Unspun

Th advertising crowd is a strange one indeed. In the name of creativity they defy gravity, challenge convention and excel at congratulating themselves. Publications catering to this elite group are also similarly unconventional. Adoi, for instance, constantly warps the principles of journalism.

No wonder good old David Ogilvy himself never really trusted copywriters. He always believed that stuff written by real journalists are six times more likely to be read than those by a copywriter. Be that as it may, the advertising crowd like hagiography so the latest edition of Adoi has this gushing article about Ogilvy’s new country head, Renuka Jaypal as the cover story. The advertising crowd is likely to like Adoi’s article for this. Unspun also likes it because there are so many things to unspin about the saccharine sweet article. Take, for example, the opening line:
“India’s loss is Indonesia’s gain. With that mantra, Ogilvy’s Renuka Jaypal arrived on Indonesian soil…”

Whose mantra? It’s not clear but the writing seems to suggest it is Renuka’s mantra. If is Renuka then wouldn’t that make Renuka sound a bit conceited?

It can’t be. No woman who’s been a Star of India would make such a gaff. But then it is difficult to tell, with Adoi’s syrupy bran of journalism that looks more like it was designed to flatter and extract an advertisement from the featured companies/personalities than to enlighten. (There was a one-page ad taken out by Ogilvy just after the article, not even subtle). Take, for another instance, one of the Qs in the the Q&A (an editor that I used to work with told me that the Q&A is often the lazy journalists cop out of writing a story with the journalists observations, inferences and opinions):

Adoi: Tell us about your agency of the year win at the AAA? Did that surprise you, on your third month there?

Renuka: Is there any way to answer this without coming across as arrogant or fake? We were delighted with our ADOI hattrick. No- I wasn’t terribly surprised. We obviously hadn’t taken victory for granted…But we did have some very strong entries and were certainly hoping to come home with the trophy…

Now, what sort of a journalist would ask a question like that? The woman has been here only three months, for God’s sake. Surely most of the work that contributed to Ogilvy winning the Watchamacallit Award would have been done and completed before she came here. And since ADOI was the one providing the award, they should at least know that.

The appropriate question a journalist would ask Renuka is: With Ogilvy’s hattrick this year, how are you going to match this stellar performance in 2008 and beyond?

Given it was a bad question, the answer is also quite a surprising one from a PR perspective. Unspun would have counseled humility and doshing off lots of credit to the people who actually did the work that won the awards.

It is therefore quite heartening to read the Star of India’s plan to restructure Ogilvy PR, Unspun‘s old stomping grounds. Unspun understands that they have brought back an old Ogilvy PR hand who has been working in the private banking sector for the past few years to e No. #2. They are still looking out for No. #1. Hope this pans out, then Ogilvy PR will be in a position, to use a Sorrelism, to Kiss and Punch with their sister company, Pulse. By all accounts, right now Ogilvy PR is sill prone on the canvas.