Anant's Blog: Of Sunil Gavaskar, Piyush, Prasoon and Balki

Imagine Sunil Gavaskar starting a cricket coaching institute. Not just anyone, Sunil Gavaskar.
Thousands of eager, talented and ambitious youngsters apply. There are other cricket coaching institutes around, but all the kids want to get into Sunny’s institute.
They all want to be Sunny.
They all want to play for India, they want to break all the records that exist, they want to become, after they retire, a demigod.
Gavaskar’s institute, like any institute, can’t accept all the applicants. There’s a rigorous process to identify the best of all the applicants, and a hundred make the cut.
These hundred can now afford to pat themselves on the back. They’re halfway up the mountain; they begin dreaming of playing at Shivaji Park, scoring a century or two, getting noticed by the selectors, playing in the Times Shield, making it to the short-list for the Ranji Team, excelling there, getting noticed by the national selectors, and, finally, playing for India.
And Gavaskar comes along and punctures their dreams. He’s decided that his charges will have none of that. There’s no need to prove anything to the world, he says. The students would be divided into a number of teams and they’ll play against each other, that’s it. No playing other coaching institutes, no playing in the Kanga League and the Times Shield, no playing for the state.
No playing for India.
 
That’s ridiculous. Gavaskar would never do such a thing.
 
Now (don’t imagine) look at the new aspirant to the advertising business. Go to any institute which conducts courses in advertising/mass communication and every student there wants to be a Piyush, a Prasoon, a Balki. They set their hearts on joining O&M, McCann, Lowe. There are hundreds of students with the aspiration; perhaps 20 or 30 make it to these three agencies each year.
 
And they dream, once in their new jobs, of becoming a Piyush, a Prasoon or a Balki. They dream of creating competition-beating, effective and entertaining communication. They dream that their work will be worthy of being entered at the Abby’s.
 
They dream that their work will win. They’ll win again, next year, and Indian adland will accept that they have arrived. The next step beckons – that their work is worthy of being entered at the Media Spikes, for the One Show.
 
And for Cannes.
 
And for reasons best known, the trio of Piyush, Balki and Prasoon have decided to stay away from the Abby’s this year.
 
When they stay away, the dreams of hundreds of creatives working in their agencies come crashing down with a thud.
 
No chance of winning an Abby. What chance, then, of ever winning a Lion at Cannes?
It’s a difficult year and we, in adland, could do without news like this.
 
As I write this, I am aware that all those on the Goafest Committee are walking many miles to convince the threesome that they need to take part, their agencies need to take part.
 
Piyush, Prasoon and Balki obviously have some misgivings. Whatever they are, they need to find solutions that do not involve a boycott. Talk to the Abby’s committee, tell them what the issues are, negotiate, negotiate and negotiate till common ground is found.
 
The three of them owe at least this much to the youngsters, the future of our business.
 
Go on, pick up the phone. NOW!