There are times like these when I sit back and ponder over why I am on the internet in the first place. I have been here long enough – AOL message boards, ICQ, forums, Orkut, Twitter, Facebook and now Google Wave – and I have had my fair share of online social flaming interaction. Since yesterday I have seen the reactions of many on twitter (most of them my friends) and wondered why something like the #WallProject, which was meant to be an event which generates positivity, has suddenly become so disruptive and so filled with hate messages. I don’t agree with what I read now and this is my (rather lame) attempt at telling you why…
Firstly, the Aladin team has been taking a lot of unnecessary flak from a lot of people in the media and on Twitter. Aren’t we forgetting that it is them who were listening online, who responded to the community, apologised and then went out there and did something. What about the other movie teams. I haven’t heard anything from the guys of the other movies! KUDOS to Vishal, Jackie, Sujoy and Shekhar – REALLY!!!
Everyone seems to be annoyed about things like movie releases, publicity and TRPs. Are you guys for real? When we wrote about the vandalism, we wanted to be heard. We got retweeted a zillion times, some of us even spoke to TV channels and newspapers about it. Why then is it wrong if the Aladin team does the same? They are essentially doing the same that we did. Who is talking of double standards here?
The Aladin posters were stuck on a part of the wall that was painted by guys from Red FM. When they offered to paint that part of the wall with the guys from Red FM, people cried foul. Why should they paint any other part of the wall? Also, why are people pissed that they painted the wall today? As far I know, Thursday comes before Saturday.
I think the Aladin team missed a beat with what they painted on the wall. If they had just not mentioned the movie name, the lamp and just written social messages on the wall, it would have gotten them so much goodwill and yet they choose to wear Aladin t-shirts and paint a lamp. They have some learning to do in this regard, I guess..
All in all, I think we are going overboard with our reactions here.
Very well said Asfaq! At least Aladin guys went ahead and did “something” to add their 2 cents. Other movie makers haven’t even said a single word, leave alone apology or Action.But yeh, had they not painted a lamp there would nt have been heartburns.-Mohit (@mohitnanda)
yeah, agree with you .. 1. the biggest mistake was that we did is we assume we *over-hyped* it … we wanted reaction n wen it turned out to be a publicity opportunity for the crew, we are pissed .. there is an opportunity in every CRISIS .. 2. wat i hear off from people is that they just came, posed with their brushes n left ….Amazing Publicity – 3. but seriously, coming to think of it ,, we online audience are aware of this .. we get live updates .. but millions out there re not aware of this tamasha!! 4. Moral – LIFE GOES ON . There will be movies, there will be producers, the walls will be pissed on and there ll be another trending topic#thewallproject
Really well articulated. Everybody is looking for publicity, including the wall itself. The wall needs to be seen, since it has been painted. The film needs to be seen too – so why not club both the needs, as what has happened here?
As mentiomed earlier, totally agree wid u on this dude…
I am with you mostly…. just that i thought they could have also helped in terms of getting people from the fraternity.. but then at least they listened.. and I appreciate the fact that Vishal is taking the initiative with the “no poster” campaign via the smallchange.in database…
I so agree with you…I really think people are going overboard too
The way i look at it, yes, I believe that it is a good thing the Aladin team came out to paint the walls today, to contribute to the wall project; heck, to respond at all unlike the other movie teams (chicken, eh? London Dreams, Gair, Canvas).I also believe they got a lot more flak than the others (did the others at all?) cos they responded, which is unfair.And as I suppressed my discomfort with someone ‘touching-up’ a wall, i was glad that atleast an attempt to fix it was being made. but hope can be such a bitch. Plan seems to have misfired what with that anything-but-blink-and-miss reference to Aladin. a huge opportunity to gain goodwill missed, and how.I do want to believe Vishal when he says their intentions were right. Were they not I doubt he’d repeatedly bother sorting out the mess. also, trying to send out a message + saying it was from the Aladin team can be tricky but you’d hope better sense prevailed than having that lamp in your face. better luck next time. both at deciding on an appropriate mssg and wondering what your PR team was upto.And no i wouldnt take them to the cleaners about the date they choose to do it on: the earlier done the better. before release/ after release/ whatever.
valid. agree.But I can’t ignore the following..1. Did they inform or bother to tell the other film producers whose posters had been plastered on the walls? I’m sure it’s easy. They all belong to the same fraternity. If they really, really cared, they would have. Doesn’t look like they did. So, to me, looks like more film publicity. Get the cast to go and paint. So nice. 2. Why invite entertainment reporters? Even if they wanted the world to know, they should have invited the same reporters who wrote about the vandalism. It’s a vital piece of information. PR minds at play.3. What next? Does it end here? You tweeting pictures of your cast panting Aladin on the wall? How nice no? What a beautiful picture to paint.4. I remember a couple of tweeps asking vishal to sponsor paints for us to re-paint our own walls. But hey… how much publicity will that earn them? Will that even make for a photo in the papers the next day? No it won’t. So our tweets were conveniently ignored.5. If they really, really cared. Why did they wait for Red FM to invite them? Shouldn’t they have gone on the night they got the messages and torn the posters themselves? But hey, that wouldn’t have given them any coverage… so they sent someone else to do the dirty job.Yes, asfaq, atleast they heard us out, atleast they made an effort. But the effort is a tease. Have they tried getting in touch with The Wall Project members?Are they going to be there on Satudary, after their film releases?Will it all end after `the tease show’ or will they actually bring about a `small change’?
Too thanda Asfaq. Why should it be such a favour to us that they responded? It just says they’re a tad quicker to recognize a potential stain on their proceedings. What’s more as you yourself acknowledge, their clean-up action was a laugh, if at all.The position still stands at their having done something illegal, uncivic and quite irresponsible for people with that kind of influence of media, power and money. Consumer boycott is an effective and fairly painless way to make them sit up and take responsibility.