20th article published in HANS INDIA today (25th October 2014) It is titled "World's best Promotions - The Power of the Punch".

20th article published in HANS INDIA today (25th October 2014) It is  titled "World's best Promotions - The Power of the Punch". 

World's best Promotions – The Power of Punch

It is said that only three things are definite in this world. Two of them are death and taxes. And the third one is advertising. Advertisements are meant to inform, influence and inspire people to buy and experience products and services. They can aid marketing in many ways including acting as remainder, shocking people, and to dissuade some customers from buying (de-marketing) and also in making people avoid or not to buy some products (negative marketing).

But there are some advertisement campaigns that make people change their perceptions, their ideas, feelings and make them look at products more favorably than what they were before.

1. Volkswagen Beetle - Think Small (1959): was created by Helmut Krone with the copy written by Julian Koenig at DDB agency. It was ranked as the best advertising campaign of the twentieth century by Ad age in a survey of North American advertisements. The campaign has been considered so successful that it did more than boost sales, it built a lifetime of brand loyalty for Volkswagen.  

 

The message "less is more" is geared towards car buyers. Like the VW Beetle the advertisements were simple and uncluttered, featuring photos of the car against a plain background. Can one sell a car with a headline that reads "Lemon”?  In one of the advertisement, Volkswagen was pointing out that the car in the photo didn't make it off the assembly line because one of the many inspectors found a blemish. "We pluck the lemons; you get the plums," was the slogan.

2. Coca-Cola - The pause that refreshes (1929):  was designed and executed by D'Arcy Advertising Co. With the advent of the great depression of the thirties corporate America was worried that sales would suffer. Not so with Coca-Cola whose advertisements depicted carefree people and an idealized view of American life when real life was rather dull. During the first year of the campaign, sales actually doubled. The economy may have been depressed, but "the pause that refreshes" appeared to have been just what Americans needed to lift their spirits.

3. Nike - Just do it (1988):   The founder of Wieden Kennedy agency, Dan Wieden met a group of Nike employees to talk about a new advertising campaign. He told them, "You Nike guys . . . you just do it." The result was one of the most effective taglines in advertising history. During the first ten years of this award-winning campaign, Nike's market share went up from 18 to 43 percent. Today, the Nike name is so recognizable that it doesn't even need to appear in the advertising. The iconic "swoosh" is enough. 

4. MacDonald - You deserve a break today (1971):  Needham, Harper & Steers advertising agency successfully pitched an upbeat, catchy slogan to McDonald but they struggled with the lyrics. Noticing that the word "break" continuously surfaced in focus groups, copywriter Keith Reinhard finally wrote the perfect lyrics for the jingle “You deserve a break today”.  Within the next few years, global sales jumped from $587 million to $1.9 billion. The song was named the top jingle of the 20th century by Advertising age. 

5. Debeers - A diamond is forever (1948): De Beers pioneered the iconic positioning of diamonds in the contemporary culture, as a symbol of everlasting love because just like true love, a diamond is forever.

Frances Gerety, working for N.W.Ayer & Sons coined the famous line "A Diamond is Forever".  Frances Gerety, was given a brief to compose a line that encompassed and expressed the physical attributes and legends surrounding the diamond. She came out with a sentence which would later be voted as the most iconic advertising slogan of the 20^th century.  From then onwards the diamond became an integral part of the modern-day ceremony of love, engagement and the celebration of enduring relationships. Through De Beers the diamond has come to speak a universal language, conveying its messages of love, rarity and desire.

6. Avis - we try harder (1963):  DDB the advertising agency came up with one of the most controversial and revolutionary campaigns for Avis. The first print advertisement, designed by DDB art director Helmut Krone with copy by Paula Green, appeared in March 1963. It was headlined, "Avis is only No. 2 in rent a cars. So why go with us?" The body copy began, "We try harder. (When you're not the biggest, you have to.)"

A series of "We're No. 2" advertisements were made by DDB. Avis' share of the market increased by as much as 28%, and Avis came to be considered a co-leader with Hertz in the field. "We try harder" became a cult advertising mantra.

7. Honda – You meet the nicest people on a Honda (1963):  Motorcycles had got a very unsavory reputation in the USA during the 50s and the 6os. People riding motorcycles were seen as tough and mean guys. In short motorcycles were seen as vehicles for the tough and the anti-social elements. The tough image of the Harley Davidson riders and the looks of the Harley riders did nothing to bolster confidence that motorcycles were for the entire family.

Honda did an entire campaign that said ‘you meet the nicest people on a Honda’. This campaign was done by Grey advertising, USA.  The advertisement depicted housewives, a parent and child, young couples and other respectable members of society-referred to as "the nicest people" riding Honda motorcycle for a variety of purposes.

Honda succeeded in its appeal to the American public. It was seen as a casual vehicle for daily activities, and as such was an entirely new consumer value as a vehicle for the entire family. It erased the motorcycle's deeply rooted image of evil and discontent.  This iconic campaign legitimized the motorcycles and made motor cycles and motorcycling reputable again in the USA.

8. Liril - Come alive with freshness (1975): The "Liril" bath soap advertisement campaign was created by Alyque Padamsee for HLL. Padamsee explains that the five minutes that a Lady of the house gets when she is bathing is the only private time she gets in the entire day. The Liril advertisement shows the enjoyment of a lady taking her bath. The locale, the exhilarating music and the sheer exuberance of the model (Karen Lunel) defined what the best Indian advertising was all about.

9. Hamara Bajaj (1989): made for "Bajaj Scooters". Hamara Bajaj stood the test of time and regularly tops the list of the best advertisement campaigns that was made in India. The most impressive thing about Hamara Bajaj was the not so subtle message that Bajaj is totally Indian and having a Bajaj scooter is most patriotic. And Bajaj was the most secular of the products that were available.

10. Fevicol – Dam Laga Ke Haisha (1989). Fevicol a product of Pidilite is a low involvement category product.  It is not a product category that people get excited about. After all, it is a product that one never sees once the furniture is made.  It took a creative genius Piyush Pandey to turn a boring product intro a talk of the town.

The body of work that Piyush and O & M have done over the years is a stellar example of India’s creative brilliance and execution.  The Fevicol advertisements became a hit because they are "son of the soil" kind of campaigns. They are rooted in India but with ideas that touched Indians.  There are hardly any words but people find it funny and yet meaningful. Today Fevicol is one of the top most trusted brands.  Fevicol (dam Laga ke Haisha), Fevicol (egg) and Fevikwick (fish) are among the most loved Indian advertising campaigns.

19th article published in HANS INDIA today (18th October 2014) " It is about a concept that marketers are getting excited about - "Ambush Marketing - The shape of things to come"

19th article published in HANS INDIA today (18th October 2014) " It is about a concept that marketers are getting excited about - "Ambush Marketing - The shape of things to come"

Ambush Marketing – Shape of things to come

FlipKart vs Snapdeal Vs Amazon:  October 6^th was the day that everyone was waiting with bated breath. It was the big day in the India’s E-commerce sector. The day when the big offers from FlipKart were expected to rule the roost. And FlipKart did not disappoint.

FlipKart took the entire last page of Times of India. The advertisement grandly announced “Today don’t look anywhere else – India’s greatest sale ever is here – FlipKart.com – The big Billion day”. The glee on the faces of the FlipKart executives was wiped-out on the early hours of 6^th itself when they realized that their rival SnapDeal.com had ambushed them.

Snapdeal.com did even better. They took the entire first page of Time of India and proudly announced “For Others it is a big day. For us today is no different. Best savings guaranteed every day”. In a red box they cautioned the awestruck readers “Check Snapdeal.com before you buy”. Snapdeal.com knocked the wind out of Flipkart’s marketing sail.

Even as FlipKart was recovering from Snapdeal.com’s brutal onslaught, it was stunned by the bone numbing guile of its bête noir Amazon.com. Amazon.com quietly bought a web site called “thebigbillionday”. Any one typing out ‘thebigbillionday” on any search engine were directed to the web site of ‘thebigbillionday” from where they were redirected to the Amazon.com website.

Being ambushed once is bad in itself. But being ambushed twice in a day was little too much. FlipKart has retreated and is recuperating. It would be Interesting to know the exact damage that these two ambushes had on the target of FlipKart. In the end FlipKart was way off the target and could garner 600 crore sale against its target of 1000 crores.

 “Ambush” is a method of warfare where one takes the competitor by surprise. It is a surprise attack when the opponent is least expecting it.  Ambush marketing is usually employed at major events, events like EPL, IPL, NFL, NBA, FIFA world cup, cricket world cup and Olympics where companies try to cash on the popularity of the event but without paying the royalty, the license fee or being an official sponsor.

The company that has paid the sponsorship fee to be the official sponsor pays the money but the competing company cashes in on the craze without paying any.

Major sporting events have always been the favorite hunting grounds for Ambush Marketing. 1984 Olympics was the sporting event where Ambush Marketing originated.

Kodak vs Fuji: In 1984 Olympics the International Olympic committee (IOC) offered sponsorship contracts for cameras and it was won by Fuji. Kodak retaliated by purchasing large amounts of advertising space. Because of Kodak’s extensive advertising during the Olympic Games, the public considered both Kodak and Fuji as the sponsors of the event. Fuji thought this to be unfair as they had paid large amounts of money to be the official sponsors.

American Express Vs Visa: American Express undermined Visa’s official sponsorship of the 1992 Olympics. American Express ran advertisements that stated “You don’t need a visa to visit Spain”. Spain was the 1992 summer Olympics host.

Michael Jordan: In the 1992 Olympics Michael Jordan faced a very peculiar situation. He won a gold medal in Basketball and had to stand on the podium to receive his gold medal. But the dress of the USA team had the logo of Adidas the official sponsor. Michael Jordan draped the USA flag thus masking the Adidas logo so that it does not clash with his own sponsor Nike.  

Nothing official about it - Pepsi: During the 1996 Reliance cricket World Cup, Coca Cola was the official sponsor. Pepsi ambushed the campaign by coming up with the tagline “Nothing official about it”.

Youngsters or the generation Xers made the campaign their own and it symbolized the mood of the country at that particular point of time. Everything official was old, boring and outdated. Unofficial was new, exciting and trendy. Unofficial was the rebel and all things that are anti establishment are attractive to the youngsters or generation Xers. Using the campaign “Nothing official about it” Pepsi got more traction and mileage for its campaign than the campaign of the official sponsor, Coca Cola.

This campaign was the trendsetter in the tongue in cheek or below the line marketing. This was one campaign that gained enormous popularity and finally it led to a regulation preventing this from happening again.

Denmark striker Bendtner was fined $126,000 and banned from playing for a competitive game for Denmark for flashing his sponsored waistband on his underpants of an Irish bookmaker Paddy Power when he celebrated a goal against Portugal during a Euro 2012 Football championship.

Paddy Power paid the fine on Bendtner's behalf, the hefty fee representing good value for the publicity stunt. Paddy Power has announced on its website that Bendtner was wearing "lucky pants." For brands entering into the highly competitive dog eat dog eat sports sponsorship, it's all about capturing eyeballs. It is possible that Bendtner's celebration was seen by at least 100 million pairs of viewers worldwide and it represents a very cost-effective piece of promotion.

However, it is not only sporting events which become the mode of deploying ambush marketing. Of late, we have been witnessing a spurt in the cases of ambush marketing even without any association with the sporting events. They have become very regular and common in businesses too.

Jet Airways vs Kingfisher vs GO Airlines: Jet Airways had come up with a campaign saying “We’ve changed”! Ambushing the campaign, Kingfisher airlines came up with “We’ve made them change” which was further ambushed by Go Airways saying “We’ve not changed. We are still the smartest way to fly”. The hoardings in this case, were placed in the city of Mumbai in a vertical sequence. (2007)

Airtel DTH vs Reliance Big TV: In 2008 viewers got to see a 10 second teaser television advertisement of a lavish red sofa and a voice over saying "Come Back Home....Soon". The advertisement being a 'teaser' did not have any name, logo or indication about who had released it and to what was the product or service.

Only when Anil Ambani owned Big TV released its own print and TV advertisements showing an identical sofa, did Airtel realize that it was ambushed and it came up with the complete advertisement, which was its own version of DTH (direct to home) receiver system.

 

Rona recycles Apple's leftover paint: Rona, a home improvement chain in Canada, had this banner placed below Apple's iPod nano billboard near the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal.

The text reads "Nous récupérons les restes de peinture" translating into, "We recycle leftover paint." Apple's "nano-chromatic" campaign was a global campaign, but Rona pulled off a brilliant ambush.(2009).

P&G Vs HUL: P&G had launched its advertising campaign for Pantene shampoo with the tagline “A mystery shampoo. 80% women say it is better than anything else.” A few days later and before P&G could launch the new Pantene, Hindustan Unilever ambushed the campaign by placing an advertisement with the tagline “There is no mystery? Dove is the No. 1 shampoo.” (2010).

As we have seen the beauty of Ambush Marketing is not just in the execution but in the potential fallout and publicity that follows. The fact that everyone is talking and writing about it means that it delivers more value for money than any other traditional methods can provide.

Thus the objectives of Ambush Marketing which are to make use of the popularity of any event and undermine the marketing efforts of the competitor by confusing the customers or drawing the attention away from the competitor are achieved in this stealthy marketing tactic.  

18th Article published (11th October 2014) in The HANS INDIA. - It is titled "World's best (worst) Goof Ups - Part II".

18th Article published today (11th October 2014) in The HANS INDIA. The article has come out very nicely. It is titled "World's best (worst) Goof Ups - Part II".

 E-Version of the article 

World’s best (worst) goof ups – part II

October 11,2014, 03.02 AM  IST | Dr M Anil Ramesh

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SiloUSA a discount appliance chain, had too many stereos in stock and wanted to sell them at shockingly low prices. They ran advertisements saying, “it costs only 299 bananas for a new stereo”. Obviously according to Silo "bananas" means "dollars". This was pure slang and many Americans themselves were not aware of this fact. Calling dollars as bananas was popular during the presidency of Calvin Coolidge.

Dozens of customers flocked to stores with literally 299 bananas (worth about $40). The appliance store had no choice but to accept all the bananas from dozens of customers. Silo lost over $10,000 in just one day, pulling in the advertisements of the next day before other customers could get the same idea. Silo couldn’t even get rid of the bananas (they had  thousands of them) as the local zoos stopped taking them (1986). 

Cartoon Network USA: launched a marketing campaign in which they set up LED signs in various places throughout cities in USA to promote one of their cartoons. A resident in Boston, however, thought the devices were bombs and called the police. This turned into a terrorism scare, resulting in the shut-down of many public transportation lines, bridges, and roads. The problem cost the head of Cartoon Network his job and the broadcasting company $2 million in compensation for the emergency response team(2007).

 

KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) USA decided to promote its new grilled chicken by giving it away for free. Wanting to keep their promotion subtle and discreet, they did the announcement on the show of Oprah Winfrey.

KFC underestimated the influence of Oprah who told the viewers that they could print out a voucher for free lunch at KFC on the May 5 episode of her talk show.

Approximately 16 million people printed out the Winfrey approved coupon and showed up at KFCs nationwide to have their free chicken. The fast food chain was unprepared and ran out of stock before lunchtime. KFC’s market research team had suggested that the average US citizen doesn’t like chicken and that he hates not having to pay for things.

Angry customers in New York, responded by starting mini riots and sit-ins. Managers at some locations did damage control by telling customers they couldn't accept any coupons ending with the serial numbers ‘1234’, which incidentally consisted of every PDF copy of the coupon in existence. KFC president Roger Eaton tried to win back customer confidence by issuing a public statement, but the damage had been already been done (2009).  

Railway advertisement shows Delhi in Pakistan: The advertisement, announcing the inauguration of a luxury tourist train, the Kolkata - Nalanda Maharaja Express by the then railway minister Mamata Banerjee, contained an erroneous map. 

 

This is what the map showed - New Delhi is no more India’s capital. It had become part of Pakistan. Varanasi is now a part of Orissa. Kolkata and Gaya are two islands in the Bay of Bengal, and the north Indian city of Gwalior is now a part of Maharashtra. (March 2010).

Karnataka advertisement stars farmer who committed suicide: A farmer shown in a Karnataka Shining advertisement had committed suicide after he failed to repay his loans.  The advertisement has a smiling farmer singing praises of the Yeddyurappa government.  But the truth was that the farmer, Nagaraju from Mandya district had committed suicide as he couldn't pay off his debts(Dec 2010).

SM Krishna reads Portuguese minister's speech at United Nations, Washington: India’s then external affairs minister SM Krishna, inadvertently read out the speech of the Portuguese foreign minister at a UN meeting. He realised his mistake a couple of minutes into his speech and went on to read the correct speech but the damage was done (Feb 2011).

Pakistan Navy goofs up: An advertisement issued by the Pakistan Navy for a multi-national exercise prominently featured images of Indian Navy warships even though India is not among the countries participating in the manoeuvres being held in the Arabian Sea. 

The full-page advertisement for the Aman-11 exercise, which appeared in The Nation and Nawa-e-Waqt newspapers, featured images of the Indian Navy's Delhi, Godavari and Talwarclass warships under the slogan: “Together for peace”. (March 2011). 

New Delhi: Delhi's state government put out an advertising campaign on the occasion of World Sparrow Day.  The advertisement carried a picture of the ‘Eurasian tree sparrow’, which is neither found in Delhi nor in most parts of India, mistaking it for the ‘Indian house sparrow’.

The picture had been downloaded from the internet and while the environment department officials accepted the error, they said the idea was to depict a sparrow which is what the advertisement did (March 2013). 

Big OOPS by Macy’s:  A catalogue of Macy’s that was mailed to customers had quite a bargain. The advertisement listed a $1,500 sterling silver and 14-karat gold necklace for just $ 47. The advertisement was supposed to be $479, but a copy editor left off the “9″. Dozens of customers showed up at a Macy’s store to snap up the deal before Macy’s caught the mistake and put up signs saying there had been an error! (April 2013).

Google goofs up, shows PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) as Pakistan:  Google Insights of Search shows the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir as a part of Pakistan. (Nov 2013).  

 Following this, the Government of India issued a notice to the internet giant Google for the same. "Any wrongful depiction of Indian map and its boundaries is liable for action under the India Information Technology Act. Google was asked to immediately correct this inaccuracy by the Sachin Pilot, the then Minister of state for telecom and IT. 

RBI goofs up, puts invalid notes in circulation:  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued currency notes carrying the signature of its former governor D Subbarao, who retired in 2013. 

Amid reports of goof-up in printing of notes, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that the new notes bearing signature of former Governor D Subbarao are legal tender and the process of changing signature was underway. (March 2014).

France’s Train operator SNCF: landed itself in a mess. Its new trains delivered by Bombardier proved to be a major goof up. The trains that were delivered were too wide to be used in the existing network of platforms. SNCF has ordered 200 new trains at an astounding value of over twenty billion dollars (over 120,000 crore Indian rupees). 

The rail operator RFF calculated the dimensions and gave it to SNCF who passed it on to Bombardier. RFF made all calculations based on platforms made 30 years ago where as in reality France still has many platforms made over 50 years ago. SNCF will have to spend over 68.4 million US dollars as it will have to redesign the existing platforms. In all over 1000 platforms will have to redesigned. (May 2014).

17th Article published in HANS INDIA (6th October 2014). It is about Goof UPs!

17th Article published in HANS INDIA (6th October 2014). It is about Goof UPs!

 

E-Version of the article 

World’s best (worst) goof ups – part I

October 06,2014, 02.57 AM  IST | Dr M Anil Ramesh

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“Bite the wax tadpole, brings your ancestors back from the grave and a car that says I will not go”. The first is how Coca-Cola would sound phonetically in the Chinese language, the second was the translation of Pepsi’s slogan, “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation,” and the third is how ambassador Nova car would sound to Spanish customers. In Spanish Nova means no go. 

A goof up is a stupid mistake. Companies, governments and even famous personalities do goof ups. Some of these are plain funny but many of them lead to tragedies or even severe financial losses.  Many goof ups lead to loss of face and prestige to the organisers or even the country.  

Postal Stamp released during the Asian Games 1982: 

Commemorating the Asian Games the Postal department had released a stamp. The stamp created a furore. It had a scene from the Mahabharata – the swayamvar of Draupadi. The story goes like this – Drupad, her father designed a wooden fish that was suspended from the ceiling. A bowl full of water was placed on the ground. The suitors had to see the eye of the fish in the reflection and nail it with an arrow. Arjuna nailed the fish and walked away with Draupadi.

The stamp released showed Lord Krishna (considered a brother by Draupadi) shooting the arrow even as Rana Pratap the Rajput king (wonder what Rana Pratap was doing in Drupad's court?) watches on in total perplexity. How the stamp was passed and allowed to be printed in a country that prides itself on its history, mythology and centuries old culture is still a mystery!

Lessons to be learned: Many claim to be experts in Indian Mythology and culture. They give instructions correctly but need to check and recheck the final copy especially the visual imagery. Mistakes once made can’t be corrected. They will exist in the annals of the history as mocking reminders!

Safety inspectors forget to replace a valve at the ‘Piper Bravo’ oil rig: 

This led to a massive explosion. Oil workers had to be evacuated from the Piper Bravo oil rig after an explosion. The explosion killed 167 of the 226 men working.

During a routine check, inspectors removed and replaced all safety valves, except for one, which was never put back. Unaware that the safety valve was missing, a worker pushed the start button, and gas began to leak, leading to a loss of 3.4 billion US dollars in repairs (1994).

Lessons to be learned: Safety is every one’s business. All should be involved and know the importance of safety. Overriding technology should be installed that would override any manual mistake to see that such tragic accidents are not repeated.  

NASA uses the metric system while Lockheed Martin uses the English system when building a satellite: 

A team of Lockheed Martin engineers used the English system of measurement, while the rest of the team used the metric system for a Mars orbiter. The use of two different measurement systems prevented the spacecraft's navigation coordinates from being transferred from a spacecraft team in Denver to a lab in California. The orbiter was then lost in space and NASA lost $125 million. (1999).

Lessons to be learned: Can we possibly have a software or an app that would pop up when calculations (either in English system or in the Metric system) especially the type of calculations when experiments as serious as the ones carried out by ISRO or NASA are attempted.

Flyover: 

A flyover constructed at Tank bund in Hyderabad become the visible example of a goof up that a government can commit. The flyover was half completed before the government realised that it did not know where to land (on the tank bund side) the flyover. The contentious issue was due to some political issues that got connected with the landing of the flyover and it was a visible symbol of governmental inaction for many years. Finally the flyover got its landing on the lower tank bund (2001). 

Lessons to be learned: Proper planning is needed when attempting mega projects. Project managers need to anticipate difficulties, problems and bottle necks. Otherwise loss of opportunity and wastage of public money is a big possibility.

Foot over bridge: 

The GHMC (the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) built as many as seven foot over bridges at a cost of seven crores. One of them at Mehdipatnam had to be pulled down immediately. It was in the way of the PV Narasimha Rao express high way flyover that connects the city with the Rajiv Gandhi international airport.  As many as four other foot-over bridges had to be dismantled to make way for the proposed metro railway network (2009).

Lessons to be learned: Coordination and cooperation is needed by various departments that are involved in carrying out public work. They need to work together like well-oiled machines. All the departments should be signatories for any work that involves all of them to avoid any inconvenience for the general public.  

An advertisement issued by the police force in Pakistan's Punjab province featured the logo of its counterpart in India's Punjab state: 

In an advertisement issued by the Pakistan Punjab Police where they asked the people of Pakistan to help end terrorism, the logo of the Indian Punjab Police was used. The logo on the left is that of the Pakistan Punjab Police and the logo on the right is that of the Indian Punjab Police (2009) 

Lessons to be learned: Expect that outsourced work will have mistakes. Develop healthy skepticism.  Advertising copy need to be checked again and again. The buck will stop at the advertiser and not the advertising agency. 

Firefighters die in an elevator: 

Six firefighters died in a Thane fire accident. A fire had broken in a 14 floor apartment in Thane, Mumbai. The six fire fighters had gone to the Thane apartment to extinguish the fire. The tragic goof up committed by the firefighters – they got into the lift (elevator). The cardinal principle in firefighting – ‘never get into a lift doing a fire’. It is very common for the lift mechanism to fail in a raging fire. It is also very common for the electricity boards to cut off electricity supply during a fire so avoid more damages (October 2009).

Lessons to be learned: Following Mandatory drill is sacrosanct. No one can make any exceptions in following mandatory rules and regulations at any time even in the time of emergencies and massive tragedies that unfold suddenly. 

Pakistani Air chief featured in Indian ‘national girl child day’ advertisement:  A government of India advertisement featured the photograph of a former Pakistani air chief alongside Indian icons in a campaign to mark ‘national girl child day’.

The advertisement was an appeal to stop female foeticide and it showed some accomplished names from different fields like Kapil Dev, Virender Shewag and Amjad Ali Khan and alongside, it had the photograph of a former Pakistani air chief in uniform, identified as Tanvir Ahmed Mahmood.  Pictures of then PM Manmohan Singh and congress chief Sonia Gandhi also figured in the advertisement (Jan 2010).  

Lessons to be learned: In the present times many things have been made easy by Google. Anyone can become an expert by simply googling. Expect that many of the google images could be wrong. Google downloaded images and matter need to be checked and validated before using.