Oops maybe that's what happened to my Prince

I just found this one I'd done back in January and forgotten to upload or possibly waiting for an opportune moment. 

I'm not one to promote any black art stuff so I have to explain. Wanting to turn people into frogs (I should have said toads) was a thought I had now and then in my younger years, being a fan of "Bewitched" (and other fairytale witches) where Endora would threaten to turn Darren into a toad every time he annoyed her. Reading this now makes me wonder if people would get the idea that I [want to] kiss people and turn them into slimy creatures! As much as that would seem to be the case, it's not. 

I must've been annoyed at something on the day I drew this. But give me five minutes and the sentiment would be applicable again.

I need to be lazy!

I can't quite remember what brought about this idea but it must have been some daydream about some gadgets or why we'd need to have a gadget that would fold all your clothes and sort them. (Sometimes my mind goes into nerd mode. I'm secretly proud of it.) I can't be bothered with such tasks when I could be doing great things instead! It is amazing to see how far we've come and what might have inspired or caused it.

But it does seem that the more we invented things to make life easier, the more we feel everything needs to be effortless. 

Peanuts Tribute 2: Sleepy-time conversations

True story. 

I didn't think that I'd do two tribute strips for "Peanuts". But then this thought just happened and then I connected it to Charlie Brown and the rest is history. 

Completely fair?

This is the second strip I did for the "Beauty beyond colour" campaign by Women of Worth. (My earlier strip can be found here. )

Sometimes I wonder why the Great White shark is called that when it is white only on its lower side. I guess it's because the poor little seal sees only a flash of white before it becomes a sealwich. hahaha.

Okay, onto the issue at hand.. most adverts today are so utterly nonsensical that I think this sort of lying needs to be made illegal. "Microbeads", "oil pearls", "Active fresh power cells" and such fictional ingredients go into consumer products telling people that their very real problems will be taken care of if they use their miraculous products. 

They can't even truly fix damaged hair or make people age backwards or cure dandruff. So how did they manage to convince people that their products can change really dark skin into shades lighter? Don't they feel bad when they see people buy fairness creams/masks/sunscreens in hopes that they'll become more popular or super stars? 

Why can't they tell people to aim for healthy (not "healdhy") looking skin instead? (Didn't we learn in school at some stage that the melanin in our skin protects us from harmful UV rays?). There are people out there who find different shades/ features attractive and that's why it is UNfair to treat certain shades as beauty norms. 

How about we first demand that ad slots not be more than 2 minutes? These companies seem to have enough money to throw at airtime and don't care about my our TV watching time. 

Happy Valentine's day to me!

I wanted to do a different one for Valentine's day but I don't have a scanner or tablet where I am. I know it's not Valentine's day but I'm so indifferent to that day that I actually wished someone happy birthday instead. It was also another friend's birthday but thankfully I didn't wish her happy v-day instead. 

Anyway, I got the idea for this from a post I'd done ages ago on my old blog. Yes, I inspire myself. It's interesting to read the emo tones on my old blog and see how wonderfully happy my new mask is.

Strawberry de-seeding

I'm not one to crave fruits ever. Even though I do like mangoes, berries and apples (sometimes), I never bother buying any. Whenever my dad thinks I ought to be getting some fruit in my system, he cuts them up and de-seeds them and hands them to me (yes, I'm very spoilt when it comes to fruit). When I learnt that all those tiny eyes on the outside of strawberries were their seeds, I wanted to get him to de-seed those. But it is probably the one fruit he can't stand so he wouldn't even listen when I said "so... about those strawberries...".  

How to sound wisdomous

I hope I don't offend any wise people. I should probably stop talking in that case. 

(But I do think some "wise quotes" just sound that way because of how they are said and not because it's some radical new thought or piece of advice).

Fairly Lovely Ad

My friends at the Women of Worth (WOW) have this campaign on called "Dark is beautiful - beauty beyond colour" and asked me to do a sketch for it. India is odd in many ways - one of them is that despite being of one race, we're all of different shades. Instead of flaunting this variety filled shade card, society has (as usual) found a way to make something nasty out of it. Numerous people are differentiated and discriminated not by their personalities or skills but by something that is not in their hands. 

Although, both men and women face this ordeal, I must admit that it is more strongly felt by women. I mean, women who are one shade darker than almost-caucasian are termed as "having less colour" (here, the less colour you have, the darker you are - yes, it doesn't make sense which is why this is still an issue). And yet, men who are darker than dark are hailed as superstars and heroes. It's okay for extremely dark-skinned men (also now termed as "wheatish")  to demand for "fair" brides but rarely the other way round. 

Anyway, the point is not to say one is beautiful and the other is not or that one is better than the other (more about the campaign here). But I must say that it is ridiculous to continue to believe that one can do things better or become more popular if only they became shades lighter. First of all, it's not really possible with fairness creams and second, if you're going to have attitude issues even if you're Snow White, you're going to lose your job and your popularity.

Personally, I'm extremely bothered by the distastefully ghastly fairness cream adverts out there that basically tell people that creative agencies must think they're so stupid to buy this crap. I know (thanks to ad agency experience) that these products don't work and that they simply play on people's insecurities. If you want to use them anyway for their advanced skin healing technology, go ahead but don't do it because you think that guy/girl will like you if you do. 

ps - You can also check out the Facebook page for "Dark is Beautiful"

pps - Don't miss the "Fairly Lovely" product. I won't be surprised if a fairness cream company actually made an ad like this.

Killing off creativity bugs one media attempt at a time

I've been trying out a series of strips for a campaign next month and this is one of them. The other two are a bit more specific so will post them later. I think most of the ads on TV these days are mind-bogglingly bad and some are just appalling. I mean, if people are going to censor kissing, swearing and drug references on TV, they should insist that several of the ads be censored for stupidity and exploitation. Every channel seems to run their ads at the same time and some of the ad slots are about ten minutes long and this is why watching TV shows online or getting the DVD is so much more appealing (if TV ever becomes obsolete, ads will be the cause). 

This message is something I'm quite passionate about because I've seen first-hand how companies contribute to and then exploit poor self-image. I've seen how it's not about values or being memorable. 

When making money becomes the driving force, then worrying about quality ideas and cultivating people's minds becomes obsolete (true for any sort of media). 

The worst part is that I hardly notice what the product or brand is anymore, which is usually the purpose of advertising. There's this new SUV vehicle ad - I forgot the company and model so had to google this (Mahindra XUV500). This is one of the worst ads ever - I mean, hasn't anyone sent out the memo that using women as savages around one man is and old and un-clever idea? Or is creativity no longer mandatory when it comes to advertising. Sadly people have commented that this is one of the best commercials ever and it reminded me of this quote I heard in one of Ravi Zacharias' speeches: 

"At first, art imitates life. Then life will imitate art.Then life will find its very existence from the arts" (Fyodor Dostoevsk). It's very true and it would be good if people were a bit aware of why they have certain opinions or passions or what's shaping them today.

ps - Yes, one of the "ads" I've shown is a dig at the awful Fast track ads. Making both boys and girls shallow and loose doesn't make it okay, you know? Most teenagers crave relationships - trying to convince them that one day stands are better will just mess up the dynamics of love, you fools.

pps - Watch out for the campaign ideas soon - would love to have you all contribute.

Sharkfin soup for the soul??

Cheesy but true. Stop shark finning. It's cruel and wasteful.
In the rare event that you don't know about the Chicken soup for the soul books, please check it out.