500 copies taken up – place your orders now!

The new book by MARKETING magazine publisher Harmandar Singh is a limited edition print.

Pre-orders have been encouraging and readers are advised to book their copy of probably the only paperback “book” on the Malaysian advertising industry.

Prices @RM37.50, there are no SST charges. Proceeds to MERCY Malaysia and towards a forthcoming BM edition. Price does not include delivery.

Pre-order now from [email protected] today.

Here’s a preview of the table of contents…..

TALES FROM THE PAST:

1. How I gatecrashed my way into advertising.
   Important Note: always use the front door.

5. How to be creative.
   Creativity is the natural prerogative of every living being.

7. The day Jude Mohan paid my bill and I sought justice.
   Times when ad folk had fun!

13. The first Sikh advertising icon in Malaysia.
    And the rest of the tribe followed…

19. A great friend. A great human being. A great soul.
    World mourned passing of a Malaysian advertising legend.

25. My tribute to the late Michael De Kretser’s book.
    What is a review of someone else’s book doing in my book, you say?  

29. . The man who made Yasmin Ahmad
    Creativity flourishes when good creative people are left alone.

33. . Learning to let go.
    The day I gave everything away.

37. Cannes UnCanned.
    Every person should attend Cannes Lions once in their life.  

51. The long lunch.
    This chapter is actually an ad for a restaurant that doesn’t know it.

TALES FROM COVID:

57. The Great Return?
    What’s next in a world that wants tomorrow today.

61. Addicted to MCO.
    Being lazy is the new normal, and slow marketing the new mantra.

65.  Tales of the sunken sofa.
    Connected TV advertising never had it so good.

69. The gentleman’s ride has arrived.
    Recycling my life in a case of reliving misguided youth.

73. A day in the life of Ham…
    “Never Better” is my reply to “How are you?”

TALES FROM OBSERVING:

79. Fixed.
    Years before I discovered real beer. 

83. The new Normal.
    How research kills conventional wisdom.

89. Ad people can survive anything.
    They remain tough however good or bad the going.

93. Death by client.
    Number crunchers are running riot in an industry they know nothing about.

111. Holystic marketing off target?
     God is not a client.

115. Never reveal your age.
     Can I advise you something?

119. 119. What marketers actually sell.
     Life, like marketing, needs a script.

TALES FROM ADVERTISING:

121. You in advertising, ah?
     Guilty as charged…

129. Why does advertising exist?
     Because when advertising works, jobs stay.

133. Falsehoods about advertising.
     Assumptions I have been fighting all my life.

143. A day in the life of a Copywriter.
     Count the nights too.

153. The ups and downs of new business pitches.
     Advertising is probably the toughest business in the world to run.

163. The art of presenting advertising ideas.
     How to sell like hell! 

169. New lessons in marketing based on old truths.
     Shooting straight on advertising.

177. Is advertising abusing the power of the asterisk?
     In the hands of a skilled copywriter, cows have jumped over the moon.

TALES FROM THE DIGIVERSE:

181. How well do you know millennials?
     Millennials are those born between 1980 and 1996.

185. Facebook to monitor India elections?
     A tongue-in-cheek perspective at how aimless and suspicious everything can get.

191. Fraud is more insulting than a four-letter word.
     Marketers fear ad spending with the menace of digital ad fraud.

209. YouTube has come between me and God.
     A marketer’s prayers answered as the holy grail of advertising takes on new meaning.

213. Malaysiakini in crosshairs of judiciary amid online comments crossfire.
     I showed up for the legal proceedings against Malaysiakini and its editor-in-chief Steven Gan at the Federal Court…

TALES FROM THE GRAVY TRAIN:

223. Losses from 1MDB can buy us 30 islands the size of Penang.
     An advertising man has done the numbers.

227. Will the truth set Ivan Omar free?
     No government-linked advertising pitch has been spared the food chain that chains it.

231. I am bored, lazy and fat.
     Don’t tell my endocrinologist.

235. A little bird told me…
     The red-naped trogon lives in Malaysia’s subtropical forests.

239. What about the illegal outdoor sites?
     Stuffed pockets redraw the lines for world’s last mass media.

243. Shooting in the dark explains mediocre advertising.
     Almost 80% of the ads we see are pedestrian and derivative…

TALES FROM NOWHERE:

253. Dedicated to TalentCorp and the creative economy.
     The Brain Drain train heads out of the land of multi-cultural diversity.

265. What do you think?
     Marketing in a world that overthinks.

271. The Copywriter test.
     What happens when you catch a copywriter off guard?

275. Getting older.
     The art of growing shy gracefully.

282. A son every mother will be proud of.
     When the reality of life’s struggles hit you head on.

283. Making Rain.
     There is never a perfect moment to shine.