Priyank Bhadkamkar, Student, J J Institute of Applied Arts
Dear Rajiv Sir,
What works better for a creative director? Moving from one agency to another or staying put in one place for a long time?
It all depends on where you are and what kind of opportunities you are getting. The question arises when you are not getting the right opportunities. One would want to move if he is not able to do what he wants to do in his current agency. That’s when you should think of moving on. But don’t just keep moving from agency to agency because everyone else seems to be doing that. You have to think about yourself. Decide whether what you are doing is the best you can do at your current place of work, whether that place is giving you the best of opportunities. There could be people who might think that nothing is happening in their current work profile but for all you know, they might just be lazy. I believe that if you are talented then you will shine irrespective of the agency you work with. Then if you want to take a bigger leap, please go ahead and move on.
Rajiv Rao, national creative director, Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai
Vaibhav Paradkar, Visualiser, Tonic Media
Dear Chax Sir,
What is your stance on ads that are inspired from award winning global work that end up winning awards and appreciation at the local/national level awards?
As an industry we are often eager to trash good work. In my opinion, 70 per cent of these plagiarism allegations might be true. But 30 per cent of them are genuine coincidences. As an industry, it is pathetic that we always prefer to jump to the wrong conclusion. Indians are the most net savvy people in the world. Everybody knows that if an idea has been done earlier and it has won, you’ll be caught if you copy it. At least 30 per cent of the people will be intelligent enough to know that; which means that it could be an honest mistake. The tragedy is that I have never met anybody who is willing to acknowledge that it was a coincidence. I don’t think it’s an issue for people making such ads. It’s an industry problem. We are warped. We insist on trashing.
K S Chakravarthy, national creative director, Draftfcb Ulka
Nikita Virdi
Dear Sagar Sir,
What should I not forget while approaching my job as a copywriter? Should I make it an aggressive copy or a balance between art and copy?
It depends on what brief you are working on and that brief allows you to make that decision. It could be a visual idea, it could be a TVC, and it could be a long copy ad or even an activation idea. Don’t get stuck into the writing v/s art direction area. Think of a big idea and whichever media you choose for your campaign, try and do justice to that. While writing, be yourself. Don’t try to copy anybody else’s style.
Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, national creative director, Bates India