Storyboard18 | Gehraiyaan: The depths of your agency’s alumni problem

(Representational image) Talent in the A&M industry must internalize that selling a bottle of hand wash or an offer on pizzas or luxury fashion or a streaming service or a crypto exchange can be equally exciting.

I remember speaking to Shakun Batra in 2018, a year or two after one of his masterpieces - Kapoor & Sons - had been released. We were considering working with each other on a ‘brand love’ film for one of our biggest clients. His production house ultimately didn’t get that business. But I had liked our discussions, so I was hoping to work with him again soon.

Next time I heard his name was as the director of Gehraiyaan on Amazon Prime Video. Watched it. Loved it. Even the parts of it that folks seemed to be very divided about. But I was curious about how he’d treated the character of Karan Arora (played by Dhairwa Karwa) - an aspiring novelist who’s clearly not had a good time at his previous job… in an ad agency.

Don't listen to this guy, kids.
Handwash ads can be awesome. pic.twitter.com/7tJtnFRMw5

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— PG (@PGAditiya) February 14, 2022

(Side note: great hand wash PSA, made by Ogilvy India, as proof.)

Karan’s humour seems to naturally come from his cynicism - of life, his writing, his previous job. He’s financially the least-stable character in the ensemble (courtesy his indefinite sabbatical to write a novel), and by the climax, we’re informed by Karan himself that his novel has tanked. Ironically, he chooses his own wedding day to announce that his ex (advertising) has taken him back!

Also read: Gehraaiyan review: A beautifully calibrated relationship drama

To be clear, neither is the audience asked to empathise with Karan, nor are we given any indication that he’s actually a good writer (novels or ads). But to those of us who spend our waking hours wondering how to make the creative agency business better, Karan represents a worrying statistic: unhappy alumni.

Many of us in the A&M (advertising and marketing) field know a ‘Karan’: an agency alumnus that feels and acts like they’ve quit a bad habit (like smoking/drinking) after exiting, who isn’t shy to narrate their experience as a cautionary tale about advertising to anyone who asks. Some of them make it as screenwriters and write their experiences into their characters (as @NeilBalthazar helped me understand in his response below).

I think it's a function of many of these screenwriters having worked in the ad industry at one point or another and genuinely hating life there. Many genuinely feel this way and their characters reflect that.

— Neil Balthazar (@NeilBalthazar) February 14, 2022

Now, I love the agency business and I’m having the time of my life here. I also know folks who are fantastic alumni - now filmmakers, brand managers, domain specialists - they all take pride in being cheerleaders and continue to respect the profession. Some of them are also attracted to agency life again. But their optimism doesn’t stem from just a ‘belief system’ or ‘personal values’. It is a reflection of the good experience they’ve had during their time here… the byproduct of good mentorship, decent pay and a non-toxic work culture.

The sad part is this happy alumni and happy agency folk like me know we’re a minority. And we feel deeply for those who can’t relate to our experience. At the same time, to us, characters like Karan can be annoying to watch.

But hard-pill? Karans aren’t born. They’re bred (and aggravated - especially by ignoring basic protocol during notice periods and exits). Truth is - many agencies still:

1. Feel a fun farewell party can substitute a formal exit interview (I’ve made this error too)

2. Don’t take feedback from exit interviews seriously, and later…

3. Persuade ex-employees to rejoin without addressing their actual baggage

There’s a fourth point - which is the hardest (and probably something we all feel most).

Many agencies still don’t encourage equal opportunities for great creative work across categories. It needs to be internalized that selling a bottle of hand wash or an offer on pizzas or luxury fashion or a streaming service or a crypto exchange can be equally exciting. Or we can at least ensure the creative person on a brand is the right fit for it (unlike Karan was for his hand wash brand) and not assume versatility is everyone’s cup of tea. Clients who take our word that our ‘proposed team structure’ slide is good to go, deserve that much.

I’m optimistic that we can make the Karans of the agency business incredible cheerleaders (or encourage them to dial down the pessimism) if we take the cost of the alternatives seriously. I genuinely hope that unlike all the other topics Gehraiyaan has sparked a passionate debate about… this is one where we can skip the debate, and get started on doing what it takes.