June 21, 2018

Boring FIFA World Cup Matches - Food for thought - Is the world's most beautiful game doing enough to attract viewers interest!



And you thought that world was a fair place - People shouting from the tops of roofs wishing so should understand that fairplay and meritocracy are things are used conveniently and as and when needed. Sample this. The world's most popular game Football's world cup is on and there are RESERVATIONS IN PLACE even for countries playing in the world cup. 

For the not so sports inclined readers there are a total of 32 teams playing in the FIFA world cup and they are divided into eight groups of four teams each. The four teams play a round robin league where they play each of the other teams once. 

The top two teams from each group progress to the group of sixteen or the pre-quarter finals .And from that stage every match is a knock out with the winning team  progressing and the losing team getting eliminated. 

Simple Meritocracy rules say that the best 32 teams should play the world cup. But sadly that is not possible as FIFA is a political body and has to pander to its VOTE BANK.

9th        placed   -           Chile,
17th                   -           Netherlands,
18th                   -           Wales,
19th                   -           Italy
25th                   -           USA
26th                             Austria
28th                   -           Slovakia
29th                   -           Northern Ireland
30th                   -           Romania
31st                    -           Republic of Ireland
32nd     placed   -           Paraguay not playing .

What is galling is champion teams like Chile and Italy not playing.

And playing are

Serbia                -           34th
Australia           -            36th
Iran                    -           37th,
Morocco            -           41st
Egypt                 -           45th
Nigeria               -           48th
South Korea      -            57th
Japan                 -            61st,
Saudi Arabia      -           67th Place

Coming at the tail is Russia at a fantastic rank of 70! And they are hosts and they need to be accommodated.

The paradox is all the teams from Serbia to Russia are simply to fill in numbers and get eliminated in the group stage itself. But because of the quota policy we get to see "blink you see, blink you miss the action' football matches which are very boring. Food for thought FIFA!

June 12, 2018

Marketing lesson for the day Advertisement we have been waiting for - Pretty 24




This I feel is the advertisement that we all have been waiting for. Pretty 24 hits all whitening creams right in the solar plexus! Coming of age of Indian advertising and hitting where it hurts the most. It is time we Indians don't feel inferior about our colour, rather we should celebrate our colour for which most westerners pay a fortune to get and call it tanning! We Indians are naturally tanned.