Coffeevertising… !!

So i woke up this morning in front of a mirror and this amazingly hideous person was looking back at me…For a minute there i thought that the ZOMBIE apocalypse had struck already. It took me a moment to realise – “Hey, that’s just me, without my morning coffee!

I very well know that every human who thinks that this dark beverage is their “YODA – the driving force”, shall agree with me.
COFFEE IS NOT AN ADDICTION – IT IS A RELIGION. For the people who proudly declare to being bitten by the advertising bug, it is a very common thing to be stuck at something stupid for hours on end and whine. You just have that one cuppa and – VOILA…….. yes…. you’re still stuck, but the whining sure is fun now

Coffee is such a widely practised ritual amongst the creative clan, i can actually imagine them waving pompoms and cheerleading –

“Coffee..Coffee it’s our drink!

If we don’t get it, we can’t think…!”

I work at this brilliant ad agency in Mumbai where I have been hired to THINK. They pay me for my ideas. I am so very glad that coffee isn’t a person. Because then it would have been really unfair if i didn’t split my pay cheque with it at the end of every month. Imagine the comfort of working in an environment where everyone is as crazy about coffee as you are…and that includes my creative director too… My boss is a very calm and composed lady. I have never seen her yell or go mad at anybody… (Yet!) But if a doomsday like this ever dawns upon me,
i already have thought of a solution to that –

Step 1. Retreat to a safe distance.

Step 2. Slide a mug of coffee at her.

Step 3. Wait for the calamity to pass.

That ought to put me in her good list for a while, because the kind of a coffee person that she is, somehow i believe, she carries an invisible sign above her head –
 “INSERT COFFEE TO BEGIN”

That’s the story of just one ad agency. There are a million more out there all around the world who breathe coffee day in and day out.
So much so that September 29 has been declared as ‘National Coffee Day’ in the U.S.

That’s a lot of talk for today. It’s time to go and brew myself a cup of freshly ground heaven. You keep watching this space for more interesting stories and anecdotes

– says the Coffeewriter *cough cough* i meant Copywriter, Thin- i Advertising & Branding Company.

Will she ever come back?

She was a happy go lucky girl. Full of life and exuberance. A girl who always wore a smile on her face, who always greeted people with a smile and a friendly hello! A brilliant cook, a graceful dancer, a caring daughter, a loving elder sister. She was everything that made her so special. But then, SOCIAL MEDIA happened…!

Like every new toy amuses a child, she got amused. But the only difference was, she never got bored of her new toy. In fact, her amusement kept on increasing with every passing day. She started spending hours in chatting with her long lost school friends. But sadly it made her forget about her parents sitting next to her, waiting for their turn to come.

The inventor had his good reasons to create SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM. But it was her fault that she carried away with it. Her friends taught her how to use it, but sadly no one taught her neither her friends that, where to stop!  The platform created to share knowledge, make worldwide friends and to bring the world closer, distanced her from the real world.

She is lost. Social Media has become her world. Her home. Her everything. We need to bring her back to the real world. The world where people Likes her for the person she is, where people Shares love, where people Comments for her generosity, where morning rises with tweeting of the birds not beeping of a cell phone. But the biggest question is, “Will She Come Back?”

          

If no one reads, then why do we write?

Don’t write so much! Write it short! Keep it simple and precise! Who’ll read such a long copy? Why write so much? These doubts and suggestions land me up with another set of questions, do people actually read ads or they just see visuals? It’s like asking, who came first egg or hen?  Answers are many, but conclusion ZERO!

The war between copy and visual is never ending! If it’s the visual that is going to take the cake, then why writers put so much effort to write in the first place. I’m sure these questions crossed every writer’s mind at some point of the time. As in an adagency every artist craves for something above the material aspects. We’re always looking for something more, that pat on back, that well done, that smile on readers’ face, creative satisfaction that brings change.

They say a picture says more than 1000 words. But if you ask me, a word creates 1000 pictures in mind. Different people interpret words in their own way. Like when I say LOVE, some of you will bring out the red rose that you have in your diary, some of you will think of your little toddler who’s waiting for you back home, some of you will remember the Aloo Paratha that your mother makes…!

In short, advertising is a creative agreement between Visual and Copy. Sometimes a visual drag the reader to headline; sometimes the headline brings him in the ad, in both ways the remaining element acts as a supporter. It need not be a long copy or an out of the box visual, just a simple piece of writing with an attractive visual is enough to take the reader on a journey that ends with him urging to own the product.So when next time your creative bud craves for a masterpiece of advertising, do ask yourself, I’m writing a creative piece of ad but is that enough?