'TV vanishes, print is here to stay'

The Magic of Print, a glossy coffee-table book that takes readers on a journey through some of the world’s finest print advertisements, was unveiled at the Taj Land’s End hotel in Mumbai on Friday by some of the advertising industry’s best-known personalities.

The Magic of Print, a glossy coffee-table book that takes readers on a journey through some of the world’s finest print advertisements, was unveiled at the Taj Land’s End hotel in Mumbai on Friday by some of the advertising industry’s best-known personalities.

HT Image

The glossy, hardbound book, presented by the Hindustan Times and designed to be a collector’s item and industry reference source, was launched amidst an insightful panel discussion featuring Alyque Padamsee, ad filmmaker; Josy Paul, national creative director and chairman of agency BBDO India; Vikram Sakhuja, CEO (South Asia) for agency GroupM; and Shashi Sinha, CEO of agency Lodestar UM.

The panel debated whether print is a dying medium, how print compares with the digital format, and what constitutes good innovation in print.

Hindustan Times deputy managing editor Sitaraman Shankar moderated the discussion.

“The magic of print is that it has sudden impact and hits you in just a couple of seconds, while a television ad will take 30 seconds to digest,” said Paul. For Padamsee, the magic of the medium lies in its permanence. “Print is preserved for posterity. TV vanishes,” he said. “This makes it (print) more believable as a medium as well.”

Sinha said the print medium is still winning against the digital in India. “Here, newspapers are cheap and therefore easily accessible by the masses,” he said.

“This book commends and encourages creativity and we hope it serves as aspirational for future generations of ad-makers,” said HT Media CEO Rajeev Verma.