As good as it gets

AGKSPEAK

JetLite should live up to the promise that its ad has so very effectively communicated.

What I've Liked
Hospitality Unlimited

Who would believe that this is an ad for a budget airline? Everything about it spells generosity. So much so that it actually has managed to change my perception of this much maligned segment.

The copy articulates the brand's insightful strategy perfectly. Honing in on the areas that the competition normally lets slip simply because of strained time and resources, the ad suavely moves in with assurances that the JetLite experience has been specifically engineered to cater to all that and more.

That's why this is such a clever little ad. In about six lines of well-written, crisply worded text, they have demolished the commonly held perception that budget airlines are all about money-saving and no frills.

Everything that we thought was a paid-for luxury in a normal fare airlines (and that included the stewardesses' smiles!) is being offered on a warm, generous platter "" for free! Even the visual reinforces the promise of warmth. Brilliant reproduction for one of the sharpest and clearest ads that I've seen in a long time, the face of JetLite I am sure has drawn every single reader of the newspaper to glance through the ad. Now, all that is left is for the product to live up to the promise that the advertising has so very effectively communicated!

What I've Learned
Relax, what you see in others, is just You!

Have you ever noticed that nothing is as infectious as a smile? It quite literally is a world where, when you smile, the world smiles with you. It is this simple logic that oddly enough, governs inter-personal relationships too.

And it is most evident in the workplace where every move, every facial gesture has a domino effect that can affect the delicate process of team building "" even bringing to question the leadership skills of the person in charge.

Every time the subject of team building crops up I can't but help talking about the most effective team builder I've known "" Dhirubhai Ambani. His uncanny ability to know people is now the stuff of legends. But his method was simple. He knew better than anyone else that all human beings are the same, regardless of skin colour or bank balance.

Have the same likes, desires, hates, weaknesses, greed, ego, dreams, goodness... as everyone else. Despite his own prodigious capabilities (which the world is slowly realising), he never considered himself superior to any one else at all. And that was one of the secrets of his insightfulness. He accepted the other person "" goodness, weaknesses et al. He did not use another person's inadequacies as a step-ladder to vault himself up to a superior plank.

I have learned over time, that the day you start accepting people as mirror images of yourself, acceptance and forgiveness comes very easily "" simply because you apply the same rules that you do for your own inadequacies, to others as well.

The tendency of ours to think that we have the sole rights to sensitivity and that it does not reside in anyone else is probably the single major cause for friction in relationships. Believe it or not, despite the fact that our population is increasing at an alarming rate, there is place in this world to accommodate our fellow-men's point of view as well!