Fools pay for ads...

Fools pay for advertisement, brand promotions etc; wise men partner with the government. Do not tell me you do not know this already. If you really do not know this adage you are naive and have not been around and done this.
The longest known case is that of one professor Arora whose business I presume was something akin to the marraige portals currently very popular in India. No no I am joking, he was an old world marriage fixer. There was a time in not so distant future when the all the railway boundary walls beyond the tracks in large swathe of area from Aligarh to Mughalsarai were marked "Rishte hi Rishte: Mil to Ley - Professor Arora (tel number).." [Lots and lots of proposals, just meet prof arora].
I have a feeling that these ads are still there are they continue to get brisk business for Prof Arora or is sons and all that the old man spends on them are on the cheap paint and cheap painter.....
Nearer home, one gentleman is doing brisk business by painting the walls with "Beanbags" I assume he is paying to the owners of those walls..... {do you think he is?}
What can our political leaders say? Most of them who grew up through the ranks have some experience of soiling their hands and other people's walls {free of cost} during every large and small elections.
When the walls started getting crowded or when building owners started demanding money there was a subtle shift and upwardly movement. If you are in Delhi look up the electricity posts {Delhi is the only metro in India where most of the supply wires are overhead and hence there is not dearth of electricity posts}. hanging from three quarters from the top would be a thick mass of plastic ropes, literally hundreds of them in each post, like orchids on a large tree.... You will wonder what are these? Let me tell u they represent a perpetual fight between MCD officials and those who think it is there right to advertise their chaddis, banians and hawai chappals and speacial sales free of cost on government property. These are threads with which self made ad gurus tie banners on posts across major roads in Delhi. What you see is MSD's relentless attempt to cut off the banners and leave the plastic strips behind.... It is like fighting parthenium in your neighbourhood, more you cut more they grow.
Now I think they have become stricter and our ad gurus have moved to greener pastures... Opportunity was created in Delhi in the 1980s with terrorism looming large and elsewhere in the 1990s when terrorism caught up with other cities {Delhi has always been a flagbearer!!!}.
What is the link between terrorism and free ads? None you would say. That would only show how little you know about the ad world....
With the proliferation of terrorism Delhi and other major cities went for red alerts and checks on roads... nakaband! This required large number of movable iron barricades... Here was a great opportunity for free advertisement.... Police being a state subject they are always short on money even in Delhi... so up came the enterpriseing ad man and pinted all the barricades with various things from hawai chappals to silk sarees [Police Check, Stop! was perfunctorily added to the top part of these barricades]. Over time, we had such interesting spaces as Police Station hordings for up for sale. The cost of occupying these prime outdoor spots??? Next to none, you just paid for the barricade.. or the temporary road divider...
Over the years these, what I call public service ads, have come to proliferate Housing societies [Alankar Jewellers Palm Court Housing Society]; Society Gates [ICICI Lombard, no vendors inside] and so on.
And there you are still paying large amounts of money to get your brand a place under the sun....