Friday, August 19, 2011

What an Idea Sirjii!!



According to a famous saying, “an idea is like a fart. It can strike you and surprise you anytime. So forcefully thinking upon it is of no use”.

Sorry Dude, according to a modern theory, this crap is not possible if you are in the business of advertising. This infamous business thrives heavily on ideas generated on fingertips. You just can’t wait for an idea but have to actually produce it.


Just look at the situation. A Copywriter** is given the most dreadful of the problems by his agency and then he’s expected to come up with path breaking solutions. His situation is like that he’s kicked into a sea without a life-jacket. Or he’s left into a jungle which is only full of hungry carnivores. By default, every time this creature is expected to escape the narrow death. That is, he has to come up with an idea.


The Question is, is generating rapid ideas really possible? If yes then how? How come a copywriter (who proclaims himself as the next writing sensation) can gift this world idea after ideas???## Where the hell his big ideas or I shall say frequent farts comes from??


Does it come from observing other exceptional advertisements? But that only leaves him in awe that “how can someone be that creative”? Or does he derive it by just approaching the King of Problem Solving i.e. “Baba Google”? Or by falling into the trap of having a ginger tea or tobacco or utterly butterly delicious chocolates assuming that it might kick start the jammed engines of his brain?

What if his all sophisticated methods fail? Does he leave everything and hit a bar or a pub or any damn place where booze is available? Or does he find some inspiration in Shakira’s shaking and lying hips, or to the tunes of RD Burman, or watching Rajnikant wearing a lungi and beating 35 henchmen in one go. Random Stuff, you know!!!


As per my experience, after being exposed to so much, our poor fellow might come up with something. But his desire for that “Big Idea” leaves him unconvinced.

He asks stupid questions from his roommates, family, friends even neighbours and his maid to find his consumer insight. He flips newspaper, traces history, play scrabble and what not. Sometimes he goes for a walk, or just gaze at the sky or a tubelight, writes random stuff then tear it all, then write again and tear again. This nonsense goes for a while. Watching porn is always an option. His indulgence in sex is an indication that he’s going through a creative block.

Now you all wanna know that whether this jackass has finally hit the bull’s-eye or is he still lurking around? The irony is that many Copywriters get the best idea when the campaign is over. Even our guy hasn’t come up with the big idea and might come up after the marketing campaign which is to be presented in next 48 hours.


Now this is what happens:

He reaches office the next day without his big idea. He has tried all his formulas but he hasn’t reached the answer. Though he has some not so unique ideas to present and he has definitely not lost the hope. So he is just involved in daily chores like chatting, printing, coffee, peeing and flirting. And when he has nothing to do, the thunderbolt strikes him. He freezes for a moment because he has got the criminal i.e. the idea. The idea that was absconding till now is with him. So like a fart it just hits him. It was approved or not is another story.

The question is whether by stressing too much you’ll get the idea or you need to work it out??? In our boy’s case he worked hard but he has to wait for “The Golden Moment”. As they say “Soch kahi bhi aa sakti hai”.


The quote like “An idea can change your life” is too exaggerated for a common man but for a copywriter An Idea actually does so. His entire way of living is chained around that realisation and enlightenment of what we all say “The big Idea”!!!

** Copywriter is a person employed to write advertising or publicity copy:
 

Feel free to Comment!!!

The article was written for a competition!!!
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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

mature writing!

Neeraj

Pankul said...

Oh geez!!! That remark will be retained forever

margie said...

Amazing insights on your future career. And who says English is not your forte ;p

Pankul said...

@Margaret Mam:

Welcome to Thinking Cap. Special thanks for reading it. And I am feeling delighted by your remarks. :)

Anonymous said...

Idea = Fart....!!! I guess it is true ..! ;)
Great piece...!! I guess u shud keep farting thn :p
I'll gt some gud stuff to read thn...! ;)

Vrinda Khanna

keshav said...

well written. I was about to demand the article, it was pending for long. Keep farting!!

Ankit Saxena said...

maturity has settled down in ur brain and one can easily make it out by cmparing ur first article wid dis one...gud goin n i hope to read such stuuf more often

Pankul said...

@keshav: being the first reader, you have the priviledge of demanding articles from your writer. Thanks u!!!

@Ankit: if you are talking about maturity then it must have found me. Thanks for the appreciation. I hope to entertain you frequently!!!

Anonymous said...

ooohhhhh!!! awesome pankuuuu!! really!!! Keep sending me links!!!


Nidhi Bungale

robinabraham204 said...

Brow...though I always knew u could write well, with this piece uv nailed it! Keep writing..and more often in English, it is indeed ur forte!!

Cheers!
Robin

Nidhi said...

hey.. gud one.. jst to add.. i hope ur farts turn out more to b amusing than annoying.. :P

Anonymous said...

Damn good pankul. Whatever u said about the idea is very true.
thanks for sharing!!!

Pooja Nagda

CT said...

"Watching porn is always an option. His indulgence in sex is an indication that he’s going through a creative block."
Hahahah...loved this line Pankul! :D

It was a really interesting read about something that you and I know know of a little at least, by now. So even though the topic is known, it is your creativity that has won the heart :) Enjoyed it...am going to read the rest of them now :)