A blog by a copywriter from India about new and improved ways to communicate, be it through a better web site, logo, ad, SEM plan, billboard, viral film, SMS promotion, marketing strategy or television commercial.
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WongDoody debuts its latest international TV and print campaign for online poker site Full Tilt Poker. The new campaign’s sophisticated black-and-white creative executions position the brand as the purveyor of true poker, and feature the 14 professional poker players who make up Team Full Tilt. The message of “constant improvement,” which research and focus groups identified as a key driver for true poker players, is prevalent throughout the work.
A charming campaign for the Markage Mumbai City Guide. The campaign outlines Mumbai as seen by the common man or general traveler, something that the books did. Who says copy is dead?
'Parallel Lines', is part of a new, global campaign to promote the unique cinematic viewing experience offered by Philips’ range of TVs and is a follow up to the internationally acclaimed and award winning Carousel short film developed for the launch of the Philips Cinema 21:9 TV.
For the project, Philips selected a single unifying theme and challenged Sir Ridley Scott's production house's directors to submit treatments for a short film in a genre of the director's choice. Forty-five treatments were received in total from which Philips selected five it believed were most ground-breaking. The films explore the most popular genres of filmmaking including drama, action, animation, sci-fi and thriller, and were shot on location in Uruguay, London, Moscow, China and South Africa.
The objective of the online campaign is to engage film fans and drive awareness of Philips TVs' cinematic viewing experience proposition through its unique 'Ambiplayer' media player. Parallel Lines is being promoted via an interactive though-the-line campaign with a strong focus on social media.
In a world first, Parallel Lines’ digital integration includes a YouTube homepage masthead in widescreen 21:9 cinematic format.
"In June 2002 I moved to Trivandrum, India, following my (American) husband who had taken a job there. Upon my arrival I was confronted with his mid-life crisis, a complete emotional withdrawal. This left me without support in a city in which women were 2nd-class citizens, unable to walk alone at night, and not expected to have an identity separate from their husbands. It was in Trivandrum I encountered the Indian epic, The Ramayana, for the first time. Like many westerners, I initially considered the Ramayana little more than misogynist propaganda. Meanwhile I was in the midst of developing a new comic strip for King Features Syndicate, The Hots. After 3 months in Trivandrum, King Features flew me to their New York headquarters for a launch meeting. Then my husband dumped me by email.
Unable to return to my former apartment in San Francisco, or my new apartment in Trivandrum, I moved to Brooklyn. My professional life benefitted, as I began teaching animation at Parsons School of Design and acquiring New York freelance clients. Emotionally, however, my relocation commenced a terrible year of grief. The Ramayana took on new depth and meaning for me. It no longer resembled a sexist parable; rather, it seemed to capture the essence of painful relationships, and describe a blueprint of human suffering. My grief and longing for the man who rejected me increasingly resembled Sita's; my husband's withdrawal reminded me of Rama. In Manhattan I heard the music of Annette Hanshaw for the first time. A radio star of the late 1920's, Hanshaw specialized in heartfelt blues and torch songs. In my grief-addled state, her songs, my story, and the Ramayana merged into one: Sita Sings the Blues.
Originally, I hoped to expel my demons of heartbreak with a single short film, Trial By Fire (2003). This set a pivotal scene from the Ramayana, Sita's walk through a funeral pyre, to Annette Hanshaw's 1929 rendition of Mean to Me. Trial By Fire won 2nd Place in New York's 2004 ASIFA-East Animation Festival, and screened in festivals in San Francisco, Latvia, and Red Bank, but I refrained from promoting it further. Audiences loved the design and animation, but were not sufficiently familiar with the Ramayana to really understand the story. Furthermore, my demons weren't adequately expressed; I was still tormented by grief and heartache. When another relationship failed in November of 2004, I saw only one course of action: I had to tell the whole Ramayana story from Sita's point of view. Sita Sings the Blues, a 72-minute feature, would be my salvation.
I began production in December 2004. I have since completed 20 minutes of animation, comprised of 6 musical chapters. In April, a popular weblog called BoingBoing reported on my work-in-progress; within hours, thousands of viewers were downloading the movie clips I posted online, temporarily shutting down my web site. Reviews began appearing on hundreds of other weblogs, all positive. This was followed by print newspaper and magazine coverage in Switzerland, Korea, and India, as well as India Abroad in New York. Artwallah, Los Angeles' South Asian Arts Festival, solicited and screened a chapter called Dandaka Dharma, which also won an Excellence in Design award from ASIFA-East's 2005 festival. My subject matter is controversial. While I've been greatly encouraged by the overwhelming positive response from desis (South Asian expatriates), some viewers in India have been outraged. The Ramayana is a perplexing tale, and Sita is its most misunderstood character. I've heard from more than one Hindu American woman that Sita Sings the Blues is the first Ramayana retelling that offers them a real connection to Sita. My retelling is also humorous, which some people interpret as irreverent, and therefore an affront. Not that this has any bearing on my work; as I learned from The Stork, the greater the risks in art, the greater the rewards. I have nothing but love and admiration for my source material now. I hope to show how the genius of the Ramayana transcends societies and generations, and is as relevant today as it was 3,000 years ago."
"Using the out-of-context words of your dead father in an attempt to clean up your image just might be more offensive than nailing dozens of hookers across the U.S. while your wife raises your kid." —Jason Piroth, 4/8/10
Here's the new Nike spot from Wieden + Kennedy that broke Wednesday ahead of Tiger Woods's return at the Masters. It's pretty cringeworthy. It shows Tiger Woods soberly looking into the camera, as you hear his late father Earl. "I want to find out what your thinking was," Earl says. "I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything?" It's comical that Nike is now sponsoring Woods's atonement, which of course cheapens it—and then you throw Earl Woods into the mix, and it cheapens him, too. Woods isn't the devil, but he did embarrass himself and his sport—did they consider maybe not packaging that into a stylish and "meaningful" 30-second sales pitch? For all his talk about being more humble, this ad shows that Woods hasn't changed, and explains a lot about how he got himself in so much trouble in the first place.
On CBS's The Early Show this morning, Adweek critic Barbara Lippert offered her take on Wieden's new Nike ad with Tiger Woods. For Barbara, the commercial is "powerful, creepy and cynical, but it does what Nike needed to do."
Hello, I am Sunil (sshibad AT gmail.com). I provide creative solutions for brands, across traditional media, new media and interactive forms of communication.
I bring a lot of traditional agency experience to the table, and in my 20 years as a copywriter and creative director, I’ve developed a diverse portfolio of communication products. A lot of advertising, branding, corporate graphics, websites, social media marketing, and, of course, word of mouth and viral marketing.
Skype: sunilshibad
