hey Mukul, art direct THIS!

My workspace, featuring the greatest creation of everybody's favorite advertising artist (with an MA). The Mum bottle should have been removed to make a nicer picture but I was too busy conducting an ambient and activation campaign on my favorite demographic at the moment, the 5 month old colleague's daughter. How do you advertise to babies?

Who, the Ifad?

I think these two commercials, alongwith the TV ad for Panther dotted (by Mediacom) are my favorite commercials this year. What are yours?

on a different note

Once again the Internet was down and we had had enough. Calls of Murad, Murad, Murad and sometimes Zubair, or even rarely, Sharif rang out throughout the office. Sharif rarely because everyone knows what his response will be: shut down den, reboot koren! The claim to most number of times that Murad's name was called out should be mine. But can't claim the same about lung power to which I admit there is still no one to challenge Anirban. I think I will get a drum like our African anscestors.

The Internet buffers up the notion that a lot of work is happening; everyone looks busy on their computers. So having the Internet is like having a simulation of work being done. It is good for the morale of the office in general. After all, seeing IS believing. Murad usually gave his stock answer whenever he was pestered or heckled: the submarine cable has been sabotaged. Truly, that is what the newspapers reported too. Last week it happned twice in quick succession and it really tested our patience and our will to work. Only this time the answer was different: the Sidr (pronounced: sidor) was the culprit.

While we were beleagured by the absence of Internet the south of the country was counting their deads.

i have got you a screen name and a little free publicity

Now that the Drama Queen has pacified Big Nose, Big Butt should post her Token Hottie #3 picture!

Here here

Ayesha Farzana was here. Just to pacify Big Nose. Whew.

lick!

Arafat, our Creative Group Head, put out the most awesome piece of stinking shit, frilled with unflattering pictures; but I still feel like moshing up to that! Let me employ my tongue again to lick this thought: the most awesome creative team ever. Here's a snapshot in words, also called haiku, whatever that is.

arafat:
toothbrush in hand
mouth rinsed off stale ideas

tanvir:
black hair smoking
another iranian film just got made

kimu:
smelling of dark brown coffee
strikes another mocking bird down

I know these are not Haikus. Who cares?

Lick. Lick. Lick.

the greatest team on earth (with pictures!)

YOU HEAR ME TALKIN'?

That's what's blasting out of my speakers right now. From Devo's Turn Around. The last stanza from that song I think describes our wonderful profession perfectly:

Take a step outside the planet
You turn around and round
Now take a look at where you are
It's pretty scary

Today's one of those perfect days when inspiration flows freely throughout the agency. It started with a great night's sleep for me. I literally woke up at the crack of dawn with one single thought ringing like a bell in the pure serene of my mind. One of those magical moments when you literally feel the GE lightbulb above your head. I had found a great way to apply an insight from my wonderful boss Awrup. It's like how Terry Pratchett describes ideas that flow through space like particles and hit you out of nowhere.

So I sent a message to the whole team (all of whom were sleeping) and went back to sleep the sleep of an adman with an insight, which is 33% more restful than the sleep of the just. I was woken up by a wonderful friend who graduated today (much love to Anika and Fariha!) and the day was on. What a great time to be alive! (I am sounding syrupy in my happiness but I am explaining why.)

Sitting down in our lime-green conference room, the creative team was brainstorming one of our most emotionally important pitches of the year. My dawn epiphany was shot down in the first five minutes, because it was irrelevant. But someone else came up with something that was brilliant, elegant, absolutely beautiful, but incomplete--like half a butterfly wing. Someone else added a few changes to that idea and we were closer to a fully-formed concept. A seasoned art director, grizzled and bowed down by years of experience and a Master's degree, had a different way of seeing the climactic shot. A physics student fresh out of university added the tagline that wrapped everything up.

The realization hit me as it often does (and most often did in the two-year hiatus when I worked at other places): this is the best fucking creative team in the country. Which is easily said and said all the time I'm sure by every agency, but this is the most creative, wonderful group of people ever. And I'd go on being maudlin about shit but seriously, where else would you be able to work in the fields of music, literature and film all at once with some of the greatest pop artists of your generation?

Don't answer that. For the purposes of my argument, it's here. And this is what some of us look like. (Pictures taken in five minutes, post written in ten, lots of people aren't even in the office so bear with me here!)



That's our pal Awrup Sanyal, our Group Creative Director, showing off his tonguegotthelove.



Kashtan: "I don't blog." Fuck you too!



Tanvir "Pal" Hossain, Creative Director, engaged in a stream of consciousness.



Token hot girl.



I'M JUST A HOUND DOG BABY!!!!!

Token hot girl #2


Token hot guy!!!



This guy has a fucking Master's in Fine Arts, I swear.



Serious thinking--jotil chinta!



A small cigar can change the world my friend, a small cigar has changed this world again.


Your loving blogger



TOMCAT Gabbana.

can you sell this to mr. fakruddin?

At the Promologic Workshop arranged by Ad Club, Katalyst and NSU Debating Club I proposed these ideas for two SME brands, who I think have awesome brand equity.

One was Fakruddin’s Biriyani and the other was Laz Pharma.

Fakruddin’s Biriyani
Insight: Biriyani is a must in a traditional Bangali wedding
Brand Idea: A true Bangali wedding is incomplete without Fakruddin’s Biriyani
Probable TV Idea: A bridegroom’s party walks out of a wedding because Fakruddin’s Biriyani is not served!
Copy shot: NO DOWRIES. ONLY FAKRUDDIN'S BIRIYANI.

Laz Pharma—the 24 hr pharmacy
Insight: When there is a medical emergency there is no time to waste
Brand Idea: Illnesses don’t come announced
Probable TV Idea: A man sleeps in his bed at night, tossing and turning. Actors dressed as Virus, Bacteria, Diarrhea, Cholera, Dengue, etc., stand around his bed, look bored and yawn. They consult their watches, as if, waiting for daytime to come so that they can attack the sleeping victim!
Copy shot: IN REALITY ILLNESS WON’T WAIT FOR THE DAY TO BREAK. LAZ PHARMA. OPEN 24 HOURS.

the voice inside

It keeps on happening. The ideas strike at wierd hours.

As if the mind has a life of it own. It is thinking irrespective of I am thinking or not. It clearly has it own agenda and goes about its life exclusive of mine. From nowhere, on its own free will, it barges into my chores, smack in the middle of what I am doing and starts dictating the ideas. I can't resist them. They come when they want to. They come like revelations; something messianic about that, don't you think? They come fully thought out; a holistic whole, even if I can't see them altogether I know they are there. If I have a question they will be answered. It is like it has seen every aspect of the brief or the possibilities in the brief even though I don't remember actually taking note of them.

The voice inside, it has its own wierd way. An auto life.

inspiring lines

Writing good English copy is what I miss most.

I still remember a few lines that bowled me over when I was starting off in advertising way back when...

Made for each other. (WILLS Navy Cut cigarette from ITC; the allusion was created because, I believe, the Brief clearly stated that the communication's objective was to convey, here's the best filter for the best tobacco: the copywriter alluded the line to: filter and tobacco perfectly matched, and from there MFEO. In the campaigns that followed it was always the 'perfect couple we all want to be' thus taking the idea to lifestyle and cigarette is related to lifestyle! Brilliant, ain't it?)

Whenever you see colour think of us (Jenson & Nicholson paints)

The streetcar named desire (Kwality Ice Cream pushcart launch)

The Unputdownable (The Telegraph)

Utterly Butterly Delicious (Amul Butter)

Going. Going. Gone. (Elephant tusk poaching in Africa. WWF campaign)

Gotta go now myself. Can we see more Bitopians pitching in? G'night!

discombobulated musings on Awrup's copy post

As far as God or poetry goes, my favorite's always been a stanza from Byron's Don Juan, written in ottavia rima:

Well-- well, the world must turn upon its axis,
And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails,
And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,
And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails.
The king commands us, and the doctor quacks us,
The priest instructs, and so our life exhales,
A little breath, love, wine, ambition, fame,
Fighting, devotion, dust-- perhaps a name.
-- Stanza 4, Canto 2. Don Juan, Lord Byron

In actual advertising, I think George Gribbin's magazine ad for Arrow Shirts (from Young & Rubicam, unless I'm mistaken) is pretty unbeatable:

"My friend, Joe Holmes, is now a horse!"

Having returned home post-midnight as always (but look out for our new Djuice animation and the Ifad commercials, which I had absolutely nothing to do with but which I think is the best work to come out of a Bangladeshi agency in the past year or so) I'm too tired to explain just how many levels of awesomeness that line works on, but 1938, a shirt company, reincarnation, and body copy that works as a short story, maybe told by a character such as Mr. Dingle the Strong from Twilight Zone? I drink my tea and smoke my cigarette in your honor Mr. Gribbin.

In recent years, Bitopi's been responsible for a bunch of amazing stuff, including my favorite Bangla line ever: JOTIL MOOD, and the best line that I ever wrote: GELI!?. A word and an interrobang. There have been years in the past when this agency was responsible for the guilty hit "Chaka chaka boom boom pah pah" Olympic Battery ad. But what would be the greatest copy ever written in Bangladesh? I submit to you my own humble list, taken purely from commercial advertising (because who can beat "Ebarer shongram amader shongram, ebarer shongram amader shadhinotar shongram", or "Mora shara bissher shanti bachate ajke lori"?) and that too from my own lifetime.

Jodi laigga jaye!

Maccher raja ilish, battir raja Philips. -- Monir sir from Unitrend.

Lagba baji? -- Shonkorda from Asiatic.

Econo likhe chomotkar, ek kolome mile par! -- Khaledur Rahman Jewel, who is now with us.

Jotil mood. -- Awrup or Tanvir, who cares? (Bitopi!)

I KNOW there's more, but I really am tired. I'd bitch about Drake or Bacon or whoever but their being a stupid git has nothing to do with advertising, so goodnight, fair Dhaka!

(On a fairly unrelated note, the greatest refrain is "Moushumi, care bhalobasho tumi?")

top that!

“Let there be light!”
God (the Christian one in this case), I believe will rank amongst one of the best copywriters ever!
(GE must be cursing Dusenberry for not coming up with that one!)

Shakespeare—the Resident God on Earth, closely follows that act.
“Out, out brief candle!”
(Perfect for Rahimafrooz IPS. Better than “one second please”. Please!)

And then I—the unsung hero.
“Talking helps.”
(Only if GP bought it, it would be history.)

a lesson in insight mining

Oops! Did I say that? I said that- a lesson in insight mining- did I say that? I said that. I did. Shit. F**k. No more swear words or you good for nothing folks who are reading this will start getting an insight into my mighty mind! Is anyone actually reading this blog other than that guy who claims to be the Dhaka Adman? I would hope not. I would pray not. What a waste of time it will be! Shame! In any case, who is interested in advertising other people in the advertising industry? Oh! It is not even an industry and Apon is very angry with this. So, our agenda is to fight for the industryship! Apon, if you ever read this, which I doubt you will, please don't mind me announcing the Agenda of an Anarchist so openly! Please forgive this colleague who belongs to this soon-to-be industry as you. Salute to our Industryship!

Shit! I have lost it or I am lost. Where did I begin? I remember. I remember. Every time I say I remember, I remember, I have to say it twice because in school I had read Robert Browning once and that too only one of his poems ever, which was called I remember, I remember. Since then I can never say I remember, I remember once, I have to say it again I remember, I remember. And that is all I remember, I remember about the poem I remember, I remember that I remember, I remember.

There I go again. Back to what I was saying about the Insight Mining thing; I think I will be sued for it. They are two perfectly bon a fide English words that I have every right to use but since I belong to an industry or soon-to-be industry of ideas I respect the ethics of not whacking other people’s ideas or tools, which happens often here and quite blatantly. It has even become part of the brief language where clients have begin mentioning that since our idea has been usurped by so and so competition we will have to think of something else or reclaim our territory. And there is this particular orange-utan of a client who gives a rat’s ass about whose idea it is. If thery like it they will just go ahead and whack it. As I was saying, Insight Mining is a phrase that is used either by Ogilvy or McCann guys as one of their tools. So I will stop using the phrase because I wouldn’t be talking about that. But, I can still talk about insights, which I will in a while. The reason I started thinking about insights is because of this guy called Farhan. If you claim to be in the advertising soon-to-be industry in Bangladesh you won’t get far not knowing Farhan. Anyways, Farhan called me, for the first time ever I think, in my seven long years in Dhaka, in which I came, fell in love, married a Bangladeshi girl, also from the soon-to-be advertising industry, and have sired a daughter, too. He called me to ask me if I would conduct a workshop that the Ad Club is arranging. I couldn’t refuse Farhan because I respect him. Anyone else I would have turned down. Not that anyone ever calls me to conduct workshops, barring some crazy kids from DU once and these Ad Club guys the second time around. But I respect Farhan because he is a gentleman and a person who never fails to throw you a smile. He is generous not just with his smile, which people think is his PR tool, he is generous with praise too. He was one of the first guys from the soon-to-be advertising industry who actually told me that he loved the djuice campaign and thought that it was the first true youth brand created in Bangladesh. He said it just like that. You must be thinking what’s the big deal, but trust me, it is. I have many a time SMS-ed or called my peers in the soon-to-be industry to tell them that I liked their campaign but never ever have I received any such calls or messages. Of course it just could be we have never ever created a campaign to be praised, but that is unlikely. So, you understand the import of being patted by someone within your fraternity. I mean it feels good. So that is Farhan for you.

So, I thought I would start the workshop with concept of insight, a much-abused word in advertising. And that is how I began by talking about insight. I was thinking this is how I would begin the workshop with:

"Good Morning! Why have workshops on advertising? After all, every Tanvir (not Pal), Dalim and Hasan I have come across have an opinion about advertising. I am sure you do too. Never mind you have never been inside an advertising agency or spend just a few years trying to be a glorified peon in one. (In fact, I had decided to be cogito ergo mum on the subject of advertising but for Farhan.) When it comes to cricket, medicine, and now add advertising to this list, Bangalis know everything about it. They will tell you how the shot selection of Ashraful was wrong or the best medicine for arthritis is turmeric and yogurt paste mixed in cumin seed fried in hot mustard oil, and if you disbelieve him, he will add condescendingly, that you can go seek a second opinion. This flair has now been extended to advertising, especially TVCs. They will tell you why a particular idea didn’t work or how it should have been a wide-angle shot. Phew! That lands us at an insight about Bangalis and we can phrase it as, Beware the Bangali if you are NOT looking for free advice!

I will leave you with this thought. Have you ever thought how awesome James M. Cain would be as a copywriter? Yes it is the same guy who wrote this line: The Postman Always Rings Twice!

the big slip

Hello hello hello everybody! This most probably means everybody within the agency and maybe a handful of advertising hopefuls, but I shall hope that we have successfully butchered the clutter of blogs and reached through to YOU, our target reader, who by the act of reading become our most beloved and appreciated psychographic empathizer.

The URL was bound to let the cat out of the bag, and it's true. This is the blog for Bitopi Advertising Ltd, Bangladesh's first and often best ad agency. This has been set up mostly so that the failed novelists in the creative team can whine about art, but we hope that we'll be able to convince everybody to contribute advertising insights, clever layouts, artful executions that weren't published, sexual innuendo--all the detritus of an agency. For example, we all talk about rational arguments and emotional hooks, but did you know that the absolute best pitching music is Mike Oldfield, and the best album to cheer up a tired team that's been on the go for 24 hours is Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman's maniacal album, The Happy Electropop Music Machine?