Utterly Butterly Delicious

Amul's take on Sanjay Gandhi's forced male vasectomy drives.

Cutting through the Indian mind like knife through butter, an advertising campaign running since 1967 has been RK Laxman's biggest competition through most of his career. Utterly Butterly Delicious! The Amul/Amul Butter outdoor campaign is India's best advertising campaign ever.

 

Politically incorrect, defying media trends, speaking a language of its own, it breaks all the rules of advertising except the one called 'break every rule'.

 

It stands tall, long after the Marlboro Man has succumbed to cancer across the world and Fevicol ka mazboot advertising has fallen apart. During its long reign, it saw the decline of All Indian Radio. It welcomed Doordarshan as it spread across India and presided over its decline. Cable and Satellite TV have made no difference to it and it will be here when India gets Digital TV in a few years' time.

 

This campaign is created by a small Mumbai-based ad. agency called Da Cunha Associates. Sylvester Da Cunha, created the Amul girl, a chubby little child (incorrect today) to counter a girl character used by Polson's Butter.

 

 

 

 

 

Initially, this girl graced every communication with the line "Throughbread, utterly butterly delicious Amul". Da Cunha then perfected the campaign into its present form along with Mohammad Khan (who heads the agency called Enterprise today) and Usha Bandarkar with the ad that said, Hurry Amul, hurry hurry! to welcome ISKCON when they came to Bombay in 1969.

 

I wonder what happened to Polson but Amul continues to make Indians laugh at themselves through good times and bad from her pole position.

 

Ask any Indian and she or he will know exactly where they check out their favourite advertising hoarding. For years, it was the first thing I used to look for at the M G Road-Brigade Rd. intersection in Bangalore. These days, it rises to greet me from among the slums at Jogeshwari on the Western Express Highway, Mumbai.

 

You don't have to go far to see Amul's hoarding right now. All you have to do is click this link to enjoy the taste of India through the ages.   

 

Amul hits!

 

 

Jo jeeta wohi sikandar

Jo jeeta wohi sikandar or the Winner Takes It All.

Slogan M and Shiva Anandam (illus.)

Cut down the tall grass

Hatred has a place it calls home. You do not have to look far to see it. It's right behind your eyes, embedded deep in your brain, in a place we humans share with the reptiles and most animal life. In an evolutionary sense, this is one of the oldest addresses, the oldest part of our brains. Here, hatred hibernates, waiting to be provoked with its partner, an emotion we are all very familiar with called fear.



In the early 90s the leaders of a group of people known as the Hutus, living in Rwanda, collectively tickled the dormant fear embedded deep within the tribe. Fear of another tribe, the Tutsi, the minority through whom the Belgians controlled Rwanda-Urundi during colonial days.



The leaders orchestrated the collective fear among the Hutus with fiery slogans and half truths until it developed into mass hatred. When this erupted into an orgy of violence, man once again discovered the animal living deep within him. They killed each other with bare hands. As if trying to exterminate the fear residing within them.



"Cut down the tall grass!" RTLM (Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines) Radio Broadcast, Rwanda, 1994.

That year, the Hutus went on a rampage killing Tutsis, who were supposed to be taller than the Hutus. They killed an estimated 800,000 people over a span of few months. And this is the human tragedy that forms the backdrop for the movie, "Hotel Rwanda".



Hotel Rwanda is a true-life story of a Hotel Manager Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu, who housed nearly 2,000 Tutsi refugees in his hotel during the worst violence in Rwanda. Triggered by the murder of the country's president, the Hutu militia called Interahamwe ("Those who stand together") went door-to-door, killing. This movie is the story of Paul transformation from an ordinary man into a hero who saves 2,000 lives while trying to save his family.



For Indians, this movie tells a story that is all too familiar. It is a story that has bloodied the Indian soil several times; 1921 in Malabar, the 40s in Bengal and Punjab, Delhi in 1984, early 1990s in Mumbai and most recently in Gujarat. Hotel Rwanda pricks that part of the mind we Indians have left open to be manipulated.

Grow more trees

 

I want to stand here forever, watching the tides. With the wind in my ears, eyes following the moon as it follows the sun across the sky each day. I want to stare in the face of the summer heat while I await the monsoon each year. And when it rains, I will soak in every single drop of life it brings. And if the sea gnaws at the soil below, I will dig deep into the rich red soil. 

 

I feel roots growing on the soles of my feet.

 

 

Meanwhile my old pal Sam seems to be growing roots all over his mortal self in his quiet corner at Benaulim. And that's a nice spot too, next to his favourite watering hole. Susegad!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rail Roko

 

Today's Guardian has an article on the impact of India's budget airlines on the country's extensive rail network, travel industry and environment. Of the many facts and views mentioned in the article, I found the following fact very interesting.

 

"Although India has a fraction of the flights available in the US, the rise in greenhouse emissions is a cause for concern. Rail travel produces two-thirds of the carbon dioxide emitted by planes. The 140-mile trip between Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab, and Delhi, if made by airline, would see 57kg of CO2 sent into the upper atmosphere. The same journey by train produces 38kg." 

 

Find the complete article at GuardianUnlimited

 

Information and pictures of Indian Railways: Indian Railways Fans Club

 

Track the life of Indian Union's Railways Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, the corrupt politician who is currently signalling Indian Railways down the wrong track: Laloo Prasad Yadav Tracker

FuelCells Anyone?

 
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