Grand Palace, Bangkok - shock & awe

On a recent (and my first ever) trip to Thailand I visited the Grand Palace complex in Bangkok. Since the trip was a sudden one, I didn't prepare for it as I usually do i.e. research the place, mark out sights to check out, restaurants to eat at etc. I just decided to go with the flow, there wasn't enough time anyway to do more.

At the hotel where I stayed, the tour booklet touted the Grand Palace along with the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew in Thai) as the sight to beat all sights in Bangkok. While I took it mostly as hype, I decided to go visit it - many reasons (convenient distance, required amount of time etc).

All I can say is that the entire experience left me reeling, speechless, gobsmacked, with a jaw-dropping-eye-popping, surreal feeling.

I could barely make out where the Temple of the Emerald Buddha ended and the palace began. It was a hot, blistering afternoon and I required my sunglasses anyway. If not, I am sure it would have been blinding :D

If we, in India, feel that our forts, temples and palaces are expensive and ostentatious, this one took the cake, icing and the cherry on the top.

You can see it for yourself in some of the photographs posted below. Better still, pay a visit yourself.

The roof tops of the buildings within the palace complex

The facade of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha

A closer look at the work on the walls of the buildings

One of the many windows on the palace buildings

Sorry for the numerous adjectives and cliches, the sights within the complex did have a profound impact on me. 

For more information on the Grand Palace complex (good old Wikipedia).

Photo courtesy: All by the author. Reproduce only with permission, please.

Irresistible advertising

Many years ago (that's a very many years), here in India, television sets at home revealed a new brand, playing the advertisements (ads) over and over again - a men's deodorant (deo). The clip showed a man - sometimes suave, good-looking; sometimes nerdy, awkward - spraying himself with the deo and suddenly being transformed into a 'girl-magnet'. Women of all shapes and sizes and corners of the world converged on the man like nothing else mattered. The 'Axe Effect' had come to stay. 

The reactions from the TV watching audience ranged from amusement to scandalised shock to skepticism that it was just another phase in ads. The Axe series has endured the test of time, with the plot moving from women to even angels dropping from heaven with a whiff of the deo. I mean…seriously?!! 

Needless to say, since then the formula became the mantra in India to sell men's deos…yes, all and any men's deos. 

So many years of the same old thing… (yawn!) Either the advertising agency guys are in love with the idea or they're just too lazy to think of anything new. 

I am assuming that (a slight chance) that the idea works for them i.e. sale of deos are proportionate to the number of these ads being churned out (why reinvent the wheel and all that)

Never mind the grumbling viewers or even the lawmakers  

So, I decided to see if this jaded advertising is only an India phenomenon or a global one:

Nivea (Germany) - video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMoDvhL14Is 

What is the fuss all about, incase you can't watch the video

Old Spice (USA) - video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE (and many others in this set of ads). What is the fuss all about, incase you can't watch the video 

Shellys Card (Israel)

So advertisers, as you can see, there is immense scope to do interesting stuff. Please don't treat us (men and women) like lesser beings (so you think!) who do not deserve better. Of course, if this is something beyond your scope of creativity, I guess, we'll just have to continue switching channels when these ads come on, again and again! *appeals for help*

I did not come across even one Indian men's deo brand that broke away from the 'sex-sells' idea. 

*evil grin* Free idea: A testimonial ad campaign to get men (i.e. users of the deos) to relate how their life has been transformed with all those women in their lives!

Interestingly, I came across a few posts in a similar vein including the ones panning the sexism that's rampant in these ads. But that's a whole different topic of discussion.

Men’s Deodorant Ads: What the Hell?  
15 years of Axe Effect: the world’s most sexist advertising campaign 
The latest ad campaign proves that sexism sells 

The 50s and 60s didn't exactly fare any better. If anything it was even worse.

How Advertisers Convinced Americans They Smelled Bad - (women that is) 

P.S. images are courtesy Google Images search. These are just my views and not an endorsement of any particular brand/ product, just incase someone thought otherwise. 

November 26, 2013 - some of the links were updated as they had expired/ become bad links.

No TV, lots more life!

Thanks to the recent cable digitisation deadline, my TV has gone dead. It's been 20 full days!

I decided on a whim not to switch to the digital version and forego my daily diet of stuff that the TV would normally spew out. An experiment, most of my friends & family feel won't last very long. :)

In the absence of the TV, I realise that I have loads of time on my hands once work is done with. My normal routine would mean at least 2 hrs at a stretch in front of the idiot box, with a few minutes spent in between completing chores (like gulping dinner, doing dishes etc.) Unimportant stuff... when there's a need to know what happened next in the whodunit, what wisecrack it was leading to that burst of laughter (canned though it may be).

It got me thinking, do I really need a television at home? With the advent of technology, information is available everywhere - radio, print, desktops/laptops, phones, tablets.... the list goes on.

It's early days yet, but the things I have restarted:

• Demolish the ever growing pile of books in the corner... I am still wondering how the stack grew so large.
• Read the 'bookmarked' articles and snippets, another ever growing pile that was always put off for later - 'when I have the time'
• Listen to music, going through my collection again. Something I had unfortunately stopped doing (except in office - helps me focus better, if that can be called an excuse :|) 
• Pay attention to the 'real' stuff on Facebook and Twitter. I realise that it's not always updates of 'I just brushed my teeth'/ 'I just had coffee'/ 'I feel great/sad/angry etc etc'. There's a lot of interesting things going on, if you know where to look. 

Hopefully, I shall add 'frequent writing' to the list, in time!

Do I miss anything on TV? Not really, almost everything is available via the internet either as post-telecast videos or live streaming. I pick and choose what I want to watch. Unlike earlier when the television would be droning on in the background or when I would be tempted to switch channels aimlessly, trying to find an 'interesting' programme or block out shrieking news anchors.

 I wonder if these anchors have been told it increases TRP ratings... all that yelling and emphasis on every word... I mean every word. Ummm... I'm digressing...

Next step - figure out a better bandwidth for my internet connection. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't get addicted to the computer now. There's always some vice waiting to trap poor unsuspecting souls. Sigh!

('Animal Crackers' courtesy: www.gocomics.com)