of tall men & tall claims

all those people...
no water between bandra & andheri since day before yesterday. shifting to sasural today. wonder what happens to those tons of families who dont have an option. and the heat soars upwards steadily.
reminds me of anthony quinn
a lovely evening with a pleasant advertising veteran.
gullu sen.
he'd asked me to meet him at taj lands end in the evening.
for long i had felt that this well read man could become a friend. so instead of just posing as an advertising producer, i went as myself-wife, kid, jasmine & with my thoughts & ideas of the world.
he regaled us with stories, insights & some tasty chinese food.
he told me about this book by amartya sen where the concept of 'boxed in' is elaborated upon. we are all hedged in by a definition by the other. so the relationship, whether personal or professsional gets limited. must read.
morning walks
my friend from chennai, nagraj smily art director visited us last week. every morning, i would find his bed empty.
he would rise & step out for long walks to watch the city come alive, store the city architecture, people, & nuances, down a roadside chai, ponder over the madras-bombay divide, & return. softspoken nagu has done this for years. his curiosity & hunger to see & learn is insatiable.
a vastu expert, he suggested changes to the house to swati over breakfast, & over lunch at the office to me. after being an independent art director for nearly a decade, he is trying to make his mark in the hindi or bollywood terrain.
tall claims
its the time & age for celebrity endorsements & brand ambassadorships.
i have done a sehwag for boost, a dravid for maxnewyorklife, & was about to do a dhoni for mysore sandal soap, & a rani for dabur amla.
recently, while presenting the creative for a well known soap which has tied up with a cricketing personality, i am asked to correlate the brand with the personality. i do the same vis-a-vis the script but the suits across the table (17 of them) dont get it. they are shy to admit that they have signed on a male, which does not confirm to the normal advertising route of employing a female to sell the soap. strategy has not been discussed internally, & they are still fumbling with the premise.
while this throws up the issue of celeb versus non celebs, i wonder time and again about;
pray what is shahrukh doing in the tub? ab all over, rani with the bubbles, ash at the adda? the creatives have a tough task to mix n match the celebs & the brands.