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An
insight into the happenings of the ad mad world, the vigilant and
nerve-racking working hours, client pressures, creative minds scrambling
to meet deadlines and much more... it is all there in ad man Sandeep
Goyal's book The Dum Dum Bullet: Adventures of a corporate soldier.
 The
first thing that catches the eye is the unusual title of the book
- The Dum Dum Bullet. The Dum Dum Bullet??? What's
that supposed to mean? Well, the title has been inspired by the
'Dum Dum bullet' that was produced at the Dum Dum ammunition factory
near Kolkata. The bullet had an exposed lead nose which underwent
rapid expansion on impact. The head of the bullet was hollow, which
meant that it ballooned out on impact. Interestingly, Goyal makes
a comparison to this bullet to advertising saying that advertising
is no different as it is soft nosed and focused on its target and
balloons on impact! And a bullet fits in well with Goyal's personnae
pretty well considering his well-documented penchant for collecting
pistols.
 The
who's who of the corporate world with whom Goyal has worked with
in various stages of his career and in various capacities have been
mentioned in his book thus providing the reader with the know-how's
of the ad world. Written in lay man's language with no flowery terms
(not to be mistaken with technical terms), the book is a smooth
read for even someone who is not acquainted with the functioning
of the advertising agencies. Snappy, to the point without being
either preachy or boastful (isolated incidents can be forgiven)
is what Goyal has churned out.
He
takes the reader through the trials and tribulations he went through
with his colleagues in his stints in various marketing, advertising
or broadcast companies, be it at Goodlass Nerolac Paints, JWT, Mudra's
Interact Vision, Grey Worldwide, Redifussion DY&R or even Zee
Telefilms where he was broadcast CEO before he became the chairman
of Dentsu.
By
talking about things like working day and night incessantly to win
a probable big client for the agency, to compromising on the personal
life front in order to pacify a client who thinks it would be the
end of the world if a particular thing was not done instantaneously,
to even tolerating star tantrums just to have that 'star' name associated
with the brand - Goyal drives home the point that it's not all hunky
dory as it looks from the outside.
Small
anecdotes makes the reading livelier and keeps one engrossed for
the simple and basic want to know - 'What else happened in this
man's life?' Building relationships and that too, for life is what
Goyal talks about mostly - be it with his clients or colleagues.
Goyal
doesn't talk in length about his stint at Zee Telefilms except when
the channel had launched their first home production Gadar
starring Sunny Deol and Amisha Patel and the fiasco that happened
during the premier of the movie in Delhi and Mumbai. Looks like
a more detailed account of his time at Zee follows in the next book
Goyal plans to pen.
To
cut a long story short, a good effort, light read but informative
all the same is how The Dum Dum Bullet can be summarised.
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