I saw this on my Facebook wall and I was transported almost 30 years back in time

I was working with a small (and wonderful) agency in Chennai called Whirlwind Communications that existed almost solely to handle the advertising business of Brilliant Tutorials.

Those days, Brilliant Tutorials was the largest print advertiser from Chennai (larger than MRF, believe it or not) even if the major part of their releases were 20 column centimeters. The billing was built on the frequency (2-3 times per week) and on the premium positions (always top of column, page 5, 7 or 9). 

But the crazy part of billing came thanks to full page ads in ALL major newspapers in India on a few, predictable occasions. ALL, except the pink papers. Times of India. Hindustan Times. Deccan Herald. Malayala Manorama. The Hindu. Ananda Bazaar Patrika. You name the paper, it was on the plan.

The full page ads would announce the extraordinary success of Brilliant’s students in the competitive exams, be it the IIT entrance, the UPSC entrance, and so on.

The layout was simple and predictable. A large headline with the number of students who made it to the final list, followed by the names and photos of the most successful candidates.

Easy enough, you would think.

That is far from the truth. On these ‘results’ days, the managing director of Brilliant. Mr T Nilakantan, our copy head, V Ramnarayan and our ‘design’ head, Ranjit Mokashi (who now works with Rage Communications in Chennai) would receive the data (names and photographs of the successful candidates) in dribs and drabs and update the creative. It was a slow, unpredictable and tense process, as we fought analog deadlines in an analog world. Anxious  and polite space sellers would call repeatedly to be updated on the ‘ETA’ of the final creative.

And I wondered why it was always so difficult to get these details. After all, since they were all students from Brilliant, shouldn’t the details be on a database already?

They weren’t – and that’s the story.

Once the names of the top rankers was released by the authorities concerned, a crack team at Brilliant started their almost impossible task.

First, check for the winners who were, indeed, students from Brilliant. That’s easy enough and this list would reach us almost immediately.

Next, trace ALL other top rankers – those who were NOT students of Brilliant. Their names, phone numbers and addresses were unearthed by this crack team.

With these details in hand, smaller teams would physically contact the successful candidates and lure them with cash rewards – which were available to the candidates who agreed to sign back-dated papers that proved that they had enrolled into one or other Brilliant course.

So youngsters who had never enrolled for a Brilliant Course found their faces on the front pages of newspapers across the country.

Such is the power of persuasion. And money. 

And, thanks to the experience I had with Brilliant, I’m a complete cynic when I see a brand ambassador pushing any product or service.

The first thing that crosses my mind: who paid you? How much were you paid?

Now, a third question crosses my mind:

How much harm are you doing to an innocent, unsuspecting human being?