…for the prolonged silence. But quite a few things have been keeping me busy of late. And before I start rambling on these issues, let me tell you about this ad hoarding I saw on the way to work.
Not too different from my earlier post on the Indian express ad hoarding, this one belonging to Deccan Chronicle is equally confusing and pointless to say the least.
See for youself. The letters that stand out are ‘fstst’. I am assuming that they mean ‘fastest’, especially considering the tag line that follows : 1,06,717 copies a day in Bangalore, in just 365 days.
But why ‘fstst’??? What sense does that make? How exactly is the process of deliberately making a spelling mistake actually going a drive forward the point that you are a good NEWSPAPER, something that so many kids read to improve their spelling?!
Update: It turns out the tag line should have read : 1.06.717 copies a day in Bangalore , in just 36 days and NOT 365 days. Come to think of it, if it were 365 days, they wouldnt really be ‘fstst’ or ‘fastest’ or whatever! 
Hmmm… I get your point. I am not sure if you have seen their hoardings. I guess fstst is the latest one. So in the earlier ones, they had used the same lingo to emphasize on the fact that they just contain the essential info that is needed or something like that…
Well, yes, I could see the marketing intent behind the whole ‘fstst’, even if it seemed like a completely idiotic idea. But heres a thought :I could maybe look at it and say that maybe they are missing out the minor details by gobbling up the vowels and are only looking at the superficial picture. In short, they are not worthy of being called ‘ a good newspaper’