Sixty Years Old or Sixty years young

There was a TV commercial that played out a lot on Doordarshan. Late eighties I think. A trim, genial, `old’ man chivalrously gives his spot in the elevator to a woman. He takes the stairs instead, compelling, a younger man to follow suit. The `older’ man makes it effortlessly. The younger one is left behind panting. Admiring FVO: `Saanth saal ke buddhe ya saanth saal ke jawaan?’ Roughly speaking `60 years old or 60 years young?’ The commercial was for Zandu Pharma’s Kesari Jeevan.

The August celebrations of India’s 60 are just about winding down and if you were to ask marketers - `60 years old or 60 years young?’ the answer would be an unequivocal `60 years young!’ That’s because like the world, we are fixated on the 365 million strong 18 to 35 year olds - our future consumers and target audience. On the verge of starting their earning lifecycle, they are looking to start lifelong (inshallah) love affairs with brands. They matter because they have the moolah.

Yet marketers would do themselves a favour if they shifted their gaze just a wee bit. Look up and you will find a demographic that’s crying out to be serviced. At about 78 million the numbers the 60+ set doesn’t inspire as much drool as the youth but like the man in the Zandu ad, 60 year olds are 60 years young. It’s not about pity or social service. It’s about supplying a genuine demand. It’s about commerce. Life expectancy is up. Healthcare is getting better. Children are becoming financially independent a whole lot earlier. There are greater saving options and more financial freedom. But more critical than all this is the genuine urge most senior citizens have to engage with the world. To taste life in all its new fangled glory.
McCann-Erickson’s Mastercard commercial - young man treats his parents to a foreign holiday, business class travel, a limousine ride and a day at the amusement park - amplifies another key point - if the older generation wants to get a life the younger generation is most likely willing to pick up the tab.

Hindi films have already cottoned on to this trend. If four years ago Ravi Chopra’s Baghban articulated it, recently ad man Balki’s Cheeni Kum updated it. Amitabh Bachchan’s blistering real life career, coupled with increasingly adventurous reel life roles have made him its made-to-order brand ambassador. And if he is living life king size, there are scores of Mr. and Mrs. Wagles shedding deep rooted inhibitions and social constraints to take a shot at life. So grandmothers are getting net savvy to keep track of a globetrotting flock and older couples are forming even smaller nuclear families.

Go to public parks in the morning - and the majority of the people there are senior citizens. They are checking out new fashions even if they aren’t wearing them, debating news, swapping stories of their travels. Little surprise that M&M’s Logan was offering itself for a test drive early one morning in Mumbai’s famous Shivaji Park recently and Bisleri was handing out leaflets for returnable jars. While financial services and healthcare brands have traditionally targeted the 60+ there's an opportunity for everyone. They would be happy to use convenient food sensitive to their health needs; multiplex and restaurant discounts; security products; communications devices; travel aids; holidays, training schools, grooming products; media; networking sites; homes; the list is endless. Daada daadis and nana naanis are also more generous to sales pitches and can be co-opted into your sales team as they often advise kids on big ticket buys. On another note altogether brands grandparents trust become heritage brands imbued in equal parts with retro-chic and nostalgia.

While we are not yet close to where the USA finds itself, three fourths of its money is with the baby boomers, our time starts now. As India goes past 60, its time the 60+ consumer comes of age.

When A Man Loves A Woman

It shows.




Taken by the legendary Henri Cartier Bresson, this photograph of Mountbatten, Nehru and Edwina - a personal favourite - has been all over of late. It has been pulled out to accompany reports on Pamela Mountbatten's (Mountbattens' daughter) just published book `India Remembered:A Personal Account of the Mountbattens During The Transfer of Power.'

Who cares whether Nehru and Edwina's love was platonic or otherwise. How does it really matter to anyone beyond these three people frozen in time. What matters is when you see a man wear just the expression Nehru's wearing - the jester, desperate to catch the woman's eye, trying to impress her, waiting for validation - you will know a man loves a woman.

The other thought that's just popped into my mind, if the papparazi would only get pictures that are so revealing....

We've come so far yet changed so little

`I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.'
Voltaire

I am not prone to falling back on quotes. But now I know why its tempting. Someone just put it so damn well! What Voltaire said some 200 years ago is going to guide this blog. So I definitely don't like what many of you are saying but feel free to say it. (The comments that you see removed are auto-deleted by Blogger for spam or other abuse) Do remember though the more crap I need to wade through, the less I can engage in interesting, insightful debate.

Some clarifications:
When I said Cannes - I was referring to the Cannes Lions festival that's the advertising and marketing festival, has nothing to do with the film festival. Get on to the site see some of the really cool stuff that marketers from around the world are doing.

For some reason a lot of you think that I came up with that cartoon strip. Come on, tarry a bit, look before you leap.

Being Spoofed!

First reaction to this - dismay - what a lumpy body to attach to my head!

(Click on pic for full cartoon strip ...)

Then the epiphany - my thoughts made them really mad.
A spoof, like a bright young colleague points out, needs to seen first and foremost as a joke. And last but not the least as flattery.
All the advertisors I meet at Cannes, racking their brains for a way to generate buzz and live a digital life, maybe there's a lesson here for you. No its not the bit about being intellectually honest and saying what you really think. Its about being interactive. Listening and then talking back and then listening again. Even if its only to pick a fight :)

Life After Sivaji ...

Sivaji was out of my system after the response I had for all of you collectively. But I had underestimated like I seem to be doing consistently, the power of both Rajnikanth and the internet.

There is one consistent argument that many of you have put forward - and that is, that a personal opinion or blog needs to be posted on a totally personal blog site. I have mixed feelings on this one and so am bowing down to the feedback.

From now anyone who wants to know what I think about anything can go to come here http://senguptaspeak.blogspot.com

Let me warn you it may not be worth your while and my posts can be quite erratic. I write only when I am really moved to.

I am going to be gracious and let you have the last word.

If you want to know how I feel about that you know where to go come :)

Thank you Sivaji

Thank you Sivaji. Wow! You helped me discover the joys of blogging. Overwhelming the sheer number and minute details in all the comments reacting to my previous post - Sivaji. The Boss. Of Crap. I have waded through, at last count almost all the nine hundred and sixty-five comments, when actually I should have been working. But what to do, its addictive! Since its impossible to get back one on one, I am hoping this works for you, collectively.

1. The blog was not a FILM REVIEW it was a PERSONAL OPINION.

For those who don't know, a FILM REVIEW is a CRITIC's INFORMED (hopefully) opinion that helps you decide whether or not you should watch a film. I am pretty sure I didn't ask you to be either a pig or a lion. My post was existential angst in response to current socio-cultural-political events, which is what a blog is meant to be.

2.Not pro Hollywood & Hindi films and anti Tamil films

Many of you have implied and assumed - thought you guys could read because you sure can write :) - that I believe Hindi and Hollywood films are better. Let me disillusion you. I am happy to say that the majority of films from both those spaces are also CRAP. So stop falling back on idiotic, petty and frankly outdated `regional language' fault lines. And that, my dears is a pun.

3.Rajnikanth the actor not equal to Rajnikanth the person

Grow up. Learn to separate an artist's work from his/her private person. If I believe an actor's latest work is CRAP it doesn't stop me from choosing to believe that he/she is a great human being.

4.Sticks and stones will break my bones

Come on all of you who said I should shy away from visiting Chennai and other assorted places teeming with Sivaji fans - threatening bodyily harm - I didn't know goons and thugs were educated enough to be on the internet. Silly me I assumed if you were educated you wouldn't be a goon or a thug, atleast not the type who beats up people. Thought Bubble: Get real Anuradha, fascism doesn't exist only in Gujarat.

5.Sivaji's made money so it can't be bad

That's what many of you have said and that's such earth shatteringly self serving logic that I can't even react. I can only wish people who believe that everything that makes money is good, all the best.

6.Being upfront about not knowing Tamil

Come on I needn't have told you that I don't speak or understand Tamil beyond Inge va, Teri yada and Teri Yum (ironically I learned the last two phrases watching Rajni's Thalapathi which was much better that Sivaji), Chaddi Pota Ko and Po. But do you honestly believe that I needed to have an M.A. in Tamil to follow Sivaji" You are kidding right"

7. Congratulations

If you guys feel so strongly about something you have loads of energy and passion. Want to see what you can achieve if you use it more constructively"

8. CNN IBN not equal to Anuradha SenGupta

All those annoyed with CNN IBN or ibnlive should understand that blogs allow professionals working with, ahem, the aforementioned parties, a chance to express their INDIVIDUAL, PERSONAL thoughts. So be mad at me, but leave the channel and site alone. Easy I would say?

9. And the prize goes to:

Someone who said I maybe a pig but I have balls. Thank you.

The Post That Started It All ...

'Pigs go in herds, the lion walks alone'

That's a rough and ready translation of something Rajnikanth spouts in and as Sivaji. He says it mid-way through the film, I squirm in my seat. My membership of the porcine club was signed and sealed Thursday night. I drove after work on a rainy, slushy day to catch a late night screening of the biggest film to come out of Chennai in three years - Sivaji, The Boss.

No more proof was needed. I was part of the herd. I had squelched my sensibilities, curbed my natural inclinations, disinclinations rather, and had caved in to peer pressure.

How could I not go. Everyone was going and conversations for some time to come would be referenced to Sivaji. I could be in or out. I chose to be safe rather than sorry. Discretion is the better part of valour.

The media hype also did its bit. I mean this was Tamil Nadu's biggest superstar, India's biggest, bigger than Bacchan they were saying. The most expensive Indian film to date, one of Tamil cinema's most successful directors at the helm, A R Rahman's music etc etc etc.

TV rights were sold for Rs 5 cr and Kalaignar TV that bought it will will need to wait THREE years before they can run it! When was the last time you heard that about a Hindi film? Even heartland Hindi news shows got their minds out of people's dark sides, showing an unusual interest in a 'Southern' sensation, all clamouring to articulate the Rajni phenomenon.

I remember Rajnikanth from some very forgettable Hindi films of the 80s. Well the news is that he is still there. Stuck in the 80s that is.

The plot, the story telling, the antics, are so camp and ludicrous that you can only wonder that anyone can be so brave. And so narcissistic (Note potshots at other Tamil stars). And self indulgent (over three hours and self mythifying comments). And crass (see innumerable scenes wooing heroine in the first half).

The dialogues which I couldn't understand, the only Tamil I know is - Chaddi pota ko - and with no subtitles for help - I missed the nuances, and there seemed to be some. Of course one way of looking at it is see the whole film as a joke. Some of my friends raved about how what I thought was Sivaji's absurdity was exactly what made it deserve outside its language market, a cult following. I am afraid I think we are desperate and clawing to find legends and myths.

Except for some quirky graphics and some stylish sequences - one song in particular that I am going to refer to as the GORA song - which was crazy, funky and sarcy, Sivaji was the boss. Of crap. And I am the pig. Who followed the herd.