Recognition

So far, three articles from this blog have earned recognition at the WPP Atticus Awards in 2017 & 2018. 🙂

1. Won the super awesome WPP Atticus awards 2017 in ‘advertising category’ for my idea – Open source advertising agencies.
2. Advertising Industry’s new Pivot got a ‘certificate of merit’ in the advertising category in 2018.
3. Essential mutations for the 21st century brands got a ‘certificate of merit’ in the ‘Branding & Identity’ category in 2018.

About me

I am Ajinkya Pawar, a strategist.
I am keen on partnering with smart people across the globe to help ad agencies evolve meaningfully. Here’s what I mean by that –

I believe ad agencies should be a force of egalitarian growth, a force that helps small and medium sized businesses to thrive against global monopolies.

I believe that ad agencies should have a conscience that they actually exercise, given the urgency with issues of trust, ecology and health.

I believe that ad agencies should be a force against the abrasive and dangerous forces of misinformation, not a feckless opportunist making a quick profit in the growing wave of xenophobia.

I would love to partner with people who share this vision.

The blog’s purpose.

The world of advertising and marketing is plagued with a profusion of bullshit. Show me a person who believes advertisers completely and I will show you a gullible idiot. In a court case Apple actually called out customers as idiots if they believe Apple’s claims. This is unfortunately the world we live in. Trust has become a symptom of idiocy and cynicism is now a measure of intellect.

Is this the world we really want to live in? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could trust people, even strangers in the future? For that to happen we need to hold people accountable, powerful forces more so, may it be governments, media or brands.

It is easy to get lost in arguments when one is confronted with ‘inconvenient truths’. It is easier especially if the misinformation is being powered by powerful interests with sustained capital behind propaganda when it is not profitable or convenient to accept the truth. We need to stop people acting and propagating arguments in ‘bad faith‘.

Conscientious people try to fight these irrelevant perspectives/ half-truths or disingenuous counter arguments. But these people are still a minority. We need more people to see propagandas objectives for what they truly are.

This blog is an attempt to deconstruct commercial propagandas. To avoid being lost in irrelevant arguments, I look at propagandas from two lenses – motive and the outcome of propaganda.

I try to do so from a position of compassion, from an empathetic perspective that accepts human fallibility. Not all negative consequences are due to evil designs. More often than not, people in powerful positions are simply not equipped to comprehend or foresee impact of their decisions. One should give the benefit of doubt to marketers – maybe they are in need of education.

So the blog is not a protest against evil people in corporate buildings, it is an attempt at a dialogue with fellow marketers who need to do their work in ‘good faith’ with open eyes and responsibility.

Hope you find this blog useful.

Ajinkya Pawar
Me on twitter
You can contact me at thejinxedone at gmail dot com

P.S. – Some of you binge read my blog. I take that as a sign that you find my articles interesting enough. I would love to hear from you – are my arguments valid? Am I in over my head? Is it utter nonsense? I will love to hear your views and debate over the arguments I make. I love discussing disagreements. Please don’t hold back. Thanks for reading.