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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

There Are Lies, Damned Lies and Opinion Polls

India Today
Hello! Wake up! It's that time of the year again. The ad generating annual b-school survey is over (25% of Outlook's print space was occupied by ads from b-schools only). India's two leading weekly newsmagazines (and some non-leading ones too) are on a circulation-enhancing spree. Selling what is believed to sell the most - SEX.

So much has already been said, written and shown about it, so what's new? No brain raking needed. OutlookA simple opinion poll will suffice. Round up a random sample of gullible idle respondents, some real, the rest concocted (I speak from first hand experience here). Get them to fill up a dreary questionnaire (Just tick, don't think). Total, average, correlate, deviate and come out with figures which startle the reader. If the deviation from the accepted norm of social behaviour is not of a shocking degree, no problem at all. Some other sleazy story can occupy the cover - the innards can always be filled up by numbers, bars, diagrams, graphs - a little tweaked - for that sensationalistic value. The empty spaces (there'll be lots) adorned with nudes.

What's the story? Who cares? Doesn't tickle those grey cells but definitely does stimulate those testosterone producing glands. The vendor outside my office displays multiple copies prominently and the two rivals disappear from the stands with competing vigour. Scandalised readers will again remind Vinod Mehta of his Debonair days and he'll wonder over the solitary condom ad in an issue on sex.

When the jurnos are no good, throw in the pollsters (and some photographers).

8 Comments:

K said...

Well, now in retrospect, at least the Outlook story was paisa-vasool. India Today on the other hand, was sorry to say crap. They should have gotten a man to write the story it might have been better. After food writing, which is a skill set that very few individuals have, sex writing is the toughest thing in the world. And sadly, there are no Indians that can write about sex.

Abaniko said...

yeah. how easy it is to lie with statistics and make money out of them.

Anonymous said...

Whore's shit! (sorry, I mean Horseshit) I am gonna sue those Outlook chaps Bloody MCs.
OK ok.. i am tellin you why am i so animated.
After reading the cover story, I went to India Gate to try my luck and i kept standing for almost two hours with a white handkerhchief around my wrist tryng to make an statement that i am dying to be laid!
Not a single chick responded. I was left so horny and frustated that i had no other option but vent it out at the G B Road.
Whore's shit u c.
-Yours truly

Anonymous said...

Sorry sorry. Did I mention that I am a "goodlooking" guy? Terrilbly resilient which i am, i ll again go India gate, this time perhaps with just only a white kerchief around my wrist.
Wish me luck!

Soumyadip said...

And this time around make sure that the white handkerchief is indeed WHITE. Men buy or are gifted white handkerchiefs, but how long do they stay in their pristine whiteness?

dwaipayan said...
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dwaipayan said...
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dwaipayan said...

what happened? journo blues again???????