Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Why Salman Khan Is Right?

As usual, there is something new for politicians and media to do. Salman Khan, on the eve of his much-awaited flick Dabaang, told a Pakistani Channel that the 26/11 attacks were hyped because "elite people" were targeted.

Why is everyone pouncing upon poor Sallu? In my opinion, he has made a great assessment of how media works and how human beings behave.

Now, I have couple of questions. Try to answer to yourself honestly. Top of the mind responses are better.

  1. Which are the top two structures that come to your mind from the 26/11 attack?
  2. Do you remember places which all the TV channels and media focused on?  
Here's some more.

  1. Do you remember the name of the terrorist caught for German Bakery case?  
  2. Do you remember the places affected in Coimbatore blasts? You probably might remember the Leader who was visiting the city, then. Do you?
While he is correct in his assessment that the more 'influential' people targeted more high profile it becomes, in 26/11 case, I think it is the structures and buildings. I urge that every communications person should develop such judgement that Salman has exhibited. I think terrorists understand this well. Interestingly, when I had suggested my client Dax Networks to implement Wi Fi on Dal Lake, I gave pretty much the same reasons. I told my client that if we do a project in Srinagar, we will get maximum mileage. Even a small event there rocks the media across the world.

I am currently re-reading Tipping Point. Interestingly, the book has great model for the communications industry. All the models in the book - Connectors, Law of Few and Stickiness - apply to this industry where 'hype' is the business.

More on Tipping Point and Communications once I finish reading the book.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree. Though what he said seems to be correct, let us hope this is not another cheap movie marketing strategy. Remember what Director saami did for his 'sindhu samaveli'?

Prabhakaran Govindaraj said...

Ganesh... You are right...