India is going to host its first Formula One race ever, and all I see is grid girls on ads?
I was playing some online games the other time. (Yes, so what? There is no shame in admitting it, I suppose.) While I was waiting for the game to load, it immediately sensed that I'm from India, and played me an ad showing a grid girl doing, well, what a grid girl is supposed to do.
And all this while, there has been nothing on television; no publicity that should be garnered before the first-ever race occurs (or else I'm just watching all the wrong sorts of channels). And on the other side of the quadrant we have a new movie release of a prominent actor. I went to McDonald's today and the Happy Meal toys were centred around that movie's prime character, when in fact they should have started with the F1 car toys!
Damn it, I want an F1 car scale model.
I didn't even know about the track! Nor did I know what it had been named. So I Googled it, and sure enough, quicker than waiting for an informative ad to pop up on television:
So this is it.
And apparently, it's one of the shortest tracks. So we'll be looking at an excess of 60 laps. (In fact, I just looked it up, and it'll indeed be 60.)
This will be the stuff of awe for India. Although we have produced professional racers, F1 has never been promoted as a large-scale event in a cricket-crazy nation. I believe our last contact with it was when David Coulthard had come over to Mumbai to drive his Red Bull car over the newly built sealink.
Will Vettel continue his high-flying streak? Does it really matter, now that he and Red Bull have already won the Championship?
But this is what I really want to see first in the Qualifying Session on the 29th:
Wish Kimi Raikkonen were here.
The Times of India has an interesting F1 coloumn everyday.
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on who is sponsoring the event.
I myself am not much of an F1 fan; I prefer cricket!
And personally, I feel F1 is a waste: of money, of metal, and of champagne.
To promote the event, free tickets to those below 18 should be given. The sport is unpopular in the country as it is. By the sky-high ticket prices, all they are doing is worsening the situation.
And obviously, a waste of fuel! (how could I forget!)
ReplyDeleteThe Times of India really has good articles with regard to that. (I'm going to cut them all out and keep. :D)
ReplyDeleteBut if you want to target the general population, you'd have to settle for a different medium (TV here).
It doesn't need publicity: the big shots have bought all the tickets. Giving out free tickets means less revenue for these people. As it is the circuit has been made after so much hassle.
I simply feel that if this new circuit is something to be fussed about, the least that media could do was at least show why it's a landmark event.
Cricket, eh? Well, to each his own.... ;)
PS: It is a massive waste of fuel, but then the supporters lap it up anyway. :D