Breaking male bastions

AGKSPEAK

Once in a while, an ad or a film comes along which makes you realise just how much things have changed, sometimes for the better. This is not an ad that can claim a creative breakthrough but the latest ad for Sumo Grande can most definitely stake its claim as an early representation of yet another milestone in women's empowerment "" a journey that ads have traced over the years "" beginning with literacy of the girl child, followed by their employment, followed by lady bosses, followed by women planning family finances, followed by daughters funding their ageing Dad's new car!

And now with this commercial, we have empowered young women making the first move ... the hunted now playing the hunter in a territory that was undisputedly male "" a car chase! I like this ad because it heralds a much-needed dissolution of gender biases. Both advertising and films invariably reflect societal changes that have already happened or are about to and if I am not mistaken, this is the first time I have seen a girl in an ad giving the guy a glad eye and is daring enough to take the initiative to 'stalk' him. Fear for her own safety or of the unknown no longer seems to be a consideration as she zigs and zags down the roads in hot pursuit. It might be happening in real life, who knows? But even if it isn't, it's a sign of the things to come and it indicates all things positive in a land where even today, despite all their qualifications and their abilities, girls have to struggle with unreasonable and illogical gender biases in almost every sphere of their lives "" from home to the workplace.

What I've learned
"If only I was in the thick of working today!"

The above wish was expressed by the chairman of a well-known pharma company when I bumped into him at the airport the other day. A sentiment I had recent reason to fully agree with. It is incredible how computerisation has transformed the entire creative process in hardly ten years' time! Every possible combination and permutation of an idea or even a glimmer of an idea can be touched, felt and seen in a matter of minutes. What a far cry from the laborious days of the 80s; of block-making, typesetting, bromides, painstaking colouring of positives with transparent colours and spending hours on end in studios and dark rooms just to get one concept of one layout realised! If by any chance you had a change of heart, you had to go back and redo the entire process all over again, or just jot it down for another day!

Today, I can have an entire book printed and bound over a cup of coffee! Believe me, this happened to me. I was invited by a printer for a cup of coffee at his digital printing press, and while we were sipping the coffee, he had my next book printed, cut, bound and presented to me at the end of my short visit! Even the layout and design for the entire 160 pages was completed in a matter of just 12 to 15 hours! And with countless variations in fonts, colours, and cover designs presented, mulled over and finalised. Leaving no shred of doubt in my mind that maybe something else would have worked better.

Today's art directors whiz around the world in a matter of seconds, looking into portfolios of international photographers, taking impromptu tours of art galleries online, writers download precise information with no help from clients or client servicing ... seriously, today's working style is the stuff that our dreams were made of! Nothing holds back a creative person other than the limits of his or her imagination. But then, even fantasy comes with a rider. When you have the world at your fingertips, anything less than the absolute best is now totally inadmissible.

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