May 16, 2007

Whatever sells..

When you have ten seconds to get your message across what will you say?

In an advertising class, the prof. pronounced emphatically, "Imagine you are in a lift and you are selling to the person next to you. How will you do it?" So one can arguably come up with witty one-liners.. shock the daylights out of the person concerned.. anger the individual.. incite passion.. play on emotions or instinct.. whatever..

Regarding this matter, I always believed that one should state the obvious and leave the matter at the hands of the discerning individual.. who might decide to whether he wants it/needs it/ or simply has to have it.

Well, in the long run/on a long enough time line/in the real world, of course it doesn't work that way - proven by the thriving advertising industry. But apparently on the local train they appreciate obvious selling. When a train is pulling out of the station, always only when it is pulling out of the station, a few dapper young men, shout out their 15 seconds. Often, these are directed at someone in particular. In the few seconds that the hooligans have to "eve-tease" the young women, they recklessly play it safe - by stating the obvious. It's their only chance and certainly, the message must not be lost. Hence it follows:

"ae chashma!".. to the girl wearing spectacles/sunglasses,
"oi newspaper!".. to the girl fumbling with the flying newspaper,
"arrey! gir gaya".. to whoever dropped whatever..

And then everyone in the vicinity turns to see the object of attention.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

interesting... come to think of this, thts quite true...