Another libinous suggestion from Valladares

I’m desperately busy at the moment but I couldn’t resist relaying the latest from my friend Daz Valladares.

He works with lots of tourist boards – in fact knows more about the subject than anyone I know. Or maybe he just has a deep streak of cynicism. Or perhaps the first simply begets the second.

“The Monsoon rains have fallen heavily on the west coast of India but not in Bihar. Farmers there are so incensed that they have decided to embarrass the Gods.

Their young unmarried daughters will plough the land in the nude, chanting ancient hymns to invoke the celestial beings responsible for rain. They vow to continue till their prayers are answered.

Could this be a ruse to attract tourists?”

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

4 Comments

  1. Robert Manea

    There is one thing I do not get: what happens when the rain stops? Will the tourists take the daughters home?

    Reply
  2. Rupert

    I just checked the weather report for Bihar and guess what? Rain storms are forecast all this week.

    Bugger, I'll have to cancel that flight now.

    Reply
  3. John Walters

    I noticed that you omitted the 'id' from the adjective in your heading.

    I was perturbed by this and when I checked with my dictionary (The Macquarie) my perturbation increased. Here is what it defines as you are lacking due to the loss of your id.
    “id n. the part of the psyche residing in the unconscious which is the source of instinctive energy. Its impulses, which seek satisfaction in accordance with the pleasure principle, are modified by the ego and the superego before they are given overt expression.”
    Well, Drayton if your id has gone and you cannot retrieve it we are all finished! Where else could we get such a stream of of (usually) humourous invective inveighing against those in high places or those pretending to them. The Great Toad would be safe and stride on to even more momentous achievements without your scintillating wit and rapier like thrusts of commonsense.
    To say nothing of your clients. They would have to put up with the services of those in your profession you so perceptively castigate.
    So, Drayton, no matter what the cost, no matter how hard, find and restore your id and return to us the old Drayton.
    This is serious.
    John

    Reply
  4. Drayton Bird

    What an idiot I am, John. And I thought it was just old age!

    Reply

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