Femina - a brand that believed and an ad that delivered.

Don't stop me...goes the ad jingle of femina's first ever ad to go national on all channels. It is an ad that reflects the core personality traits of Femina - A magazine that is a formum for women and reflects the personality of their subscribers, women who believe in achieving and making a mark and who are independent.The ad seems to target the generation next and women in the age group of between 20 and 40.
The ad begins with a little girl going to a shop and asking her mother for a toy airplane. She isnt bought one ad is told "you are not capable". She grows up to become an air racing champion and is none other than Audrey Maben. The jingle goes:"I know nothing can stop me from trying, breaking the chains and flying. Don't stop me."
The next scene is another littlr girl applying lipstick in front of a mirror and a lady comes and rubs the lipstick off and says " you are not beautiful". She grows up to be a super model played by Sheetal Mallar. The jingle goes: “I can be anything I want to be, don't stop me.”
The scene then moves to a girl aspiring to be a DJ is told "you are not talented". She grows up to be an international DJ, played by Megha Kawale. And the ad ends with the last bit of the jingle that goes:"I know nothing can stop me from trying, breaking the chains and flying. Don't stop me. I believe in me.”
The Femina logo is shown and the voice-over goes:“Femina. Believe."
The ad that was aired in 2005, inspires urban women to be more than they are. It puts across the message succinctly and hits the mark.This ad definitely puts Femina in a different and superior brand category altogether considering the success it has had in recall and the power of the jingle to stay in a persons mind.
This ad definitely beats their 2002 ad which really didnt use the personality trait of this generation women - need to succeed and break glass ceilings. It tried, and failed, to portray the trait of being unconventional and naughty.

The story board of the 2002 ad:
http://www.agencyfaqs.com/advertising/storyboard/Femina/509.html

The story board of the 2005 ad:
http://www.agencyfaqs.com/advertising/storyboard/Femina/2167.html

Do the ming thing

Looks like Motorola's investment in design strategy has paid off. From the makers of the very popular RAZR comes the MOTOMING A1200, now at an affordable price. The MING looks a lot like the MOTO PEBL but has a unique large screen touch pad.
The screen takes bout 80% of the phone and has a a transparent cover to protect the touch screen which gives it an almost flip phone look. The phone is easy to use, with a PDA feel. This user friendly phone has a 2 megapixel camera with video facility.
The best thing about this phone is that it comes with a 512 MB memory card which is more than any phone in the same price range, including the Nokia N72. The touchscreen gives a PDA interface. It also comes with an FM radio. It has document readers for word and Pdf, as well as real player that plays most formats of music. It is not a windows or symbian based phone but a linux based one (with an Opera browser), and hence wouldn't hang as often as a windows based device would.
The sad thing is that it is very fragile and must be handled with care. Second, once the transparent cover is scratched the whole beauty of the device is lost. It does not have document editors. It is not a complete PDA,but is a smartphone due to the touch screeen feature. MING is all about style and features.
Launched a year ago the MING was targetted at businessmen and was priced at Rs 35,000 initially. Due to change in marketing and pricing strategy as well as change in the pace of technology development it is now priced at approx. Rs 17,000. The phone comes with a data cable, extra two stylus, power cable,ear phones, leather cover and a 512 MB memory card.

Gowdas, ousted da.

The Chamundeshwari by-polls got the confident Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy stumped. I bet he sat down and wondered - "what did we do wrong? Didnt I move all the police force and the state legislative to Mysore...yet Siddaramiah beat us...darn it!"
JD(S)-BJP coalition pulled all stops to win this election, so much so that theyd moved all the ministers to Mysore which got the EC knocking on their doors. Even the strategy of Kumararswamy personally campaigning apparently failed.Where does the JD(S)-BJP coalition go from here?how much damage can Siddaramiah who had contested on a congress ticket do?
It has left people in the state a bit quesy. Most of them are wondering whether this means another change in government and an unstable government.

Shibu Soren, in a place so phoren.

The arrest of Shibu Soren is hailed as the best thing that could happen to the judicary and could be like a drop of water on the parched ground. But can the judicial system really be acquitted for the guilt of cases where justice hasnt been served, like the jessica lal case?
This case is sensational because it was a union minister that was arrested and given a 3 yr RI term. Its a shocker for all the politicians who thought they were untouchable. Especially because of the supreme court verdict that followed this ruling. The new SC ruling states that there is no need for permission from a higher authority before arresting a person in authority lile MPs, MLAs especially Union Minister. The IPC section 197 and the Prevention against corruption act Section 19 both earlier needed the permission of a higher authority for any prosecuting agency(including CBI)to arrest the person in question.
All the politicians are now trying to bury their skeletons; or atleast clean up their tracks hoping the CBI wouldnt chargesheet them. Among the people who are running this race are Lallo Prasad Yadav, George Fernandes and other high profile politicians includin many from Karnataka.
Gee,I wonder whether Ram Jethmalani will defend any of the accused this time, and stand before the media screming, "this is all bullshit".

Encounter of the first kind...

What just happened in bangalore yesterday?A terrorist attack right in our backyard.And why not? We have the best defense research labs here,the best institutes for education,from the IISc to the IIMB,all the software companies with their offices here...so this is the next best thing for an attack next to the capital. The saddest thing about thing about b'lore would have to be its shabby security.Its ridiculous when all the police seem to be saying is-"save yourselves".When a call-centre employee was attacked all we could do was sit up in shock & sympathise with the family.The government cleanly put the onus on the call-centre company in question,forgetting the basic fact that there is no basic security provided by the police.At this time another aspect of the emergency exercise comes to our minds-lack of a unified emergency number.It is scary that we have different numbers for different emergency situations.The only one that i can remember,that comes to my mind immediately, is 100 for the police.So if im in a fire or a medical emergency i would either have to reach for a telephone directory or call my family.Here i must mention the medical emergency helpline-1062,which,i believe was started by a group of private hospitals;but whose efficacy i cannot comment on as i have not witnessed them in action.But there have been glowing reports of their quick action & their ambulances being well equipped.This brings to my mind an incident which occurred when i was in my final year of graduation.My friend & i decided to go a shop near our college to buy some stationery.As we were walking back from the shop we noticed an auto-rickshaw driver who had parked in front of another part of our college (which is located outside the main campus),stand next to his auto with his hand in his pants.We were busy talking & laughing about something & I didnt notice that this man was a flasher.My friend pointed to the man & that's when i noticed the man's behaviour.We immediately rushed into the college building which was outside the campus & since i had a cell phone decided to call the police.I immediately dialled 100 & to my surprise or was it shock,i realized nobody was picking up the phone!we tried for almost 15 mins.And i was thinking all the while,"what if this was an emergency....?" We then went inside the college building & called the police station.Surpirse,surprise!Nobody still picked up the phone....By this small,almost insignificant incident i just want to illustrate the state of security in this city.This is where i was born but this is not the b'lore i was born in....