Inspiration, courtesy the simple life.

A wise person once said to me,” Search for an idea in whatever you do and be inspired”. Being in advertising, its a fact that you should keep your eyes and ears open to everything around you, to get inspired. My advertising professor once told me, the world provides us with more entertainment than television ever can. I asked him how. He just said one word to me. Observe.


That’s when I realized that the greatest advertising and entertainment came from the simplest things in life. Advertising is not about how funny you are in your writing or how complicated you make an ad, so that it wins an award. Some of the greatest, awards winning ads that I have seen, execute just one thing. Simplicity. And the best ads have always been simple.


Take for example an ad done by the brand ‘Sugar free Natura’. The ad is about a man who is on a diet upon the orders of his wife. And he hates it. So on the day he has to begin the diet, his son taunts himto the core by giving him a naughty smirk and flashing his cute little dimple by saying “Papa, diet shuru”. The mom then comes to the table and sets down a desert bowl and moves away as she is busy on the telephone. On opening the lid of the dessert casserole, the father, to his surprise, finds a dessert that is definitely not for a person who is on a diet. And in his happiness, the father thinks that the wife has forgotten about the diet. But in reality she hasn’t. She has just used a low fat, sugar free substitute to make her husband happy.


Now in reality this happens in our day to day life. A wife would definitely find ways to keep her husband healthy but at the same time make him happy. The spice in a good ad is when a person can connect to the character that they see in the advertisement. The more the complicated the ad, the more people won’t understand it. Yes it is always true that humor is an added bonus to an advertisement, but if you watch the recent ads of Vodafone, where a friend saves a seat for another friend, doesn’t it remind you of your times in school where your best friend would save a seat for you so that the two of can sit together in an assembly?


Advertising is story telling in 30 seconds. But when a good story is told in 30 seconds, it can last a lifetime. That's the best part about advertising. If someone can touch a million hearts with the least amount of words and in so little time, then that is the best story telling ever. Thats the best part of advertising....


They say life is too complicated. I think that its not life that is complicated, its us. We look too much into what we do. We bother too much about other things. Advertising has opened up my eyes to see the beauty in the simple things in life. And inspired me to search for more.

The White Stallions behind The Black Horse.

The Times Of India recently hosted their annual arts festival, famously known as the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Artists from every age, race and art style congregate to celebrate and toast to this event. Right from contemporary to photography, clay moldings to laying out streamers on a bamboo skeleton, and even aliens make from scrap metal, this festival brings about a creative overflow of imagination and unbelieveable art skill any person could showcase.

The first time I ever attended this overwhelmingly, unbelievable fest, was a year ago. When I would think about art, I would usually visualise the usual paintings which any layman may have seen in museums or at the famous Jehangir art gallery. I never really thought about this topic really deeply or even gazed upon the fact that art could be anything or in everything. When I first stepped into this 'layer' last year, you could say i lost my ART-GINITY. I was exposed to the reality of art. the colours, the pictures, the sculptures.

I felt stripped off my old me. I donned on a new and better avatar. An avatar I felt more comfortable and confidant in. I dressed what I felt in my mind. In the past I was a tomboy, you could say (well my frnds still say tht i am one sometimes). But this festival brought out the other side of me. The wild, carefree side I never thought I could ever be. I wouldn't claim to understand contemporary art or even like some of the work that is even displayed sometimes, but I should really thank this festival for showing me what I should do with my future. It inspired me to be creative. And taking this inspiration, I joined the creative line. With a little itty bitty  thanks to a friend (Fatso :) ) who pushed me to join this line and told me I was the best and believed in me that I could do this with absolutely no doubts in me, the Kala Ghoda Festival layed out my career path for me. Copywriting.

The love for the art style dressing, the love for chunky jewelry, and most of all, my love for creativity and even my love for photography. I dont own a digi cam and wish I did own a SLR :). But then again ' If wishes were horses, the beggars would ride' right? (pun intended)

So, basically, this is just a shout out to TOI saying thanks for inspiring me to choose a career and get on my feet, and to Fatso for getting me off my ass to get on board! You guys are my white stallions of inspiration on the ride with my black horse experience!