IIPM Vs. Gaurav+Rashmi+Varna

Okay, my posts usually are incoherent thoughts which come when I am supremely vela in my life... but this is about something I have been following quite closely for a while now.

Ever since I started wanting to do an MBA, IIPM has been there with its humongous full-page ads. These were smart ads due to the following reasons:
1) IIPM ranked 4th* amongst all Indian B Schools ahead of 3 IIMs... and the 'extremely' fine print would then elaborate "4th in Industry Interface"
2) It would have beautifully 'Adobe Photoshop'd pictures of IIPM buildings...even the clouds on each IIPM building (in different cities) were exactly the same
3) Lastly, there would be a pic of a beaming, pony-tailed Chaudhri in one corner giving fundas about some Great Indian Economic Theory even though it had nothing to do with the rest of the ad. Also, a mention of a 'bestseller' called Count your Chickens...

In short all the ingredients to catch attention and create an impression on the MBA crazy hordes that abound everywhere...

Then there would be these ads with pics of IIPM faculty and their rates for workshops... The ads wouldn't have any info about what workshops they were planning... just plain vanilla faculty pics and rates like 200,000 per hour. Again a brilliant way to create an impression...look our faculty charges so much... I was beginning to look upto Arindam Chaudhry as a marketing genius... not coz I had started beleving the ads... but I knew there were lakhs who would... and thats what marketing is a lot about... customising your message to the target audience...

Till here everything was fine... I was happy with my analysis of IIPM ads and would think what the heck? Those who beleive it probably deserve it. And everbody's got to make a living right... if Samsung can sell TVs with bio-rays that soothe your body, Maggi can pack in protein and calcium, then who's to dictate what IIPM can or cannot put into their ads?

But then I chanced on Gaurav Sabnis's blog and got to know that he had been sent a legal notice by IIPM since he had linked to a JAM Magazine article on IIPM's ad-claims and to Rashmi Bansal's blog. I followed the issue to sites like desipundit and wow the issue had snowballed into an online movement for blogger's right to freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, Gaurav resigned from IBM as IIPM happens to be a major client of IBM and Gaurav didnt want IBM to be affected by this entire thing. Now that says a lot about the man and his convictions... also a lot about the confidence you get passing out of an IIM. Be that as it may, I vaguely know Gaurav from my engineering days in Pune and hence the inordinate amount of time I am spending writing on this issue.

Out of the 1000s of bloggers who came out supporting Gaurav and Rashmi on this, someone called Varna (a student in Delhi) also got sued for expressing her thoughts on the issue.

So far, there have been a few thousand blogposts and comments on this. Most talking about why IIPM is a huge con-job, others talking about the freedom to expression, a few others abusing IIPM detractors, and a few more offering unsolicited viewpoints like this one. But why isn't anyone taking this up in some way...

Rashmi Bansal, IIMA alumnus and editor of JAM magazine... why dont you take this up?
Gaurav Sabnis, who quit his job due to this.... why dont you take this up?
Varna, forget about it... you should be studying...

I mean I am frustrated that Rashmi Bansal is ignoring the issue and writing on Coke ads...
Gaurav Sabnis has not posted for a while (hope he is busy working out a strategy to combat IIPM's threats)...

And hats of to the great Indian media... none of the print buggers will cover this in detail coz IIPMs ad budget is some 5 crores.

So, from the looks of it... this issue will die a quick death... and that ultimately is what is good for everyone...