Having Your Say

Today's papers are abuzz with news of yesterday's papers. In some centers (not Hyderabad though) The Hindu and The Times of India let advertisers have a go at communicating not just with words but also through voice. Volkswagen bankrolled the campaign for its new launch - Vento. And going by the response, the newspaper-embedded Chinese-made photo-responsive audio chip is da bomb!

"While the innovation startled most readers, many found it interesting and arresting. But it had some unintended consequences as well. At many places, calls were made to the police with people suspecting the device was a bomb. Mahim in Mumbai witnessed a scare after a pedestrian heard a ''beeping sound'' coming from a garbage bin and alerted the police. A bomb squad reached the spot, near S L Raheja Hospital, and found that it was the audio-ad..."
-Times of India

Link:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/volkswagen-plants-audio-ad-in-print-newspaper/
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/09/22/stories/2010092252880500.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Volks-populi-Audio-ad-in-TOI-creates-a-buzz-literally/articleshow/6604113.cms
http://www.moneylife.in/article/78/9296.html

Appropriation

Clint Eastwood's 2006 World War II movie "Flags of Our Fathers" is about the significance of the raising of the first and second foreign flags on Japanese soil in a thousand years and how history gets recorded and relayed to suit the narrative. The movie revolves around Joe Rosenthal's iconic photograph (below) of the raising of the second American flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan and its use as a propaganda tool to raise money for the war efforts. It also shows the moral conflict that the soldiers in the photograph face when they realize that they are assigned the role of national heroes for the simple task of raising a flag while the erectors of the first flag went unrecognized because there were no inspirational photographs to go along with that event.

In this context, the artwork on the walls of the Khairatabad flyover in Hyderabad stands out. These are works commissioned by the municipal corporation which include a series of hand-painted murals meant to kindle a certain patriotic fervor among the commuters while stuck in traffic. One of these murals, named "Great History" is suspiciously similar to the Iwo Jima picture except for one major difference - the flag is here is an Indian one. The artist either does not have an issue with being unoriginal or is a master of irony.

Links:
Review: Flags of Our Fathers - http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071129/REVIEWS/71129001/1023
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima