Cheap ad

If you had been to Chennai about 8 to 10 years ago, you would have been struck by the number of places carrying this man's advertisements. There was hardly a wall in the city that did not have the words "P. James Magic Show 9841072671" written on it, maybe several times over. Every part of the city carried these black letters, sprayed or painted on to the walls with a black-oxide-and-Fevicol mixture, which keeps the letters stuck on the walls for more  than a couple of monsoons. The city's residents probably did not take notice of them too much, but for a few years, they were the one thing about Chennai most visitors were intrigued by, thanks to their omnipresence.

James is a stage name. The man's real name is V. Kennedy; he took his father's - or was it his grandfather's? - name and made it his brand, one that is so ubiquitous that it featured as a question on one the editions of the Landmark Quiz. Kennedy claims that it took him almost 14 years of painting walls to achieve the kind of brand recognition that he has now.

And yet, I have not come across anyone who has seen a P. James performance. Some speculate that the man has passed on, and it is the junior who runs the show these days. The advertisements also appear to have become thinned down. Maybe there is some truth to it, after all. Like Phantom in the comic strip, P.James could also be immortal!

The fine print

It is said that Indians speak rapidly. Even so, the consumer boom of the past few years had brought into being a new class of quick speakers - those who speak the fine print. To protect market participants in recently decontrolled insurance markets, the regulators for insurance and for mutual funds imposed quite a bit of mandatory declarations on any advertisement material - "Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation", "Mutual funds are subject to market risks", "Please read offer document carefully before investing" being the most commonly used phrases.

It is funny enough to hear these words running into each other so as to take up less than 1.5 seconds of a 10 second radio ad spot. But the virus spread to other places, too; the neighbourhood grocer started putting in signs saying "Potatoes free (conditions apply)" and spotting the fine print, whether in the written or the spoken form, has become a challenge.

This sign on the wall of the LR Swami building at the intersection of Cenotaph Road and Mount Road seems to be predicting a day when those 3 little whispered words would be followed by four others, said in a much softer tone - and if you are used to picking up what those "Mutual funds blah, blah, blah" announcements mean, you can surely catch on to what 'Terms and Conditions Apply'!