Sir Yes Sir!!!

No, this post has nothing to do with any uniform-wearing guy. Instead, it’s the plight of a copywriter. Earlier I used to make an opinion about every ad I viewed and the creative team responsible for it. But now I know that it takes the following steps to make an ad

1. We get a brief (idiotic assumptions written on a piece of paper by a few self-proclaimed stalwarts)
2. Figure out the Target Audience – Mostly “Customers”
3. Fight for your own Deadline
4. Brainstorm
5. Play Foosball/T.T./ C.O.D. / U.T./ Pool
6. Brainstorm
7. Cigarette break (Jargons like Chutiya Servicing and fuck-all brief forms a major part of the conversation)
8. Late nights – Old Monk – Dustbins filled with cigarette-butts – 50 status updates
9. Finally a campaign
10. Review - A process where people from Planning and Servicing try to rip your idea or try to suggest irrelevant inputs. Of course they back it up with their MBA degree. Thanks to MBA, else how would anyone know that the blue coloured layout needs to be a shade lighter or the headline can be crisper.
11. Presentation – Client masturbates.
12. Gear up for Round 2

PHEW!!!

During this process the creative team hardly gets to see his family. Afterall we are on a mission. We leave house on time and we return after a couple of days. During this time one might have temporary memory loss. You wouldn’t remember what you did on the weekend, or the fun you had with your friends last night. Because if you try remembering backwards, all you’ll remember is office and colleagues. There might be an andhi-mother, desperate biwi, nange kids waiting at home looking at the door-bell, anxiously. Alas! Suddenly the phone rings and they get the sad news. Their son/husband/father won’t return home. BECAUSE WE ARE MAKING ADS.

One more thing about our jobs Never Say NO. Or be ready to face one of the following one-liners:

1. It’s your call
2. Don’t kill yourself, just finish this work asap
3. Tu nahin karega to mai kar lunga, par soch le tera folio kaise banega
4. When I was your age, I was hungry for work

Blaaaaaaaah! Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Our plight has been shown in various films like:

Lakshya – Hrithik returns home for vacations. As soon as he hugs his mom his phone rings and he has to go back to office.

The song “sandheshe aate hai, humey tadpatey hai” is relevant to us when we read others’ status messages which tell us about their rocking lives. To make it worse they upload their photos as well.

Like army-men we sacrifice our families, friends and our lives for our jobs (of course we don’t really die, par yeh jeena bhi koi jeena hai). Although we don’t get half as much recognition. Yet all we do is crib. No one takes a step. No one raises a voice.

But I will. I don’t care about the money. I don’t care about the job. I don’t care about my future. I don’t care about the perks I get. The gifts......err..... that reminds me I need to buy a gift for someone. Damm!! Ok fine, once I buy the gift I shall raise my voice.

Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don't need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need. ~Chuck Palahniuk