The World is Flat

Who said that the world is round. I think Copernicus, Galileo and all the band of scientists need to re-think on their theories of terrestial theories. It's the realization that dawned upon me after the attending the series of sessions in Careerz '05. Just now I returned from the session on Advertising by Mr. Partha Sengupta ('87, Mech, '88 IIMA).

He took us through a journey into the ad-world and how actually things are made inside. He talked about people who love to live life and want to make people feel and laugh at ourselves. "Advertising is all about making things relevant to what people do"-this was the simple definition of Advertising according to Mr. Sengupta. An ad-maker needs to understand the culture of the people and what actually connects our mind and soul. He showed us with examples how ads (churned out from our sub-conscious activities e.g. bunking classes, whistlling at girls etc.) turned into either myths or into cliches. The best example in this regard was the one from Coca Cola that was marketted (possibly) during World Cup '96. It showed us how young people live upto cricket in India, with 'mirchi's and stuffs laid beside the Ganges for drying, and people playing beside the banks of Yamuna in Agra, with Taj Mahal in the backdrop. That was indeed a good ad but it flopped. On the other hand, "Thanda matlab Coca Cola" had immense success because that was an insider's viewpoint about India and hence we felt closer to it. The same car was advertised in different manner when it comes to US or India. Car, stands for smoothness to Americans while it is the icon of status and linear-hierarchy in India, and hence campaigning assumes a different color complying with cultures.

But ad-making is not very exciting all the time. A person in the advertising world needs to work very hard.(In fact he presented an ad on that issue too) The bottomline in this industry is to remain open-minded to the society and its changes, to live life fully and observe keenly.....that is the secret in this profession. Mr. Sengupta was mobbed with galore of questions in the interactive sessions as he ommitted the e-advertisement part. Also, in the conclusion he mentioned the paramount importance of children in the Indian mind-set of family, and how recently the ad-agencies are exploiting those nascent opportunities.

Towards the end I had a gut feeling of what I mentioned in the beginning. The world is surely flatenning down. As on Friday we met Mr. Agnimitra Biswas followed by Mr. Prasad and then Mr Sengupta, I found a common aspect in them. It's although very simple and nothing new. In order to be successful u need to live ur passions and do not give away to myths.(definitely with some amount of planning beforehand) It's the linear hierarchy (which we are so well accustomed in India) which is dissolving or have started to dissolve, it's the economies which have started to mingle, and it's the culture that have started to blend so well across borders, that they clearly signal that there is indeed a global change and we need to think on choosing our careers prudently. Ultimately it's not the brand but the individual ambitions to make it big in any direction they want it to be. Yes, being an IITian helps a lot, in terms of associations and initial penetration towards that chosen direction. Kudos to Arindam Mukhaerjee, our Vice-President, Technology Students' Gymkhana, for arranging these wonderful series of sessions!