A — Accuracy; B — Brevity; C — Clarity… three main criteria for becoming a good writer as President’s National Film Award winning documentary and film maker Vivek Mohan stated today during a session held on ‘Advertising & Slogan/Tagline writing’ at the recently opened Brews & Books Cafe, Mall, Shimla. The session was attended by a few students of Bishop Cotton, Keekli Book Club members, a few offline and more than fifty plus online patrons.
Vivek touched upon the basic of slogan writing and tag lines while sharing very interesting stories about his experience in this field. Talking about famous slogan such as ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’, ‘tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azadi doonga’ among others. Adding more about the slogan’s history, Vivek said, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri asked actor Manoj Kumar to make a film on the slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ which we all now know as ‘Upkar’ that was written during his train journey from Delhi to Bombay. He further enlightened the audience as to what goes behind the scene and the brainstorming sessions that are held to come up with such memorable lines. He also emphasised that in the world of advertising the deadlines is always ‘yesterday’, not ‘today’ or ‘tomorrow’. Time and creativity are of essence in this, which he reiterated by sharing few more examples.
At the end of the session, an exercise was given to all present to write a slogan on the present theme of the cafe and how best it could be described, with the prize that it would be displayed in the Cafe soon. The winner was a Cottonian, a student of Class 10, who wrote,
‘A peepal leaf, a cafe leap can fix a bad day!’
Nurturing Creativity – Keekli Charitable Trust, Shimla
