Billboards
January 31, 2006
Women Empowerment. I see those two words nearly every day as I take my daughter Sandrine to school. And I see them in a most unusual place. These two words are printed across the back of quite a few autorickshaws. There are usually other printed words in Hindi but since I don’t understand them it is these two words that stand out in my mind.
My daily weekday routine involves going with Nikhitita and our driver Dubey in the morning to drop off Sandrine at school and the ritual repeats again in the afternoon when I pick her up. There are several points along out route where the traffic is unbelievably congested. We find ourselves bumper to bumper with rickshaws, two-wheelers and other cars and for a brief moment we enter other people’s lives as we pass each other with oftentimes only a foot or so to separate us of which a quarter of an inch is taken up by the window pane in front of me. Some days it’s a rickshaw with 5 school children all squeezed together with their backpacks on the bench that seats 3 comfortably an on other days it may be a single woman clutching a plastic shopping bag and speaking into ther mobile phone. And the air is as congested as the roads with the honking of horns and the rough words of drivers who motion each other to move here and there in the hopes of moving traffic any which direction. Every day as soon as we enter one of these junctions, I know right away whether Sandrine will be late to school or not that morning.
Our previous driver Rahul had a knack of getting us to school on time regardless of what time I came down with the kids. Depending on whether I was on time or 5 minutes late or 10 minutes late he would take different shortcuts. One such shortcut (reserved for when we were 10 minutes late) took us through an unpaved road and right past a colony of shanties, which like our subdivision in the South Bay suburbs were separated into different tiers, There were those families who lived out in the open, families who had contructed tents of tarp and those who were fortunate to have used corrugated metal to make a more weatherproof and permanent dwelling. Of course in our subdivision the dichotomy was less severe as the diffences had to do with square footage of the homes and sizes of the lawns. I also noticed that many of these “homes” had auto-rickshaws parked outside of them. Sadly, a day’s work ferrying people around only afforded them a meager place to call home.
One day as we were slowly making our way through one of those slow points along our route and I was staring at the words, “Women Empowerment” it struck me that it was very easy to read things on the backs of auto-rickshaws since the heavy congestion in Mumbai limits the speed of vehicles.
Suddenly it hit me that these rickshaw drivers should sell the space on the back of their rickshaws…why not have Nestle or Amul or Reliance or other corporations buy advertising space on the back of auto-rickshaws? I wonder if there is any restriction on this type of activity. I think that it would serve the autorickshaw drivers better if there was a marketing organization to serve their collective interests. Sure the organization would probably have to take a percentage but it would have the direct relationship to corporations and negotiate favorable terms for its member rickshaw driver/owners.
Transporting passengers back and forth may not be enough to earn a livelihood so why not supplement by selling roving billboard space? It’s not a new idea. One of the teams did something similar on the fourth season of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice but using banners on the back of horse drawn carriages in New York City. The banners, which were meant for flat surfaces didn’t fit well and if I remember correctly the team lost. In any case, I am not suggesting banners but rather a simple call to action. I would imagine that a colorful stream of moving banners over Mumbai could be aesthetically displeasing if not downright dangerous.
A few days after having this breakthrough I did notice a stall completely painted bright yellow and red and boasting the Lays Potato chips logo. It was Nitin’s Pan Bidi Shop. Pan is a mildly intoxicating ground mixture of betel nuts and spices while a bidi is a particular type of unfiltered Indian cigarette made of tobacco and wrapped in a leaf. Neither have anything to do with potato chips but quite a few vehicles with potential consumers passed the corner that the bidi shop was positioned on and as a result saw the corporate messaging. Why shouldn’t something similar work on autorickshaws? Another couple of weeks later I did come across a rickshaw with mouthshut.com printed in the top center in lieu of women empowerment. Maybe moving billboards have already hit Mumbai?
Women Empowerment. I see those two words nearly every day as I take my daughter Sandrine to school. And I see them in a most unusual place. These two words are printed across the back of quite a few autorickshaws. There are usually other printed words in Hindi but since I don’t understand them it is these two words that stand out in my mind.
My daily weekday routine involves going with Nikhitita and our driver Dubey in the morning to drop off Sandrine at school and the ritual repeats again in the afternoon when I pick her up. There are several points along out route where the traffic is unbelievably congested. We find ourselves bumper to bumper with rickshaws, two-wheelers and other cars and for a brief moment we enter other people’s lives as we pass each other with oftentimes only a foot or so to separate us of which a quarter of an inch is taken up by the window pane in front of me. Some days it’s a rickshaw with 5 school children all squeezed together with their backpacks on the bench that seats 3 comfortably an on other days it may be a single woman clutching a plastic shopping bag and speaking into ther mobile phone. And the air is as congested as the roads with the honking of horns and the rough words of drivers who motion each other to move here and there in the hopes of moving traffic any which direction. Every day as soon as we enter one of these junctions, I know right away whether Sandrine will be late to school or not that morning.
Our previous driver Rahul had a knack of getting us to school on time regardless of what time I came down with the kids. Depending on whether I was on time or 5 minutes late or 10 minutes late he would take different shortcuts. One such shortcut (reserved for when we were 10 minutes late) took us through an unpaved road and right past a colony of shanties, which like our subdivision in the South Bay suburbs were separated into different tiers, There were those families who lived out in the open, families who had contructed tents of tarp and those who were fortunate to have used corrugated metal to make a more weatherproof and permanent dwelling. Of course in our subdivision the dichotomy was less severe as the diffences had to do with square footage of the homes and sizes of the lawns. I also noticed that many of these “homes” had auto-rickshaws parked outside of them. Sadly, a day’s work ferrying people around only afforded them a meager place to call home.
One day as we were slowly making our way through one of those slow points along our route and I was staring at the words, “Women Empowerment” it struck me that it was very easy to read things on the backs of auto-rickshaws since the heavy congestion in Mumbai limits the speed of vehicles.
Suddenly it hit me that these rickshaw drivers should sell the space on the back of their rickshaws…why not have Nestle or Amul or Reliance or other corporations buy advertising space on the back of auto-rickshaws? I wonder if there is any restriction on this type of activity. I think that it would serve the autorickshaw drivers better if there was a marketing organization to serve their collective interests. Sure the organization would probably have to take a percentage but it would have the direct relationship to corporations and negotiate favorable terms for its member rickshaw driver/owners.
Transporting passengers back and forth may not be enough to earn a livelihood so why not supplement by selling roving billboard space? It’s not a new idea. One of the teams did something similar on the fourth season of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice but using banners on the back of horse drawn carriages in New York City. The banners, which were meant for flat surfaces didn’t fit well and if I remember correctly the team lost. In any case, I am not suggesting banners but rather a simple call to action. I would imagine that a colorful stream of moving banners over Mumbai could be aesthetically displeasing if not downright dangerous.
A few days after having this breakthrough I did notice a stall completely painted bright yellow and red and boasting the Lays Potato chips logo. It was Nitin’s Pan Bidi Shop. Pan is a mildly intoxicating ground mixture of betel nuts and spices while a bidi is a particular type of unfiltered Indian cigarette made of tobacco and wrapped in a leaf. Neither have anything to do with potato chips but quite a few vehicles with potential consumers passed the corner that the bidi shop was positioned on and as a result saw the corporate messaging. Why shouldn’t something similar work on autorickshaws? Another couple of weeks later I did come across a rickshaw with mouthshut.com printed in the top center in lieu of women empowerment. Maybe moving billboards have already hit Mumbai?
posted by Danakka @ 1:08 PM
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