomatically" frank to many people. My reasoning was simple: When there is very little time to complete a job, couching the truth about people's skills and their attitudes in elaborate packaging causes delay and misperception.

This approach did get the job done quickly and efficiently...but it left behind a trail that I hadn't quite bargained for. I never realised that the people you have been honest with invariably metamorphose into vindictive enemies who carry the scars of their offence for an unbelievable length of time!

So after some introspection, I have concluded that our traditional Indian way of sugarcoating fact with elaborate lies is the most effective of all people skills. It came home to me recently when a very senior person from Guntur who, while paying me a visit, remarked (in all honesty, I'm sure) that I looked older than my elder brother! It was an uncalled for remark and true though it might be, didn't exactly endear me to him.

On the other hand, I remember an unexpected compliment I had received as a child, even to this day. I am the darkest skinned of all my siblings and one day a neighbour who was visiting smiled at me and said: "Though Krishna is dark, his face is so bright!"

The fact that she saw something positive in a feature that was always considered negative won me over completely and I made her my friend from that day on. It is quite a simple lesson really and most evolved Eastern cultures consider it civilised behaviour "" the truth is not always a nice thing to know.

You don't lose anything with a little bit of sugarcoating, rather, you gain a considerable degree of co-operation instead!

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