Saturday, January 06, 2007

Say it softly


In one of the earlier post, I mentioned how colloquial conversation is changing. Here's a new campaign from UB Export Beer doing rounds in Bangalore City. Local bar is a common sight in Bangalore. It is interesting to see how people enter these dimly lit watering holes for a quick STANDING drink. More interesting is the way they speak to the barman and order their drinks.

After the UB ad surfaced on billboards, I went to few local bars asking people, "Do you know what is the meaning of 'Chiltu,' or any idea how did the word come into being?" I spoke to some ten local people and a very interesting insight came out from them. The word 'Small' in Kannada is called "chikkudu." People generally ask the barman, "Chill Chikkudu kodi" for a pint bottle of chilled beer. Almost everybody said the same thing. Interesting and impressive I must say.

It seems the ad agency of UB Exports very cleverly picked out that those words and created a good campaign. "Chiltu" as a word is really doing well with people at local bars here in Bangalore. Their previous campaign with Kannada Superstar Upendra saying "Ella okay, cool drink Yaake?" was a brilliant campaign. The localities did pick up that phrase. Now it's time for "Chiltu."

Keep your eyes open and if you come across something interesting like this, do post your comments here.

2 comments:

gururanganathan said...

interesting dude....

pooR_Planner said...

Guru, thanks for dropping in. Well, you seem to reflect the same question which I raised in my previous article. See how the word 'Dude' has become a part of our daily conversation. Ask yourself, if you used the word 'Dude' so frequently some five years back, I guess the answer will be No.

the point is, in trying to keep our conversation simple and 'cool,' we tend to pick up few words and stick to them for a long time until a new one arrives.

Do also visit http://thotblurb.blogspot.com