Based in Chennai, has more than 20 years' experience in advertising, 17 of them as head of the creative department. He has worked in agencies like R K Swamy and BBDO, Lowe, and Mudra. He has over 40 awards, including Campaign of the Year and Media Innovation, to his credit and specializes in films having scripted or co-directed over 75 of them in seven years. His current activities include imparting training, seminar speeches, creative consultancy and film production. He is also a visiting faculty at MICA, Loyola College, IBMT and Wigan & Leigh and is also the core faculty for Creative Arts for the Postgraduate Program of Ad Club, Chennai since 1999. He has developed two proprietary tools: `Dinsights' for insight mining, and `Creative Seismic Vibrator' to develop advertising ideas.
The sex-in-advertising debate has been raging, inconclusively, for a long time now. While opinions remain polarizedor conveniently flexibleother branches of the creative arts have been using sex without batting an eyelid or even acknowledging that there could be a moral issue. Look at movies, music videos, fashion television, and events. There's skin everywhereincluding male skin, in deference to What Women Want. Salman Khan may have started it, but John Abraham has proven to be a worthy successor.
Here's another one. A sexy young woman arrives at the gates of a prison. She is decidedly well endowed, a fact that does not escape the notice of the guards. Though obviously stirred to their depths, their frisking follows proper protocol. They allow her in. She enters a prison cell, which is occupied by a young man. Standing in front of him, she lifts her skirt up.
The final issue, and perhaps the most critical one, has to do with the product itself. Advertisers must work hard to make the product story compelling in its own right. A differentiated offering is an obvious advantage. In the absence of such an advantage, one might be tempted to use a ploy like sex |
