My weekly ritual: Read TEHELKA.
But as I quickly flipped through this week’s edition of TEHELKA, the advertisement on the cover page definitely caught my eye!
The caption boldly reads: “There are 22 reasons why.”
22 reasons? But sirji, I swear I count only 20!
Unless of course the great Prannoy Roy is counted twice, and once more after that. Because… he is the great. Urrmmm…
Kinda ironic isn’t it? A prominent financial news agency that gets its numbers wrong
As a copywriter, I fail to see the logic behind this caption… is there a hidden message? Is it a metaphor? Am I missing a clue somewhere that only people who scream out “hedge funds” and “equity derivatives” in ecstasy during (sen)sex can see, and not us mere mortals?
Pray, do tell me. If they were focusing on the word profit, so that 20 people grew to 22 (I know, that is extremely twisted, but let’s open all possibilities here) hence a profit of 2 is generated, therefore… *drum roll* 22! Urrmmm… but why just 2 then? Why not 4, 6, 10? Aren’t those… err… bigger profit margins? I’m sorry, but I am so lost when it comes to figures outside the range of 36-24-36.
And If the line “Experts in the field. Integrity you can trust.” are supposed to be the two additional points, then it doesn’t quite deliver because now it simply means that the 20 people featured above aren’t experts and possibly untrustworthy. That’s the only way it can add up to 22
Pretty much a catch 22 situation, aye?
Pun unintended, of course 
Or somebody screwed up somewhere and either missed out on two photographs (or those two people didn’t accept the designer’s friend request on Facebook) or somebody wrote the wrong copy and nobody proofread it. And of course the fun started in office. Told my designer friends that their designer screwed up. They immediately retorted that it was the stupid copywriter’s fault. Interesting, how birds of feather always defend each other, even across different Ad agencies
All in all, there may be nothing wrong with this Ad too, if 22 signify something. But the problem is, most of us fail to see what it signifies. The only thing this Ad probably achieve is the attention it receive due to the caption (like for example, me blogging about it and you reading about me blogging about it).
The main headline too, in a funny way, sounds like “When it’s important, India turns to the Americans”, but then again, it may be just me.
That’s negligible.But you wanna know what I really hate? Visit the NDTV Profit homepage and their embedded video plays immediately! Aaaaaaarrgh. EPIC FAIL.
*Click* Thank you Adblock. Goodbye NDTV Profit.
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Updated: Guess I’m not the only one who noticed this and blogged about it!
Check out sans serif where one commenter jovially suggested that “NDTV” and “PROFIT” could be the two other reasons that sum it up to 22. lolz!
Cheers everyone!
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Update 2:
Will NDTV sue me for writing about this Ad? Is this the end of Mizohican?
