CHENNAI: Whenever the Madras Book Club launches a book in the city, the hall is usually packed, owing to its enthused members. And last Wednesday, was exactly the case with the release of Indu Balachandran’s new book, Don’t Go Away We will be Right Back. The Oops and Downs of Advertising. As the author took to the stage, the audience showed their approval with a loud round of applause, not to mention the occasional whistle as well! Apparently, a Bengaluru-based Indu certainly has several fans in namma Chennai. To start things off, she decided explained why it turned out to be so long. “I had two different titles initially, but the publishers wanted both so there you have it, two titles on one cover,” she revealed. She explained about her ‘seven-minutes of research on Google’ on the history of Advertising and read out the definition she procured : Advertising, like the invention of chess, the zero, and long distance spitting, had its origin in ancient India. She revealed that this book would not only lead readers to empathise with people in the advertising industry, but perhaps develop a sense of sympathy for the poor souls also.A brief glimpse into a few chapters of the book, and one was transported to the different departments of the ad world such as client servicing, copy editing and media planning. One inside secret that the author did take the liberty to share was that there are only few older people who continue to marathon the industry, including exceptions like Rajiv Menon, “young as always”, who received the first copy of the book. “I wonder what anti-aging cream he uses,” she mused. She also thanked Paul Fernandes for his wonderful illustrations that made the book look ‘fatter’ than before. “I didn’t want to approach the publishers with a skinny volume,” she declared in jest. Ironically, the launch was not followed by a conventional ‘Q & A’ session, and the author had no qualms explaining her reason. “You see, there is not a single intellectual word used in the book,” she stated quite candidly. Although, one might still be wondering about the paradoxical question she posed at the beginning of the event, “Do only crazy people join advertising? Or does advertising drives its people crazy?” Well, there’s only one way to find out.
Comments
0 comment