Every other day there's a new brand, a new product, or a new star, vying for our attention. Marketers try to come up with new catch-phrases, 'revolutionary' ideas and campaigns to stand out from the crowd, but continue to add to the clutter. While everyone is trying to the best, there are a handful of geniuses who believe in creating something so bad, that it's good. And there you have it, the genesis of 'Very Good Bad'.
It must suck to be Vennu Mallesh. Or so we think. If you don't know who Vennu is, I seriously don't know which planet you are living in. If you still don't know, Vennu Mallesh is the genius behind probably the greatest song ever composed about life, 'It's my life what ever I wanna do.' Vennu became an overnight sensation with his profound video crossing over 3 million views on YouTube. You've really seen nothing until you see this:
Shot in the same style as Dhanush's 'Why this Kolaveri Di', this song changed the lives of millions of people all over the world, with its heartfelt lyics such as 'I always search good in bad...I also search bad in good' having a much deeper meaning than 90% of song lyrics these days.
On the surface of it all, there are about a 1435672 grammatical errors, sentence formation errors and spelling mistakes. Above all, the song doesn't make any sense. But wait, neither did 2001: A Space Odyssey or any of David Lynch's movies. However, both of the aforementioned works have a very niche audience who appreciate experimental and symbolic film-making. The rest never gave a fuck. So how exactly did Vennu manage to go viral and get the entire world to sing his song?
Yeah. That happened.
To explain the Vennu phenomenon, you must understand the concept of marketing and the 'culture code'. The concept of a 'culture code' was devised by Clotaire Rapaille, one of the world's most renowned marketing specialists. He is known for advising the world's biggest politicians, advertisers and brands on how to influence people's unconscious decision making.
Rapaille, based on his highly secret methods of consumer research, comes up with a 'code', maybe a word or set of words that have the power to subconsciously influence people's decisions. Instead of asking what people want, he focuses on the why. He identifies a 'collective cultural unconscious' that consists of unstated needs and wants of people in a certain culture, and provides the code that will sub-consciously force the consumer to desire and want the particular product or service that the code is meant for.
Trying to follow Rapaille's footsteps, most advertisers and marketers have fallen flat on their faces with dismal failures. However, there are a very few set of people who have been successful. Vennu Mallesh is one of them. Hell, he's probably the most successful of them all.
While Rapaille comes up with one 'code word' in order to lure potential consumers, Vennu's sensational single has code words in almost every sentence of the lyrics. What might appear as ridiculous is sub-consciously striking a chord with our Reptilian Brain, the home of all of our intrinsic instincts. Take the following excerpt of the lyrics for example:
'My teacher scolds me that I neglect education,
She don't know I collect real education.'
Each and every one of us has always felt like 'another brick in the wall' because of high school education, or even college for that instance. The society, including our teachers, relatives and above all our own parents for that matter continue to drill it into our system that a traditional education is mandatory to be successful. But how does that explain the fact that most successful people are school dropouts? Vennu says it as it is, with pathetic yet honest choice of words. But that's exactly the point, the poor English is another sub-conscious effort to attack your Reptilian Brain. And admit it, it's worked like a charm. Every. Single. Word.
Or sample the penultimate verse, with profoundness in every single word:
I always search Good in Bad...
I also search Bad in Good.....
I also search Bad in Good.....
I have no words. How can two simple sentences with incorrect English have so much depth in them?
Much like his legendary predecessors such as Sam Anderson and T.Rajendar, Vennu is often misjudged and mistaken to be retarded. But go through his Facebook posts, and you'll know that he's a highly intelligent, culturally aware, no-nonsense individual with influences deeply rooted in pop culture.
Do the words seem familiar? They're a rehashed version of the tagline of 'Social Network'.
If this man writes his own copy, Ogilvy should hire him like right now. And it's an honor to know that he is inspired by one of the greatest TV shows ever made, Breaking Bad. Or should I say, #BreakingGoodBad.
And the world goes crazy:
Sometimes, it is difficult to explain these intangible forces that surround us, influencing us every now and then without us even knowing that the forces exist. We might make fun of Vennu, call him an inbred or a retard, a mutation, but we're the ones getting fooled. It's like he's The Dark Knight, inflicting pain upon himself, sacrificing everything for the sake of a greater good. You can love him, you can hate him, but you can never ignore him.
I believe Steve Jobs said the following words just to describe Vennu Mallesh:
"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
PS: Don't believe me. I'm a true liar.
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