Hyderabad has a huge (make that humungous, actually) potential in the area of public relations. If you are a journalist, unfortunate enough to be covering lifestyle beats in the city, you would know what one is talking about. The perception by most PR agencies (including MNC brands) is that journalists just need a ticket (read invite) to hell (well, almost), considering how some of these page 3 events are handled.
Sample: A fashion show held last Saturday to launch an Italian multi-designer store. The invite read 7.30 pm. Yours truly reached a lil close to 8 pm, only to find a melee of the ubiquitous TV cameramen (media in Hyderabad seems to be dominated by this species, some of them representing singularly unknown\anonymous channels, God help them!) and a light sprinkling of so-called P3Ps. (doesnt do, my dahlings, to be seen so early, is it?)
Most of the time, the poor owners\brands dont get their place under the sun ,what with the obsession with ensuring the p3p presence, if they can indeed be called page 3 persons at all.
I mean, just being the daughter or son of a bureaucrat these days allows you to be talked about even if you are going to say Mumbai for higher studies. Classic case of using newsprint to scratch someone else's backs!!
Okie, Im digressing...coming back to the event, yours truly found the Italian designers, dressed formally and waiting patiently (with all their social etiquette intact) for the show to roll. My heart went out to them, as they got themselves aquainted with the Hyderabadi's (esp the self-appointed well-heeled) sense of time. And to crown it all, it was a stand-up kind of an event, with no chairs around. As if this wasnt painful enough, (im talking on behalf of all those in high heels) what irked most guests present was the total absence of anything offered, not even water, forget the cocktails and dinner as mentioned on the card. The PR person handling the event, when contacted on the cell, was indifferent to inquiries on the event, after all, hadnt she succeeded in getting you here in the first place? Job done, na , paisa vasool, client se!!!
But the Italian co-owner decided to take me on a liitle tour of the store, which was very kind of him, as I was truly beginning to feel murderous!
When we saw the Ista general manager around, the cat was out of the bag. It seems the venue for cocktails and dinner had changed last minute from the restaurant upstairs to gacchibowli.
Wow!
Well, must say the Italian clothes were good, though didnt understand why Tollywood actress Charmee had to do a village belle kind of jhatka matka walk on the ramp,e specially considering that it was office wear! rahul dev also looked more pock-marked than anything else, although we give full marks to his well-toned body!
well, dahlings, I have decided to a) either skip such hi-fashion dos (low on guest relations)
or b) go only after confirming if they have chairs, if they will begin at least an hour after the scheduled time. Not a tall order, is it?
A week before this, there was another media event handled with the same aplomb. (of course, we are being sarcastic!). While some of us were flown to Mumbai to be part of the first trial flight landing at Shamshabad International airport, the experience crash-landed in more ways than one. By the time, the second plane-load of journalists had landed at shamshabad, CM garu had left and the media conference was over.
When a couple of journalists asked the PR agency person for press dockets and CDs of pic images, the answer blithely given, deadpan expression intact, was that the GMR and L&T construction workers had 'snatched' them away, including the Kingfisher limited edition calendars.
One marvels at such helplessness. tut tut, didnt GMR provide the PR agency with any security? anyways, sigh....until next time, miaowwwwww
