The Big Debate: The good, bad and ugly of Indian Advertising: Agnello Dias

The finest times to be in advertising

The best part about Indian advertising is also the best part about India. The magic of plurality.

The Good In Indian Advertising.

The best part about Indian advertising is also the best part about India. The magic of plurality.It is absolutely incredible that we can have such a varied range of thought, aesthetics, understanding and lateral thinking in the same market at the same time and still not spontaneously combust.

I admire the rapid ingenuity of Kinu’s mind, the rapier thrust of Balki’s ideas, the surprising connections that Prasoon makes, the weight of Chax’ blunt wisdom, and Piyush’s sheer creative stamina.

Then there is Rajiv’s incredible simplicity of thought, Paddy’s burning passion, Pops’ sage-like deductions, Alok Nanda’s precise elegance, Bobby’s eye for all things unusual and the non-stop idea workshops that are Sagar Mahableshwar, Ramanuj Shastry, Senthil, Raj Kurup, Arun Iyer, Nitesh Tiwari, Sumanto and many, many more

And thank God none of them are like each other. What a peacefully boring industry that would be. Instead of the finest times to be in advertising.

The Bad in Indian Advertising.

It’s quite obvious isn’t it ? We all want everyone else to be LIKE US. To write how we write, to see what we see and like what we like. 

So instead of celebrating the wonderfully diverse bunch of minds and hearts that we have, instead of revelling in the very power that makes us lateral, we end up fighting a crusade for commonality. Missing the whole point in the process.

So we rave and rant against THAT jingle and THIS headline. We rip apart good execution with the daggers of insights. We sacrifice good writing at the altar of parochialism. We say good work is bad instead of saying it’s different. We scream and claw and shout ourselves hoarse about how everyone should do what WE like to do.

Fortunately we are unsuccessful most of the time. And the diversity that makes us Indian survives to live another day.

The ugly side of advertising

There are two:

The first is that we often forget the difference between healthy competition and ruthless competition.

The second is what is before your eyes right now. 

We write about things , we talk about things, we debate things  and of course we gossip about things as well. But we never, ever do anything about anything. Starting with me.