Telco companies & Green drives.

Before saying anything, let me ask you to watch the videos embedded below. If you've already watched it on TV, its optional.



and this...


What do you feel about it?

These are actually promotions for a cause by the telco companies in making us aware of our environment.

One may initially feel sorry for the environment, may feel the urge to go green n eco etc.

Lets look into it in a more indifferent manner. Lets take them one by one.

1. Idea's urge to save paper, use mobile.

Go through the video once again if you want to, it gives you many ways to save paper. One can see browsing newspaper through mobile, giving autographs on a touchscreen, taking notes on a mobile(in a court), boarding passes in airports, university certificates, menus and orders in a hotel and what not?

The ad goes bang into the market and is a big hit. Though there are many filmy elements. One major flaw I felt was nobody uses a mobile to type in a court when one can have a desktop/laptop. Storage and transmitting could also be more spacious/faster in the latter case.

Agreed, as they are promoting their product, that is their gimmick. I'm not against the entertaining aspect of it.

Coming to more serious matter, who would implement such ideas? May be a few enthusiasts who got interested would make it a point in following the steps guided by the ad. Aged people would hardly feel the urge to type. They prefer hard copy paper than its counterpart. I don't see any long term implementations of it. On the other hand, these could be the advertisements of the mobile manufacturers and not of the service providers strictly speaking.

Lets hold it for a moment and discuss it after the second ad.

2. Aircel's urge to save the tigers of India.

Its a bit more serious than the previous ad. They ask us to involve in saving tigers. Specially Indian tigers. (Well, how can we save tigers that aren't in our country?) Wanna know more about it? Check it out here.

It has got three brand ambassadors. Cricketing star, M.S. Dhoni, Football captain, Bhaichung Bhutia and Tamil hero Suriya (Aircel is basically from TN).

Again, lemme list the positives here.

1. Effectively depicts the condition of our tigers.
2. Makes us think about Tigers as endangered species.
3. No filmy things in the ad. Thanks for that.

Now lemme tell you my opinion on this ad. Ultimately whatever a common man does, he cannot literally help in saving tigers. Blogging about it, speaking on it in meetings, sharing your thoughts with your friends... nothing is practically gonna help saving tigers. If I'm wrong, please enlighten me in this matter.

Forget everything, we cannot see a tiger except for zoos. Lively tigers are hard to search in jungles. Many of my treks n hiking have gone unfruitful to watch the predator in an open forest. (Not that normal person wishes to see tigers)

Whatever this ad is meant for, should reach the actual hunters of tigers. Not only the hunters of tiger alone, but all wild animals in general.

No 'Save wildlife campaign' helped to any extent in hunting down Veerappan, the elephant poacher. All we could wait for is to turn the minds of these poachers n hunters as well as their supporters on the good side.

Now to summarize everything discussed, its just a market gimmick for these telco providers to gain more publicity boasting themselves as eco-friendly. I'm not saying that they're always wrong. We do have truth on their side, but still I feel its just their marketing strategy. All I want to say is that because of these mobile operators, we have lost our sparrows from the urban areas. Not only sparrows but almost all birds. All we could see is a few crows here n there sparingly.

How many will turn in my side, if I say 'Stop using mobiles, save the sparrow. Lets do our bit'. Who will turn my side?

Or yet another agenda, 'Use less plastic, save the environment'?? How many will turn up? How many street cows have fallen sick/died just because of consuming plastic?

You might think I'm always cynic towards such things. Thats how I am.

As always, If I've left out some points or you feel that I'm wrong on some statements, please do let me know.