Roadrunner

One of my favorite cartoons is the Road Runner Show. It features Wile E Coyote who wants to capture this (in my opinion irritating) bird Roadrunner. So Mr. Coyote launches all these elaborate schemes to capture Roadrunner and has a spectacular failure rate of 100%.

Coyote buys these nifty gadgets from Acme Industries. If it was for real, the owner would be the richest man on this earth and Acme would be the largest corporation on the planet. Sadly, that is not the case. Well, the only issue with the products is that they end up failing spectacularly at the critical moment. Anyhow, this is one show where I wanted the Roadrunner to be caught and be eaten. It was an irritating creature, and somehow never was able to get my sympathy (like Jerry the mouse in Tom & Jerry).

Looking back (am I that old? Seriously?) I realize Coyote represents all of us. We think we can plan for everything life throws at us, and catch the Roadrunner. But somehow, Roadrunner (life) finds a way to mess up these plans or at the critical juncture something (Acme Industries’ products) gets messed up and we are left hanging in the canyon with only one option, to fall down with a helpless shrug.

To summarize, careful planning is no match for dumb luck.

I just hope Coyote catches that damn road runner and roasts it slowly and eats it!

Titan Watches

Q. What is common to the following famous people: Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherji, Mozart, Sheetal Mallar, Aishwarya Rai, Tara Sharma, John Abraham and Minisha Lamba, Maria Gorreti, Praveen Dabas, Rahul Bose and Saira Mohan?

A. They all have been featured in Titan Watches advertisements.

Ever since I can remember watching TV, I remember the Titan Jingle. Today browsing through YouTube videos, discovered that there is a Titan Industries Channel ) which has advertisements going way into the past.

Seeing old advertisements to a new one is like seeing evolution, from the long 2 min advertisements in the eighties to the 30 sec advertisements we see now (which is a testament to either decreasing viewer attention span or increasing rates of airtime). In case of Titan, right from their first advertisement (Introducing Titan Quartz) to the latest ones, barring a few exceptions, all commercials have been less than or equal to a minute. Which I think is awesome.

I also realized the growing power of star value. Sure there is an Aishwarya Rai advert, but when she wasn’t THE Aishwarya Rai. In fact she has been shown as a wife in that advertisement; I guess she started playing a wife on screen recently only. Nowadays, you have Aamir Khan, Rahul Bose, Rani Mukherji, Saira Mohan and John Abraham endorsing various Titan Brands.

Titan has had the same music for the incredibly long time, few people will know that it is Mozart’s 25^th symphony. This consistency in branding I think is something Titan should be proud of.

Here are few of my Favorite Titan Adverts through the years:

So many things spoken with music and no words

And again.

I remember this ad when I was a kid, since it had only one word, Papa. Superb!