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 .
