For the taste that lingers

Want to know all about advertisements? Don't bother looking up magazines and books. Just head for the nearest teenager and clear your doubts.

This was the conclusion most participants came to after attending "Deadline - 30 seconds" a workshop on ad film making conducted by Janaki Sabesh, who works as assistant director to Jayendra and P.C. Sriram in their ad production house called JS Films. On July 21, as part of The Hindu's Newspaper inEducation programme 30 children from six Chennai schools participated in the ad film making workshop.

The workshop had two sessions. Janaki began by asking the children which advertisement they liked best. And most opted for the Kinley ad. Discussing the ad, she pointed out how, though the product was mineral water, there was no shot that showed a person drinking water. Instead in a subtle play on emotions, the visuals showed a little goatherd, dressed in the trademark Coca-cola red, prancing around the rain, a child filling a goldfish bowl with water from the Kinley bottle, a father chasing after his son who is running off to a camp with a bottle of water - all reinforcing the purity of the product.

Asked to describe the ad which caught their fancy, the children treated their audience to a frame-by-frame description.

She spoke of how ads, while giving the consumer the right to choose, also bombards him with multiple images and worms its way into the hearts and minds of the viewer. After discussing the various ideas behind ads, Janaki launched into an analysis of how ads are made. First, she played six ads without giving the product names. As the pictures rolled across the screen, the children began calling out the products. The afternoon session was the actual testing time for the students. They were given a brief (of an energy drink) and asked to create advertisements keeping in mind all that they had heard that morning. Their performance was videotaped and played back to them. Barring occasional hiccups natural to first timers the children did an amazing job. Celebrity endorsements, dealing with school bullies, exhaustion, even an irritating younger sister, public service messages, a small jingle, were all woven into their little acts. Later after viewing their performance, they ranked themselves and discussed the flaws in their ads.

At the end of it all, they spoke of how much they had learned and at least three were enthused enough to think of careers in ad film making. They also pointed out that they would approach ads in a different mind set now that they have been exposed to some of the intricacies of backstage manoeuvring.

R.K

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