Archive for October, 2009

the LIRIL girl….. Author: Jatinder Pal Singh Broca Oct 22

Following news item appeared in FE on 21.10.09:

Column : Liril minus its girl

Lalitha Srinivasan
Posted: Tuesday, Oct 20, 2009

Many TV viewers have been wondering why the Liril girl has just disappeared from the brand’s TV commercials. The answer is simple. In the face of India’s changing consumer tastes, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest FMCG company, has decided to say goodbye to the ‘Liril girl’, the company’s mascot for over three decades.

Remember Karen Lunel who tirelessly sang “Come alive with Liril Freshness,” in Liril’s TV commercial for over 12 years (1975-87)? In fact, Liril has been a launch pad for many peppy young beauties who danced their way to stardom in Bollywood. After Lunel, HUL introduced a bevy of young beauties who went on to become successful film stars —like Preity Zinta and Deepika Padukone. But with the disappearance of the Liril girl, Bollywood producers need to scout for fresh faces across the country.

What’s the rationale behind HUL’s move to do away with the Liril girl? With increasing competition, the market dynamics in Rs 6,200 crore branded toilet soaps have changed dramatically in the last two years. With the entry of ITC, it’s quite tough for HUL and Godrej Consumers Products to hold on to their market share.

In a bid to reach out to a wider target audience, HUL has relaunched its Liril with value additions. The company has also revamped its advertising strategy to woo family audiences. Godrej has relaunched Cinthol, and is beaming a high-voltage campaign featuring none other than Hrithik Roshan.

According to HUL, the brand needed a makeover to become relevant to the new generation. So, the company has rejuvenated the brand with the launch of Liril 2000 which is supported by aggressive mass media campaigns. To woo consumers, HUL has now opted for the route of building a bond with the family. With the tagline “Liril 2000 refreshes all the 2000 parts of the body,” HUL’s new campaign stresses family intimacy in its communications.

But the million dollar question is: Will Liril’s makeover and new ad campaign bring in volumes in the branded toilet soaps industry in India? Will it be able to revive the old magic without waterfalls and lissome girls?

—lalitha.srinivasan@expressindia.com

This is what I posted in FE in response to above piece :

Dear Sir,

I am 60 years old now and was around 36 in 1985 when Karen Lunel’s first ad for Liril was seen on Indian Television.I even recall it vividly today ! The ad had captured the imagination of the very conservative Indian society of those times and it was thought to be quite daring and much ahead of its time.She looked very sexy and cute in that lime green bikini ( I believe it was a stuff of what dreams of adolescent young boys were made up of in those days) while she frolicked in the icy waters of a Kodaikanal waterfall, singing to the memorable jingle “La la la,la la la…..” which I feel must have sold millions and millions of soaps in those times.

No other celebrity or model girls who later on featured in Liril ads could ever re-create the magic of Karen ( Sonali Mehta in 1987,Pooja Batra in 1993 and Priety Zinta in 1997 if I recall ).And yes,the media had promoted a lot many rumours about Karen in those days to hype the product/ad including one about her death while shooting for that ad featuring her dancing under the waterfall !

Since she had worked as an Air Hostess in Air India at that time,I also recall having read that when VIPs like Tata or Rajeev Gandhi or Indira Gandhi travelled on Air India,they insisted that Karen accompany them on their flights.

I believe that Karen was and will ever remain a timeless brand ambassador for Liril and the fact that her face and figure had made fortunes for Hindustan Lever in those times,is one fact fit for a place in the record books and such heights of fame are not ever likely to be achieved again by Liril,try as much they wish !

Thank you Latha Srinivasan-you have helped me to re-live some of my nostalgic moments,with this piece – a blast from the past !

J S BROCA

NEW DELHI

To view the original TV ad go to :

YOUTUBE :Karen’s original ad 1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9-1XD9VvX4

Category: Comments to print media, Nostalgia, People | 2 Comments

humpty dumpty in the news Author: Jatinder Pal Singh Broca Oct 21

Humpty Dumpty in the news :

Since last few days the nursery rhyme character has been in the news and I feel for all the wrong reasons ( may be some of you may not agree to this).Here is a selection of news from various media reports :

Nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty in re-write

According to the BBC, once Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men made Humpty happy again”.The amended version of the nursery rhyme was broadcast last Friday on the CBeebies programme Something Special, though I’m not convinced the re-write went far enough.There are many unanswered questions… why was Humpty sitting on the wall in the first place without wearing a protective hard hat or a safety harness? What sort of message does that send out to impressionable small children? And where were his parents? One for social services, I’d say.

Put the rhyme together again

It’s enough to make a cow jump over the moon. In the latest drive to sanitise every aspect of children’s lives, the BBC has decided to spare kids the trauma of Humpty Dumpty never being put together again and instead give him a happy ending. Similarly, the rather feeble Miss Muffet will no longer run away scared from the spider, but will instead befriend it. This is ridiculous. The BBC maintains that the reasoning behind this baffling move was purely creative. But the undercurrent is, as one politician suggested, that kids find Humpty Dumpty’s demise horrific and scarring and so should be shielded from the imagery of the original rhyme. As if it wasn’t enough that a section of educationists and policymakers think cartoons like Tom and Jerry are too violent! And as if well-intentioned but somewhat deluded civil society groups haven’t already hurt children’s education with a surfeit of political correctness. Set aside the fact that whole generations of kids were reared on the original, supposedly gruesome version of Humpty Dumpty and apparently managed to escape lasting mental trauma. It must be asked if it is better for children to be made aware, in the least threatening way possible, that life is not all a bed of roses and that ‘happily ever after’ is not always possible, than to grow up believing that life is all fluffy animals and candy and that its disappointments will ultimately resolve themselves in a satisfying manner. It is also time for adults to stop underestimating children and their ability to comprehend the less-than-pleasant aspects of human existence. Children are surprisingly perceptive and are smart enough to notice when stories are being sugar-coated for their consumption.Combine that with a child’s curiosity, and hiding nasty things that can happen can be much worse than exposing kids to the original Humpty Dumpty. The BBC was under fire after rewriting nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty – to give it a happy ending. The words were sanitised for a CBeebies kids’ show. Instead of the old version:

BBC goes potty over Humpty Dumpty

Should Humpty Dumpty be put together again or should children learn early to get used to disappointment? Things are looking up for Humpty Dumpty. Having spent the past 200 years as a mere yellowy splodge on the footpath, the equilibrium-challenged egg is finally getting it together.In a revised version of the nursery rhyme that aired recently on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s children’s channel CBeebies, the tale – which first appeared in print in 1810 – no longer ends with “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men/Couldn’t put Humpty together again”. Now, a crack squadron of His Majesty’s finest hard-boiled military personnel has found the recipe to “make Humpty happy again”. How eggsellent.Soon, no doubt, we’ll be hearing that the three little pigs have invited the big bad wolf to take a quarter share in their organic farming co-op; that a guilt-riddled Jack has atoned for his giant-killing by establishing a golden-goose-funded orphanage for the oversized; and that Hansel and Gretel have gone into the bakery business with a kindly old lady in the remnant old-growth forest of Tasmania.And then we can all live happily ever after.Leading the charge to alert the world to the BBC’s heavy-handed editing was Labor MP for Glasgow South Tom Harris. A former journalist and party press secretary, Harris knows his way around a beat-up, and used his award-winning blog And Another Thing to whip up a frenzy of outrage over this latest example of “the excesses of PC” (political correctness).Predictably, the British media was quick to scramble to a response.

Sticking the boot into PC madness no doubt plays well in Harris’s working-class electorate, as it does throughout the rest of Britain, where everything from Robertson’s fruit mince to Enid Blyton’s bedtime stories has been subjected to the sensitivity scanner in recent times, and mostly found wanting.To the dismay of many, golliwogs are gone, from both the Robertson’s label and from the latest addition to the Noddy oeuvre, released earlier this year by Blyton’s granddaughter Sophie Smallwood. Paddington Bear was lured out of retirement in early 2008, only to find himself in the clutches of immigration police because, as a Peruvian stowaway, he could produce no official papers.Last week the BBC announced it was considering new guidelines for its comedy programming to ensure that “unduly intimidatory, humiliating, intrusive, aggressive or derogatory remarks must not be celebrated for the purposes of entertainment”.Attention-seeker though Tom Harris undoubtedly is, it’s hard not to agree that Britain is in the grip of a very firm-handed nanny, and she’s stifling the life out of her charges. And reactionary though much of the response in Britain has been, it’s also the case that the dignity-and-respect argument is done a massive disservice when its proponents pretend that sensitivity is a simple case of black and white.Take that line and, before you know it, some fool will be arguing that stocking a golliwog in a toy shop is the same thing as a white man performing in blackface in front of millions of people.

“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again”

The last line becomes:

“Made Humpty Dumpty happy again.”

Labour MP Tom Harris watched the show – called Something Special – with his sons aged three and five. He said: “For goodness sake. Kids should be exposed to real life a bit, not cosseted away.

“We need to stop this moronic activity. “Let them see colourful and violent cartoons, and let them be children.” The Glasgow South MP said he had also seen Little Miss Muffet changed on the channel so she made friends with the spider rather than fled. Language expert Lynne Truss accused the Beeb of trying to shield children from real emotions. She added: “I was terrified by all these things when I was a child and it didn’t do me harm.” And chairman of The Campaign for Real Education Nick Seaton said: “Nursery rhymes are a gentle way to ease children into the real world. “Children are being told everything is rosy and aren’t being raised to confront problems.” But a BBC spokeswoman said: “The small change to Humpty Dumpty was for no other reason than being creative and entertaining.”

Comments on above news item by various readers:

1. How stupid is this and where on earth is it leading us ? Polly put the kettle on is anti feminine,little miss muffet may well become master and miss muffet, and so on and so forth!

2.Well a jolly good thing we live in Oz where we don’t rewrite nursery rhymes to protect children and concentrate on much more important areas like making sure comedians don’t joke about dying children and protect the right of minors to sail around the world. After all, it is not as if there are any children in poverty, substandard housing or seeking refugee status that we have to worry about in this paradise. Didn’t someone recently move to UK because they offered better care for autistic children – gee hardly worth a banner headline though is it? Stop treating us like idiots you ‘mainstream’ media and report some ‘real’ issues relating to children and their welfare.

3.Oh good grief.Guess what kids, you fall off a wall you break your head, deal with it.

4.Laughable – but not at all surprising that yet again, the PC police in the UK seek to rob the world of anything that offends their delicate view of the world.They need to be put back in their box..Gollywogs rule.. !

5.How is Polly put the kettle on anti-feminine?
It’s about kids playing tea party!

6.I’ve got way too much snark in my head from this…….Little Miss Muffett sat on her tuffett, eating her no-hormone, vegan curds and unfiltered whey from a non-carbon-based container.Little Boy Blue, you can’t blow your horn anymore because you emit too much carbon dioxide in the act and then there’s the noise-pollution problem with your playing so loud.The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout……… and The EPA swooped in and made the site a bio-safed area where no humans can intervene for any reason in such a pristene natural habitat.Jack Sprat could eat no fat….. because The FDA outlawed it all.There was an old lady, she lived in a shoe, she had so many children……….. that DCF visited daily to set parameters and mandates that couldn’t be met by anyone even with a dozen full-time 24/7 nannys and an in-house diaper service.The Three Little Pigs…… have all been banned from entering the slaugherhose by the fully Islamic staff from Somalia, thus leaving the US food supply wanting.London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.London Bridge is falling down….. because it was blown up by peace-loving-religious people.

7.I agree with this decision — Humpty Dumpty used to disturb me greatly as a child, I always felt so sad that he couldn’t be put back together again. I wonder how my outlook on life may be different today had Humpty Dumpty had a happy ending. It would be far rosier, no doubt. Good on the BBC.

8.Polly told her chauvinistic husband where he could stick his kettle.But the pot won’t call the kettle anything that could be deemed to be racist.

9.Saving the children one rhyme at a time. Now he’s all fixed, Humpty can finally experience the joy of cyber bullying, anonymous chat room pedophiles, blatant racism and 24/7 free streaming porn. Awesome.

10.Didn’t we once have Fairy Penguins? The whole world has gone bloody mad!

11.If you wanted to keep it PC then Tell Them the Truth!…you do break when you fall on your head..My bet is on who ever has the lead the charge for amending nursery rhymes are the same people who are mentally disturbed as a result of their own parents refusing to tell them the rhymes in the first place. The rest of us who are reasonably well balanced, loved the rhymes as they are……Yes that means sticking to the Ba Ba Black Sheep and Ring around the Rosies.

12.Doesn’t take much to get some people worked up, does it? Perhaps this is about keeping the rhymes and stories relevant to children. So many nursery rhymes in old collections are about spanking, whipping, stealing – all kinds of nastiness. Another generation’s attempt to teach its values with much heavy handed moralising and threatening. My kids can’t understand what they are on about. Reworking the rhymes and stories keeps them meaningful.

13.This really is pc gone mad. It’s interesting to follow Karl’s lnks. The allegations of political correctness stem from comments purportedly made by a five-year-old boy and his three-year-old brother who turn out to be the sons of… er, self publicist extraordinaire MP Tom Harris. The pc outrage is stoked by a quote from… MP Tom Harris, and is picked up by the blog of … pc-hater Tom Harris.Apparently, Tom’s infant pair of expert social analysts sagely concluded the BBC’s change was ‘pathetic’. An understandably perplexed BBC spokesman said the change was made ‘for no other reason than being creative and entertaining’. They just wanted to change the words around about a bit, but that doesn’t make good copy does it? One might add the original lyrics are a bit confusing for a three-year-old (CBeebies target audience). You see there’s no mention of Humpty Dumpty getting broken or falling apart – so putting him together could be conceptually difficult. But trying to make Humpty ‘happy’ after a fall is easier to understand.But never mind Karl’s lazy journalism, never mind that he can’t see why a black child might get confused or upset reading Enid Blyton’s unremittingly negative portrayals of the non-white, or why the same child may not share his fond memories of a jam label; because it turns out this is in fact a pom-bashing blog and, as we all know, any old tripe transmutes to front page gold in the cause of bashing a pom.

14.I make absolutely no assertions about whether or not a black child might find a golliwog offensive, though I do intimate that a golliwog doll or image is hardly of the same level of offence as a performance by a white person wearing blackface (which many people, of whatever colour, rightly find extremely racist and demeaning; for more on the issue of blackface, see my post on the Harry Connick Jr/Hey Hey fracas, and associated news story). If any readers “of colour” out there feel otherwise, I’m happy to be corrected.Good sleuthing, though, to uncover the source of the English response as Tom Harris, MP. Oh, wait, I quite clearly wrote that in my post, didn’t I? I even pointed out that he’s probably being rather self-serving in stirring up the PC backlash.But still, good on you for dredging up the links. Oh that’s right, I embedded those, too.And pom-bashing? Hardly. I love the country of my birth, just as I love the country in which I’ve spent most of my life. But fortunately, that doesn’t blind me to the faults of either.

15.Ironically, the nursery rhyme about people dying from the bubonic plague will probably be alright.It’s not just Humpty Dumpty and Noddy. A few years ago the text of the popular Aussie picture book,There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, was changed so rather than getting a smack the little girl is growled at by her father. I loved that book as a kid. But it’s no longer OK to give a child a whack on the bottom so the book was changed.

16.A pox on their houses. The thought police tearing down all links to common sense feee thought and individuality.If we don’t stop this mindless rot now things will deteriorate to the point where even comment boxes like this will be outlawed.Kill political correctness before it kills all the worlds humour in all the worlds men as humpty went mental with the UZI again.

17.Little Miss Muffett sat on a tuffett eating her curds and wey along came a spider and sat down beside her and what did miss muffett say #$%@ off hairy legs A sign of the times dont you think Noddy and no Golliwog, I have Big ears..and teasing allthrough my life hasn’t changed or corrupted me I just didn’t pay the ransom I suppose to keep up with the times we should change our literacy and up date it NOT! can you imagine…..Today the prime minister gave a @#$%ing Speech on the @#$%ing values of life to school children in #$%^ing England …afterall it is accepted by all race and genda and stated quite often in movies ,tv and schoolyards and nodoubt work place.

18.One theory is that Humpty Dumpty was a cannon. So we’re trying to rewrite the 1640’s? Why don’t we come up with a nursery rhyme about Nanny States?

19.Seriously, who are these people that come up with this stuff?Still at least it provides fodder for good comedy – read the Politically Correct Red Riding Hood for example.

My only comment is : don’t play with these beautiful poems and let children draw their own conclusions !

What are your comments, dear readers ??

S..h..o..o..t ….!

Category: Comments to print media, Humour, Social Commentry | 2 Comments

my views in Financial Express…. Author: Jatinder Pal Singh Broca Oct 18

Following news item was published in the Financial Express of 11th Oct 2009 :

‘FDI norms in retail sector should be relaxed’

Posted: Sunday, Oct 11, 2009 at 1457 hrs IST

New Delhi: The Government needs to relax norms on foreign direct investment in retail to facilitate fresh infusion of funds and also promote competition in the sector, which has been hit by the economic slowdown, real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis has said.

“The existing FDI rules are a constraint. There is need to open up the sector a bit more as it will facilitate fresh infusion of funds and also promote competition,” CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Chairman and MD (South Asia) Anshuman Magazine said.

Currently, 100 per cent FDI is allowed in wholesale cash-and-carry business, while in single-brand retailing 51 per cent FDI is allowed but none in multi-brand retailing.

The Parliamentary Committee on Commerce had earlier this year submitted a report opposing further opening up of the retail sector for FDI.

However, a report by the Indian Council of Research in International Economic Relation (ICRIER) in 2008, had mooted liberal FDI norms in the sector saying the sector would grow to USD 590 billion by 2011-12, of which organised retail would have a share of 16 per cent.

Sharing ICRIER’s views, Magazine said: “(Curently) the share of organised retail is still very small in the overall market and has scope for growth.”
————————–

I had posted my comments on the above piece and the same are displayed on FE’s website under the above article :

» FDI IN RETAIL :

Posted by J S Broca on 2009-10-16 .

As per media reports a further upsurge is anticipated in the retail sector since Government has opened up 51% FDI in single brand retail outlets.However, before the Government initiates the second phase of reforms, it should very cautiously explore the avenues for multi-brand segment. Entry of multinationals to India in retail sector must be allowed gradually alongwith suitable safeguards like social security norms for the local kirana stores or else it would lead to destruction of traditional retail sector.Government should tread the path very carefully keeping in view the existing social framework of India and it should ensure that the entry of global retail giants does not displace the existing employment in the retail business.Blindly opening the flood gates for more FDI could have disastrous results!!Further,experts are of the view that local markets deinitely have an edge over the retail investors in India as they have unique advantages like understanding local needs and extending additional services like home delivery etc.MNCs perhaps would not be in a position to offer such services.Hence before taking the final plunge Government should have an open debate with the leaders of Indian retail stores/sector so that ther survival is not threatened.Lets hope wise counsel will prevail.

- J.S.BROCA

NEW DELHI.

Category: Comments to print media, Current Affairs | 3 Comments

Tomorrow… Author: Jatinder Pal Singh Broca Oct 06

I liked the following poem posted in Muse by Rassool ji :

Poetry

By Rassool Jibraeel Snyman, Oct 05, 2009
South Africa, rassool1@mjvn.co.za

Tomorrow

What if there’s no tomorrow

What if there is no sunrise

Or birdsong

Or laughter

Or tears

What if there’s no tomorrow.

Here is my response to it :

Dear Rassool ji, a good short poem !

My l-o-n-g response:

1) I was reminded of the song with the title :” If tomorrow never comes” by Garth Brooks, (1989) which won a popular award in 1991 I think.So many other things can happen, if tomorrow never comes.Here are the lyrics of that great song. I am sure you will enjoy it !

Lyrics of the song : ” If Tomorrow Never Comes” by Garth Brooks

Sometimes late at night I lie awake and watch her sleeping

She’s lost in peaceful dreams

So I turn out the lights and lay there in the dark

And the thought crosses my mind

If I never wake up in the morning

Would she ever doubt the way I feel

About her in my heart If tomorrow never comes

Will she know how much I loved her

Did I try in every way to show her every day

That she’s my only one

And if my time on earth were through

And she must face the world without me

Is the love I gave her in the past

Gonna be enough to last If tomorrow never comes

‘Cause I’ve lost loved ones in my life

Who never knew how much I loved them

Now I live with the regret

That my true feelings for them never were revealed

So I made a promise to myself

To say each day how much she means to me

And avoid that circumstance

Where there’s no second chance to tell her how I feel

If tomorrow never comes

Will she know how much I loved her

Did I try in every way to show her every day

That she’s my only one

And if my time on earth were through

And she must face the world without me

Is the love I gave her in the past

Gonna be enough to last If tomorrow never comes

So tell that someone that you love

Just what you’re thinking of

If tomorrow never comes.

2) I was also reminded about an old James Bond movie titled :” Tomorrow Never Dies ” (1997) starring Pierce Brosnon in the lead role.It was a great box-office hit of those times.So, I am also of the view that tomorrow never dies. World lives on hope !

3) Ah ! Yes,how can I forget Elvis Presely (1970 – of “Rock n Roll” Fame) number also titled :” Tomorrow Never Comes ” Here are the lyrics of that equally famous song too. Yes, so many more things can be left unsaid, if tomorrow never comes.Therefore, I feel we should catch the present and do all that we can without waiting for tomorrow !

Oh you tell me that you love me
Yes you tell me that you care
That tomorrow we’ll be married, oh
But tomorrow’s never there

Oh tomorrow never, never comes
Oh tomorrow never comes
Now you tell me that you love me, oh
But tomorrow never comes

Many weeks now have I waited
Oh many long nights have I cried
But just to see that happy morning, happy morning
When I have you right by my side

But tomorrow will never come, oh no, no
Tomorrow never gonna come
Now you tell me that you love me
But tomorrow never, never comes

So tomorrow I’ll be leaving
Yes tomorrow I’ll be gone
But tomorrow you’ll be weeping, oh
But tomorrow will never, never come

Well tomorrow will never, never come
Oh no, tomorrow ain’t never gonna come
Yeah, yeah, you tell me, you tell me
That you love me, but tomorrow never comes .

4) Finally,our own Bollywood number from the movie “Andaz” ( new ) has been one of my favourites too with its meaningful lyrics and your posting stirred me to think about it once again :

Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana,

Yahan Kal Kya Ho,Kis Ney Jaana !

Chand taaron sey chalna hai aagey
Asmaanon sey badhna hai aagey
Pichhey reh jayega yeh zamana
Yahan kal kya ho kis ney jaana

Zindagi ek safar hai suhana
Yahan kal kya ho kis ney jaana

Haste gate jahan se guzar
Duniya ki tu parvah na kar
Muskuraate hue din bitana
Yahan kal kya ho kis ney jaana

Haan zindagi ek safar hai suhana
Yahan kal kya ho kis ney jaana

Maut aani hai ayegi ek din
Jaan jaani hai jayegi ek din
Aisi baaton se kya ghabrana
Yahan kal kya ho kis ney jaana

Zindagi ek safar hai suhana
Yahan kal kya ho kis ney jaana…….

Watch the song on Youtube-with Kishore Kumar’s inimitable yodelling, by going to the following link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clkTG0TFfEo

Thanks a lot !!