Stay ahead of the Times, The Hindu ad campaign that took on ToI

We all know Times of India and Hindu both are two of the biggest names in the print media industry. The Hindu dominates the South, especially Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Though Hindu is considered as a boring newspaper mainly because of its lack of colors, pictures and page3 news when compared to other news prints in circulation, it is widely popular among students preparing for competitive exams particularly Civil services. ToI on the other hand is the most popular newspaper in India, especially in metros and in the North, given its colored print, all with visually rich content, which gives readers a kind of refreshing feel, with all the news and the much in talk page3 content, ToI is the market leader in terms of readership, not to mention their innovative ad campaigns from time to time.

In 2011, ToI launched a series of ads which urged readers to switch to color print since black and white was boring and outdated, the tagline itself said
"Had enough of black and white era, switch to Times of India." although it didn't seem to be a direct campaign against any specific newspaper but, against every black and white paper.

      


Since there is stiff competition in print media for a readership share, ToI decided to enter Hindu's turf and launched ad targeted to Chennai readers and The Hindu directly. Thing to be noted is that its Chennai where Hindu is based and has been in print since 1878. Advertisement mocked the paper for being full of boring news while much more interesting things happen around the world at a fast pace. Even the main character is seen carrying the Hindu in his hands in one of the scenes.

This was the ad with which ToI started.

                            
                   

Well no need to say that latest direct advertisement, is good in concept and funny. But probably ToI didn't expect any reply since it assumed Hindu to be same the way they tried to portray in the ad above. But alas, the big giant woke and there came reply or replies one should say that simply tears through, also some of it, unfortunately is more closer to reality. Though there can be weak points to everything and you can expect a more interesting reply but for now the ads below are clearly bang on target.

Below is the advertisement campaign which needs no explanation.

One.
                         

Two.

                         

Three.

                         

The print campaign.

                                                         

Well what ever be the reply one thing is sure first blow sometimes proves to be the last one. People are surely enjoying it.

Just want to share another picture from a different ad campaign by different companies and in a different country with a similar result. This was BMW v/s AUDI and BMW nailed it.

                               

                      

The Subconscious

 There is a continuous tension between man and his surroundings and this tension arises from his drives, needs and finally actions with those of his surroundings. These surroundings when engrossed in man himself, creates the society which demands a rationale for each and every action that he does. The source of requisition of this rationale can be external, as in the environment or can be internal, as the inner self.
Lets try to investigate the same.
Question being
"How do we take decisions that we take and what factors influence them."

There are 3 most important traits of our personality, namely - id, ego and superego.id is formed from desires and exists by birth. Its something we can't shred off, its something which makes us human. It exists by birth and changes forms as we age. One of the desires an infant has is hunger and corresponding action to this desire is crying. Collection of [desire-actions] forms the id.
Second one is ego, which is basically id, combined with some reality of the situation.
The Superego is the moral part of us and develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our caregivers.

The sheer ingenuity of our the human psyche is that at times it works on levels, some of which are hidden, even from itself. These levels encapsulate the three traits of personality. Our psyche is like an iceberg, with the tip of it being the CONSCIOUS.

Conscious has things which we know about ourselves and the traits which we associate ourselves with or want to. This is the way we create a mental picture of ourselves. All the things happening here(which are thoughts more or less) are in our command, and we are incontestable on the point that we can draw our picture in and out. Now the way in which "the conscious" plays it part is it generates reasoning based on our past thoughts, actions and beliefs.While taking decisions it also takes into consideration the mental image that it has conjured overtime(Note that this image may differ from reality in some aspects).

Then comes the PRE-CONSCIOUS.
Preconscious hold our superego. Its a filter which acts and tries to stop us from taking certain actions,or conjuring certain thoughts. These are the thoughts which come from the sub-conscious, and dont match your consciousness's image of itself. So what does your conscious try to do? it tries to repress them.Not as simple as it may seem. It's like trying to block up the entrance to a water vole's nest. You can be pretty sure that it will pop in some other part of the garden. For an example sometimes you want to shout profanities at somebody but refrain yourself from doing so. This action can be a result of your surroundings which means that you don't want others to hear you swearing or it can be that you don't want yourself to swear. Things happening at a preconscious level are in control up to some extent. It all depends on how long you can hold yourself back. But when you lose control,these feelings come out as a source of embarrassment or at times relievers also.

Then comes the SUB-CONSCIOUS or the unconscious which is a vast,endless store of information that a person has congregated over time. This is the part of our psyche where 'id' resides.Its the part from where desires arise.
The most intriguing as well as baffling part of subconscious is that a person has a flimsy if not no control, over how it builds up. Each and every thing in our environment, our parents, our friends,our foes and everyone else contribute something to it and we just cannot discard any of those small bits and pieces of information. These small bits keep piling up and give us our 'nature'. These bits of information give rise to subconscious impulses and there is no escaping from these. Thus, Sub conscious contributes to our decision making in way that it actually defines who we are, its the thing which gives us our individuality.
And i think its the sub-conscious which gives meaning to "I".

Whole point being that, there can be discrepancies between what we think and what we want to think and I think that these discrepancies can only be sorted out by time and thoughtful actions. Our sub conscious is something that doesn't built up in few days or months but it takes a series of events over a period of time to divulge itself to reality.

Its a system which runs in the background, taking inputs, transforming itself and giving outputs to the outside world without even letting you know. That's the power of sub-conscious which can strip you off your mask in a jiffy.
CONSCIOUS= ACTS
PRE-CONSCIOUS= THINKS
CONSCIOUS= DRIVES THE OTHER TWO AND SAYS "I AM THE WAY I AM.FUCK YOU!". ;D