When the DNA (Daily News and Analysis) campaign first hit Mumbai, I thought shucks, this is great. A lot of thought had gone into the original lines used to reflect what we, the people were thinking. It made me feel quite positively inclined towards the yet-to-be launched new paper
My three favourite DNAisms:
a) Sex is overrated
b) We live in Mumbai, but our taxes work in Delhi
c) I'm not from IIM, so?
And yeah even the old man asking "When did Page 3 move to Page 1" I think hit the nail on the head.
But as the campaign moved into the second phase - reflecting current concerns - the quality of thinking has vastly deteriorated.
My current list of most pukey DNAisms:
a) Women should wear armour to feel safe in this city
b) Who won the British elections? Bush or Blair?
c) I like Che Guevara. He makes nice t shirts
Line 1 is part of this series milking the Marine Drive rape case to death. "I want to join Mumbai police" is another in the series, featuring a moustachioed young man. "The only moral police we need is honest cops" says another.
But the 'armour' line is what really bugs me. It sounds like something a 22 year old ponytailed copywriter might use to try and impress a bunch of giggly girls at a party.
Line 2 eludes me completely. What are they trying to say?
a) That young people don't care who wins the British election - hence our paper will not cover it?
b) That young people today are dumb - and hence our paper will try to educate them by telling them who actually did win the election?
c) It just sounded like a good line to put up on a hoarding.
Ditto with the Che Guevara joke.
Bottomline: The DNA campaign has achieved what it had to - it's now running out of steam. They need to launch their paper asap and have it speak to us - instead of that bald doofus suggesting we try armour from a hoarding .
Arghhhh! Noooo
ReplyDeletethat's one fckng annoying campaign plastered all over Bombay.
I especially hate that Meghalaya-Mumbaikar guy and want to punch him on his face.
The whole campaign makes the brand sound so wannabe and it comes across that the paper is just going to rebel to every fact because it's cool to do so.
From what i gather from your posts, this newspaper seems more like the annoying supplements you get like Delhi Times, HT City everyday with the regular paper
ReplyDeleteJatin
(www.twentyonwards.blogs.com)
Hmm.. looks like you expect DNA to churn out more of the pukey-type ads. Why else would you list ur current list of most pukey? esp when you dont have any such prefixes for your list of favourite ads. Well, do keep us non-Mumbaikars posted on any future ads. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting perspective by Dr. Madhukar Shukla is that
ReplyDelete… most of us tend to believe - somewhat naively - that when we buy a magazine or a newspaper, or watch a TV channel, we are the customers, because we pay for it (even if nominally).
We tend to ignore that the media revenues come, not from subscriptions paid by its readers/ audience, but from advertisements paid for by businesses.
So, perhaps, a more rational way of looking at media should be like this: Media sells its subscribers/ audience/ spectators/ readers to its primary customers - the businesses, and gets paid for that service!!!
Even i think its high time DNA released in the market. I have high hopes from the newpaper since Pradeep Guha and Subhash Chandra are at the helm.... basically i hate the monopoly of the TIMES and want some worthy newspaper to knock it off from the pedestal it is happily sitting at. "Mumbai Mirror" the latest stunt of the Times looks like another extension of the Bombay Times and the Page 3. Waiting for DNA and HT ( yess...yess...Hindustan Times is coming to Mumbai..nobody writes & analyses issues better than Vir Sanghvi) to overthrow the The Times of India from Mumbai.
ReplyDeleteyou should be more specific regarding taxes.....I mean it must be "taxes work at delhi in politician's bank account or pocket...etc."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely high time DNA ended its much hyped and overtly-exaggerated surveys and landed on the streets.I particularly dont like the "Germs love the water here" 'slogan'...or 'copywriter-puke' if i have to put it more succintly.What do these guys wanna put across...we are living in a sick metro with sanitary waste being re-routed to the taps????I dont think any Mumbaikar would have even rated it as one of the problems in thier 'survey'.DNA people have already put a wrong foot forward ,its high time they slipped[into oblivion;)] :)
ReplyDeletehello,
ReplyDeletei think line 2 means that bush and blair though different are much the same person who will work for their own benefit. Blair has often been criticized as a cloned version of bush and his policies as those which favour US. i guess you need to stop reading JAM and start brushing up your GK instead of critizing some campaign. and no i am not from DNA :p its just that your cribbing articles on IIMs are bad as well! :p
"Line 2 eludes me completely. What are they trying to say?
a) That young people don't care who wins the British election - hence our paper will not cover it?
b) That young people today are dumb - and hence our paper will try to educate them by telling them who actually did win the election?
c) It just sounded like a good line to put up on a hoarding.
"
I do agree with the anonymous poster. In Blair winning again, Bush also won. And brilliant as that is (read the sarcasm in that) it means the man now being compared with Palpatine from Star Wars has held onto that particular power.
ReplyDeletethe taxes bit from an economics point of view doesnt make sense, its just raising sentiments, mumbai is merely the point of collection of these taxes, but infact they are generated from all over india, ill post more bout that later on
ReplyDeleteDNA campaigns rock. It's a great start when you have such a heavyweight to take on. All the best. But it should launch the newspaper before the interest of the readers die down. All the best DNA.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am concerned, I feel the DNA campaigns are just great. Though I don't live in Mumbai, the kind of feedback that I have got from friends living in Mumbai about DNA, is just great. Even certain online articles seem to feel the same about the DNA campaigns. These campaigns have enhanced the curiosity factor of the yet to be released newspaper manifold. For the first time The Times of India, which enjoyed complete monopoly in Mumbai, is facing the heat. Otherwise who would have thought, even in the wildest of their imagination that Times would come up with a second paper, a tabloid - Mumbai Mirror - just couple of months before the launch of DNA. Whatever may be the case, the Mumbai newspaper market is witnessing a Battle Royale, which is set to hot up even more in the coming months.
ReplyDeleteSPEAK UP IT IS YOUR DNA
ReplyDeleteBRING BACK NEGAR KHAN
I SEE THIS EVERYWHERE BELIVE ME ALSO IN MY DREAMS......BRING BACK NEGAR KHAN AND DNA...DNA...DNA...DNA
IT SOUNDS LIKE AND EXITING NEWSPAPER WHO SPEAKS PEOPLES MINDS AND ALSO A NEWSPAPER WITH INTRESTING TOPICS.
IT WILL BECOME A VERY POPULAR NEWSPAPER.
hey, u gooto be crazy to rubbish the DNA campaign...its awesome...the comments r in ur face and reflect wht everyone here today thinks. Listen to all this: -
ReplyDelete1. I WANT TO MEET SHAKTI KAPOOR.
2. I WANT MORE SEX ON T.V.
3. I AM NOT FROM IIM. SO?
man, how can u, with all ur sanity intatc, not connect and approve of this ??