Why advertising should be governed by principles and not by rules?

Creativity governed by rules would lead to the death of entertainment. Then daily soaps, movies and ads would be like power point presentations using excel sheets. Exaggeration and imagination are the cornerstones of creativity as well as story telling.
Can you imagine a story without a metaphor, vivid demonstration, fantasy or a hyperbolic demonstration of human greed? Be it Axe or Avatar, if the underlining moral were not be exaggerated, it would never sink in.
Having said the above now imagine a state without any legislature to govern, a society without any norms, a family without any principles. We all can imagine the mayhem.
What is moral and what is legal is an eternal debate, in spite of a legal definition, because we all would like to be governed by morals rather than legislature if given a choice. Why should this be any different for the brands that are behaving as human as real as our siblings? Why do 99.999 per cent of disputes is resolved without ever had to go to courts or lawyers?
As civilized beings we know when to cross the line and when not to. If we argue modern day brands are like humans who find a purposeful existence in people’s life than why don’t they behave themselves by not crossing the line? The state bestowed faith on the industry to conduct itself by allowing "Self governed code of conduct" and a body to monitor "Advertising Standard Council of India " and all we do as a community is to find legal ways to beat the system. If the law says you need to have a support to your claim, we produce one from an unheard research institute, as insiders we all know what game we have been playing.
Time has come to take a hard look at the old approach not because laws have changed because people have changed, world has changed. Today 90 per cent of the youth in the world are concerned about the survival of the planet, world peace, old parents and values. Never before transparency and honesty are valued as today. Leader are responding to this new order be it Obama or Anna Hazare or Nike or Apple. In fact I would go to an extent of saying leading brands have responded faster then the political leaders, to support my hypothesis let me barrow a research report which says 4 out of top 10 icons of the world are brands not people.
There is a selfish reason why brands must inculcate good values first and start to propagate them next. If the brands are governed by the principles of the values they abide by then there is very little chance of them crossing any ethical line to be punished by people or state.
Lets turn to the communicators or the creators. I believe they are two kinds of human beings in this world, those who care and those who don’t. Those who do care are the sensitive lot and are aware of sensitive issues like; gender, values, ethics, children, safety, religion and minority communities, they generally rely on honesty and integrity of the communication to connect with people. They avoid using hyperbolic gimmicks to attract the attention. These are the guys who guide a brand to success thru life insights on the other hand people who do not care for others sentiments, do create regressive communication by resorting to cheep humor, emotional black mailing or even cooked up miss-leading facts.
Brands today are like celebrities their behavior in public is been watched by live cameras 24X7, the moment Shahrukh lit a cigarette in an a stadium, hundreds of tweets went live and even some legal suits. In this transparent world you cannot close your eyes and think world is not watching you. If you show a little kid "Chotu"serving tea in a ad, no matter how light heartedly you portray the situation, people will decode you as an endorser of child labor.
Creative people and agencies also have to be sensitive towards the societal realities. No rulebook says you cannot use a "pug" in an ad. But one need to be sensitive to the fact that the desire the ad can create in people to own and love a "pug" would be enormous and the damage it can potentially create to the species would also be enormous. If only creators were to give a little thought before depicting two boys in a family ad and the influence it can have on people to aspire for boys. When we realize a little thought could have let a girl child live we would understand our purpose in life.
Creators have an enormous power to write stories, which can influence people and their-in lays the responsibility to use the power in the right way. If the marketers and communicators ignore the responsibility and cross the line they may well face the consequence of rulebooks, which may well be written by the NGO/Govt., legal eagles.
Censorship or self-discipline, choice is ours today.
Post courtesy - K V Sridhar
K V Sridhar aka kvpops is the National Creative Director of Leo Burnett India

Modes change but not basics

Everyday will bring a new medium and vehicle. but at the end of the day, it will continue to be all about the central idea. Call it anything you want from traditional advertising to digitization to osmosis. Technology and technology platforms will keep changing and evolving, and we will adapt to newer tickles as we always have basic human needs, emotions, differences, and everything else about us will remain the same. Clothes have changed, homes have changed, machines have changed, travel has changed, and work stations have changed. but hunger hasn't, love hasn't, relationships haven't, fears haven't, mortality hasn't, competitiveness hasn't, sleep hasn't, ambition hasn't, passion hasn't, religion hasn't, and how babies are born hasn't. Keep your eyes on the unchanging larger picture of humanity and our frailty.

what’s in my mind right now?

So, what’s in my mind right now?

At this juncture of life, when I have almost all elements of a successful life (touchwood, in my own definition). I made money, I spent money in double speed. Having seen misery and riches alike, I thought nothing is permanent and hence my mind keeps struggling to seek answers to some everyday dilemmas faced by me. The dilemma has been simple, I should do something but million dollar question was what should I do, I started thinking too much on the vague ideas or aspirations/inspirations I had? Having said that I had to answer everything myself since I didn't attend any elitist schools which necessarily creates class divide. So to find the answers I left a decently paid job, reduced my living expenses drastically and pumped in my entire savings and effort in a social enterprise. Despite dilemmas I was always clear on one thing, individuals die but not an institution.

Knowing a thing and not practicing is equivalent to not knowing. Very true indeed! I always read that what people regret the most are often things which they didn’t do/say. Yet, all these days, I just didn’t practise this. And now, whenever I look back, I feel sad about things not said/done. There have been many times when I wanted to say something but could never overcome my mental inhibitions. But from now on, I would try to speak my mind.

So, what’s in my mind right now?

In life, just like management, nothing is absolutely black or white. Perhaps I want everything to be grey, which is inclusive in nature not exclusive to anything in particular. Everything is a shade of grey and it depends on us as to what colour we give to it. Speaking one’s mind may sometimes hurt other people while by not speaking it, one may hurt oneself. We may choose either but not always should we choose the same one. Consistency in situations like this could be detrimental. But then how do we decide which one to choose under what circumstance?

So I felt I am an employee by choice but an entrepreneur by attitude. Ideas are scarce resource so is people with entrepreneur attitude. I met thousands of friends online/offline, some became great friends, some became part of life on whom I can depend for ideas. If they dont talk to me, I become sad, if they are happy, I am happy. We share ideas, we share love, we share friendship, we share happiness,

It raises a question, If everyone cares for his/her own happiness, wouldn’t everyone automatically be satisfied and happy? What if everyone cares for some other people but still no one cares for some people? What ultimately should be our goal – to be happy or to make others happy? I know the ideal answer is to be happy by being a reason for others’ happiness but not everyone can achieve this. How do I convince myself to be happy just by seeing others happy? What should then be the code of conduct for lesser mortals like me?

In mid 2011, I got to know Dr. Vishwajeet, when I was invited for dinner by his elder brother Dr. Dilip Kumar. Dr. Dilip kumar is a rural livelihood scientist of international repute and an ex UN bureaucrat. Dr. Vishwajeet used to be a scholar at John Hopkins and was among highest paid community researchers in world. In early 2003 following his inner conscience, he moved to India, to start community initiatives. He chose to work in an impoverished area; Shivgarh in Uttar Pradesh on a not very interesting topic, neo natal health. For someone living in luxuries of Seattle, moving to Shivgarh was a holistic approach to give back, to be relevant for the community which needs you more than any organisation. His life story inspired me and we became good friends. I visited Lucknow several times to meet and explore his side of life. The misery, the depression and how one single person helped by his wife can bring happiness in millions of lives. He co founded Community Empowerment Lab and its innovations made millions across the globe believe that communities can empower themselves with little or absolutely no help from outside. That was an eye opener for me. Dr. Vishwajeet is a pushing force behind me and he inspires me.

Then I met Gurcharan Das and Nachiket Mor at an event. I was in audiences and they were speakers. I put up question from audiences on dilemma faced by social start ups. Post event I had the opportunity to discuss dilemma with Gurcharan Das and Mr. Mor. We were clear, we must make money but we should give back something and empower communities around us. But nothing came out substantial.

Man is a social animal and so I was greatly helped by 5 people to come at the conclusion. 1 Female and 4 male friend. The female friends has had best of educations, but her thinking is not confined in the laboratory. She advises start ups on sustainability and helps them with funding based of innovations. She is a real brave in her own rights. I never met such brave people in my recent memory. There was no sign of elitist attitude in her which made me believe that there are people beyond class divide too. I was greatly helped to come out of common man's inhibition to think big. Second motivator was co-founder of a leading financial institution in India but so down to earth that everyone from chairman to chaprasi swears by him. He is a reputed speaker, a regular on current affairs program across Hindi and English news channels, sits on board of some of the largest business houses in India but so simple that he advises me on start up. He is the main force behind this initiative. Third was a frank research scholar, who blunted most of my social prejudices and practices. Not to forgot his dislikes for my excellent marketing instincts. He is lucky to have married a lovely PhD qualified wife who must be advising him on how to nudge me. The fourth one is a lovely gentleman who is a writer, researcher and of course a lover. Lover of Art, Lover of girls, Lover of Criticism, Lover of empowerment and of course he loved my passion. He gave shape to my weird idea of social enterprise which can be sustainable and successful, enough to earn livelihood for people at work. Fifth was none other than my boss, who told me I can come back whenever I want, it was the biggest solace. So post employment break up, I was encouraged by these five to live upto my dreams or rather say dilemma. And now we have finally started social enterprise which will in fact work (jointly funded by bunch of like minded friends.

I will keep nurturing and propagating this social venture by taking time out from anything else I do!

Now I have less dilemma and hence more enlightened to explore new opportunities to create an eco system of sustenance in business. I always loved the lovely world of various advertising functions and easily got fascinated by story of internet. Meanwhile I kept meeting start ups, worked off and on with them, didn't find them interesting. One fine day I was introduced to a a gentleman, having run two successful start up. He is in fact few among the breed of new age internet marketer who understands internet not as we do but in Google way. It was a blessing in many ways, meeting him, learning new thing from writing editorials to planning global tie ups. It is in fact fascinating. Now I think I have got what I actually wanted to do. God is always kind to right people, I believe. More will come to our way!

At work, I may have been wrong or right in my journey at some point of time but I never let anyone who worked with me down. I have been cheated by some but I never cheated anyone in my conscience. My integrity (as said by people with whom I have worked)is what makes me different from others, while creating a value chain.

Or maybe, I should just stop thinking. Maybe, the happiest people in the world are the people who don’t think!