Political incorrectness gone mad!

One good thing that came out of the Tharoor – Modi controversy which ultimately led to the resignation of Tharoor from office is the realization of the importance of the ubiquitous but underestimated public relations manager.

Political / social opinion cannot and should not be expressed in 140 characters. Political correctedness serves a very important purpose i.e. to minimizing social and institutional offense.

But this is exactly what is happening in the country today. Social media like twitter are unintentionally destroying diplomacy and leading to thoughtless accusations, comments and pop philosophies and our politicians, celebs and social figures aren’t the only ones falling prey to this new system of ‘thinking in 140 characters’. It seems to be the end of thoughtful dialogue and perspective, because how much perspective can you really put into 140 characters.

It also seems like a most irresponsible use of a media which is currently not censored and which gives a false sense of security to the expresser since he is only physically aware of his own personal motives and feelings and the Blackberry or I-phone in his hand.

What is now considered ‘new school’ propaganda i.e. Twitter, is actually becoming a lesson in what not to do for politicians, most of whom wouldn’t have a public persona worth a penny if not for their public relations managers.

Only bad things can happen when politicians and other public figures loose their mouths and get into a very public fall in grace by engaging in self indulging ego clashes. When thought itself is limited to 140 characters what more can we expect. The only thing left to do is censor twitter, god save us if that happens.

Honestly now!

Before I begin, let me say one thing. I love advertising. Being a marketer myself I am pretty much a sucker for advertising, its almost like a misplaced comradeship; “If I don’t fall for this ad, who will fall for mine!’ So for me it's like a moral obligation to try out any new product which has a great advertisement (as long as it doesn't make a huge dent in my pocket).

Something similar happened when I saw Minute Maid’s ad for its newly launched lemonade. Well shot visuals captured the days of youth when your mom made freshly squeezed nimboo pani after you returned from your neighborhood sojourns. Ahh…I was transported back to an imaginary childhood where I was a boy, playing cricket in the neighbour hood field relishing the nimboo pani my mom so lovingly made for me. (Of course the fact is that I am a girl and have never been too great at sports! But so was the impact of this ad). That was that, next day I was at Dadar station sweating in the ticket line when suddenly my eyes fell on MM’s Lemonade and I made a spring for it (not before reserving my place in the line of course!).

Well, I am sure you can all imagine what happened next. I discovered to my great anguish that this is not the nimboo pani my mom used to make after I came back from my imaginary games in the imaginary neighborhood, but lemon concentrate mixed with ‘natural’ flavours and some other stuff like calcium and vitamin c, sugar, etc.

Suddenly the picture of the sunny field and the fresh nimboo pani and ‘maa ka pyaar’ all disappear from in front of my eyes only to be replaced by a factory worker adding capfuls of lemon concentrate & a few pills of vit C and calcium followed by loads of sugar to water. (ok I am sure that’s not how they do it…but u get the point) I was disappointed to say the least and not because I didn’t like the drink. They probably had a customer in me if they had not tried to mislead! But the fact is I hate them for having got me!

Btw…the next product I plan to try is ‘smart chips’!