Excuse me, while I wash my mouth out with Dove

In my previous post, I'd fawned over Dove's brand positioning and their latest 'Beauty Sketches' video on youtube.

Yesterday, I was randomly flipping through the Idiot Box trying to find a programme that was not logically-twisted propaganda or mind-numbingly superficial. I didn't find any, but I did happen to see a Dove ad - and I knew then and there, that I'd been HAD!

The Dove 'Beauty Sketch' is a brilliant example of how two-faced Advertising can become. The creative team (in North America) works on a brief where the brand, Dove, is described in terms of unicorns and rainbows. But in the real world - in local markets - the expediency to turn a fat profit makes their true colours quite obvious.

Dove wants you to believe that their brand is unlike the rest of the "beauty" industry which assaults the minds and self-image of little girls with a never-ending deluge of self-loathing.


Buuut, if you want silky smooth skin... You need Dove.


Aaand, if you want beautiful hair... You need Dove.


Sometimes I think Advertising is just a horrible, horrible way to make a living.

Being duplicitous is one thing - but being a Unilever brand means that Dove comes from the same Augean Stable that peddles chemical panaceas for everything you lack physically - including skin colour! Here's an ad that can make your skin crawl...
And many, many others like it.


I just wish I'd seen this guy's video before shooting my mouth off about Dove's despicable scam.

How advertising (too) can be beautiful

You'll remember the Dove 'Evolution' TVC. At the time it had impressed me as a sort of 'Anti-advertising Ad'. Well, at the very least it was a singularly bold move by a cosmetics brand. Especially since most multinational brands had been, for some time, content with tip-toeing cautiously around "safe" ideas.



Dove has now gone ahead and done something truly, incredibly brilliant! In all honesty, the 6-odd-minute spot below has revived my somewhat flagging hope of seeing intelligent advertising based on real insights and the ever-elusive "human truths".

I love it more because it is consistent with Dove's concept of shining the light on unattainable standards of beauty (projected by conventional advertising). But here, the concept has somehow been lifted-up and turned inward... A powerful beam of light is shone not just at the faux advertising-inspired misconceptions of beauty - but also at a woman's own perception of her looks.

And it is simply beautiful.



I do wish we'll see a lot more use of simple "human truths" in advertising.

(In fact it's about time we do something similar for RealFood as opposed to the toxin-laced, sugar/salt/slime/chemical-laden junk in colourful plastic packets meant to attract little children - that passes for "food" on supermarket shelves.)

It's not called TV "programming" for nothing

Conan O'brien has done it again!

Watch the mindless mainstream media puppets, called news anchors, breathlessly yelling (note the loud modulation) the point-of-view that YOU urgently need to believe.

RT has added the very crucial point here that beyond the sheer airheadedness, this shrill tone and parroting could well be misleading coverage of a serious event tomorrow!

This uni-dimensional coverage is present in mainstream news media across the world, right down to the voice modulation. It would seem that some secretive cabal somewhere decides what constitutes "news" - and more importantly, how it is presented to you and me.

It's not called TV "programming" for nothing.



Seriously, I am beginning to feel a little afraid for Conan.

Who's In-charge: Man or Machine?

The answer is more or less clear: The machines are increasingly in-charge of the most important facets of human society!

In a world of Big Data, number-crunching machines have a "natural" advantage. Automation is slowly, but surely, replacing many sensitive human activities for political, economic and practical reasons. (Read this.)

But in the economy, algorithm-based HFT (high frequency trading) supercomputers literally control the flow of trillions of dollars in the world's largest stock markets, forex markets and commodities exchanges. Essentially, machines control (or distort) the basic "price discovery" mechanism of the markets. Since HFTs make money on price movements, they both cause and profit from market volatility. (See this.)

Speaking of "money"... Less than 10% of the "currency" in circulation is printed physical cash and coins. More than 90% of what we call money (about 97% in places like Sweden) is just digital ones and zeros - created, transacted and tracked by banking software. In a "cashless society", we'll have a 100% machine-generated medium-of-exchange! (See this.)

That's not all... The ruling powers in most nations are using vast digital dragnets to troll for electronic pre-crime evidence. Algorithms that sift through "yottabytes" of data to analyse and identify the potential "bad guys" (and their sympathisers) among us. And it's not easy to hide or escape because your smartphone works for "them"! (See this.)

Most alarmingly, militaries in countries (developed and emerging) around the world are plunging blindly into an era of fully-automated robotic weapons. These can be in the form of autonomous drones using algorithms to track, target - and yes, kill humans - without the oversight of other human beings! (See this.)

Skynet doesn't really need to become "self-aware" and send out the Terminator... A rouge 'algo' could simply delete an economic database - or misinterpret a military one... In the resultant chaos, human beings will probably fight each other to extinction! (Sorry to ruin your day.)

How bankers and Big Brother make great bedfellows

A few weeks ago, my bank sent me the following by email.



Apparently, the Government of India has "declared" that henceforth citizen services like subsidies, welfare payments, pensions, etc. will be routed through aadhaar-enabled bank accounts.

I am certain that the official reasoning is to help the Indian banking and "national security" apparatus keep an eye on transactions by the "bad guys". Of course the corollary is that all customers / citizens are guilty until proven otherwise by a government database.

But the government babus and the banks are innocent angels -- except when they are caught with their pants around their ankles!

For example... In October 2012, ICICI Bank (a foreign-owned "Indian" bank) was fined Rs5,500,000 by the RBI for unspecified money-laundering activities. What is interesting about the paltry amount is that the MAXIMUM penalty for violation of guidelines is only Rs 500,000. But the RBI can chose to REPEAT the fine for REPEATED violations. Thus, ICICI was fined 500,000 ...11 times!

Surely, ICICI has learnt a bitter lesson.

This week - just 5 months later - ICICI has merrily presented India's ever-diligent banking regulator with yet another opportunity fine them in multiples of Rs500,000!

Cobrapost.com, a small investigative team, did a undercover journalistic "sting" which show bankers eager to help them evade regulatory guidelines - ON VIDEO!

Of course, Nanadan Nilekeni would gallantly tell us that none of this would have happened if the bank accounts were in aadhaar's biometrically-sealed database. And Captain Raghu Raman would volunteer that India's other Orwellian project, NATGRID which links 11 government agencies and 21 databases, would certainly have prevented such situations.

Of course, both of them would be lying through their teeth.

Because, as Aniruddha Bahal, Editor-in-Chief of Cobrapost says, KYC guidelines, IDs (biometric or otherwise) and banking laws amount to squat if bankers KNOWINGLY wish to circumvent them... Especially, if they are certain that laundering millions or billions would land at best a feeble wrist-slap and chump-change in fines.

The Indians are just learning the ropes from the master at the game:
- In December 2012, HSBC pays a world-record $1.9 billion fine after being caught money-laundering for drug cartels... with ZERO legal implications.
- In February 2013, it is revealed that HSBC's CEO is awarded more than $3 million as bonus for his "strong leadership" in 2012.

The Indians still have a long way to go... but with the government and regulator's help, they'll get there eventually.

Here's something for all iSlaves to look forward to

There's more good news on the horizon -- Apple's full-HD iTV may be released sometime in 2013.

"Rumour" has it that will feature a built-in iSight camera with sophisticated face recognition and motion detection ability that can zoom-in on people's face and follow them as they walk around the room. Plus, Siri (with voice recognition) will be right there with you on the couch in your living-room.

Meanwhile, Apple's iSweatshops in China, Foxconn, will be replacing 1 million human workers with 1 million robots. Presumably, the one million unemployed workers will go home, watch TV and take as many 2-minute bathroom breaks as they want.

Turn on the TV and put on your blinkers

I get the feeling that Conan O'Brien is still upset with Big Media.

He seems to enjoy holding a mirror up to the duplicitous "channeling" of society's (precious little) thinking process. I've pointed this out before; I'll say it again: Just like in politics, we have an "illusion of choice" in news sources.

You can flip channels all you want - and you'll still hear the same point-of-view masquerading as the latest news.

The following SIX media behemoths control virtually all the news & entertainment (including newspapers, magazines, music, TV shows, etc.) on TV and in print:
- News Corporation
- Time Warner
- CBS
- GE/NBC Universal
- Disney-ABC
- Viacom

If you want unbiased opinion -- train yourself to distinguish between meaningless rhetoric and credible facts; look for the agenda/cause behind the symptom being reported (there is almost inevitably one) -- and then come up with your own opinion. Also never ever be too obstinate, afraid or embarrassed to alter your point-of-view if and when new facts come to light.

Conan O'Brien in Feb, 2013...


Conan O'Brien in Nov, 2011...