Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Aamir, Toyota and work.

After a week and a half I had my first presser in Bombay today. Well, not actually my first presser in Bombay, I've flown down (rather been flown down) for pressers before in the Big Mango, but you know like oral sex isn't really sex, being flown down by Fiat for the launch of the ill-fated Palio Adventure (which was a bloody awesome car - down to the Pirelli tyres) didn't really count. However, no surprises for guessing that I ended up covering an automotive do.
This was a Toyota do to celebrate the first six months of the Innova, which as I have written before is a pretty nice vehicle, slow off the line but it gets the job done. Anyway, the father ended up buying one for his new wife and the dogs. Worse still, on my advice. And I just get a ruddy Alto, which I have to pay for. Damn!
Bitchiness later, Toyota is desperate to tell the world that the Innova is their 'new' car and the Qualis is dead, dead, dead. And thats why they've hired Mister Aamir Khan to sell their car. You know the guy who plays Mangal Pandey in a film by the same name, or more accurately the Papa Kehte Hai guy, OK, I'll try and lay off the sarcasm a bit. Then again, as someone pointed out at the presser, AK isn't exactly like AB or SRK and endorses very few brands - this is only the third current brand that he is endorsing after Titan and Coke. I mean, with AB you lose count - Dabur, Cadbury's, something, otherthing, everything.
I wonder why Toyota needed a Brand Ambassador for the Innova. Really. The Innova has sold almost 18k units since launch, outselling not only competition but all mid-sized cars also. But then again, looking at Vikram Kirloskar's beaming face during the presser, it was quite evident that Toyota needed something to boost its image from being a staid boring company. And for a brand that uses Brad Pitt and Britney Spears as B.A's in the US, AK should be a decent bet. However, it would help if AK could make a decent movie too.
However it would Toyota a lot of good if instead of the Innova, they brought along something like this. Maybe this might be a future version of the Innova. I just hope they don't call it something silly like the Innova. (Toyota's great naming story includes - Aygo, Fortuner, Yaris, Camry etc...)
Anyway, now after working on a rather interesting story, I was just arbitly surfing the interweb and found this remarkable gadget. It is well, ummm.... a 'tool' cooler. I don't know if this is for real, but I do know that while playing sports - the - ummm 'tools' can get rather sweaty, and such a thing can be useful. My only question is 'What happens if I get a hard-on?' I don't want to become salami.
Anyway, thats not even half as strange as the pee-powered battery that some scientists in Singapore have developed.
If bloggers had been around in times past...
Choose your life, my friends
More later to be added on in edits through the evening, while I carry on working. Have a great mid-week party!
EDIT 1 : A great short animated clip called Tibetan Racer.
Sometimes you worry about the Japanese! And then you worry some more!
ASCII Art!
Now, he is just Diddy!
BABES : (All NSFW)
This is a really really nice blog - not at all safe for work!
The BabeLog. Self-explanatory really.
Have fun!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

You know what, once, I was supposed to call up Nabanita Deb Sen regarding some editing I was doing for her. She mistook me for your mother! I don't know her personally, but apparently we share the same first name :)

K said...

Nabanita Deb Sen and my Mom go back a long long long time - before I even came about to being around.

Anonymous said...

Nabanita-di is a peach, a real sweetheart. Do you know the story of how Amartya Sen basically came home one day and told her that the marriage was over? After 16 years of being together and basically she had no idea what was coming.

Anyway, read some back posts and the one about Dawood's daughter is hilarious! Indians are really ignorant about Pakistani pop culture, the guy is so obviously Abrar-ul Haq.