Without having to extol the many virtues of highly differentiated and high impact advertising (Marketing 101), the recent Quack! Online publicity campaign proved to be a success in many ways. Sung to the tune of popular Pakistani rock group Noori’s Suno kae main hoon jawan, Quack’s Dekhain! Mein Quack! Online kae liyae likh kar kaisa hogya! happened to arouse the interest and attention of many. The eye-catching pictures and accompanying tag lines provoked some students into thinking the campaign to be aggravating and gratuitous, and even polluting, while others appreciated the absurdity of the idea. One student summed it up well, saying, “kya yeh tanz hai kae in mae sae koi likh nahin raha hai?”
Unfortunately, the campaign failed in its ultimate aim of attracting more writers (or more regular writing). Even the pointed task of Sports Editor could not be fulfilled by our ambitious student body of 300 odd.
So, is Masood Arif right in saying that to get Tipians to do anything, you have to get after them personally by “communicating directily with them?” Is that why TISF’s Basant Mela was a bore, because Abdul Saboor didn’t individually inform all 330 students, 30 faculty members and 20 administrative staff? (figures might be a bit off). Is that why Quack! Online gets new articles only when the Editor or the people who C.A.R.E personally get after the writers?
Or did the campaign fail because our students don’t really C.A.R.E?