29th Episode: Sometime in 1997 or 1998 . I was at Lintas Delhi. Dev Mehta – a great friend and colleague, used to be the Art person on few of my accounts.
It was afternoon. We were returning from a client meeting somewhere in new friends colony or Nehru place in Dev’s car. Dev was driving. For no
Dev Mehta.
Picture: facebook
reason, the discussion first shifted towards shooting and then to the virtual racing. There was a new element in town. Recently introduced, by a video game arcade in south-ex. It was now possible to simultaneously race in real time in virtual world.
I remember, it took us no time to agree that we must do it now. No time was lost discussing if this was a right or a wrong thing to do. We were more worried about the excuse we would preset for returning late.
Exhilarating few rounds of virtual racing over, we went back to office. It was agreed that the best excuse would be story of puncture in one of the car tire. It was decided that for consistency, it would be the rear tire.
On reaching office, Samir Verma who was heading the group enquired about the reason of us taking so long. Confidently the voices echoed ‘the back tire got punctured, we had to change and not taking any more chances we also got it repaired’.
What we were not ready for happened next. And definitely we did not expect that from Samir.
SAMIR VERMA
Samir sent me out and asked Dev to stay back. Then came his inquisitive query- so Dev , which tire was punctured the rear right or the rear left. Dev answered something and crossed his fingers. He knew what was coming next.
Samir called me in and repeated his question. This was something we had not prepared for and unfortunately the answers differed. The cat was now out of the bag. And we were left with no other alternative than to accept the truth. Samir being the sport he was – just smiled.
An important lesson was learnt for rest of life, Details matter.
The tire did get punctured again. And this time we knew which one was it.
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OTHER EPISODES IN ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
● Thank You ● Rain Clause – I ● Lethal Combination ● APPETITE ● Adultery- the moment ● ASSET ● I am Sankar ● The Count ● Introduction ● Time Bomb ● Small Tile ● Shoot Report ● Sardar Khush Hoga ● Shoot At Mud Island ● Kaali Peeli Picture ● Upgrade ● Juhi Effect ● Power Of Punjab ● Out ● Two More ● Eleven Minutes ● The Cherry Win ● The Presentation ● Black Gold ● Buffered ● Continue With Client ● Not Fired ● One Less Decision ● The Ghost Of 35 Rani Jhansi Road Jhandewalaon ● The Problem ● Imported Art Card ● Banyan Tree Agency
