SunCorp

The next time you see a bright glossy hoarding on a bus stand or a billboard remember you are not just looking at a promotional campaign but a prospective environmental problem.

The reason ---- the actual life of most of these ads made from flex is practically unending. Compared to plastic, flex commercially known as vinyl, is a stretchy material, which imparts a glossy look to the matte. However, it neither decomposes naturally nor can it be recycled. “The presence of TVC makes it a tough plastic which ultimately gets dumped at landfill sites” said Laxmi Narayan from Waste Matters, a city based environmental NGO.

According to Narayan most flex advertisements end up as makeshift roofs for the rag pickers because they are tough and water resistant.

“But once the sheet begin to tear, the only option is to burn it, like all non-degradable waste”, said V.N.Munde Regional Officer, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Pune.

The MPCB is instrumental in formulating the policy for implementation of the Environmental Act, by virtue of which the person who manufactures polluting items is responsible for doing away with them.

In the city, flex posters are most sought after by advertisers because of their glossy look and economical pricing. “On an average, every printer in the city prints almost 30 to 40 of these flexi print sheets,” said Christy Hendricks a free-lance printer. The city has hundreds of people in the flex printing business.

The Municipal Corporation is not too worried as they say “Flex sheets haven’t been noticed yet on the land fill sites”. But the same thing was said about plastic bags and look what is happening.

There could definitely be an alternate for promotions, like reusable cotton bags for instance it not only creates awareness about the brand being promoted, it also gets re-used close to *500 times (*under normal usage conditions).

Just imagine the advertising potential for your product/brand as your logo/brand name gets carried everywhere instead of being in one location and the brand awareness it creates. To know more about reusable bags please write to us at info@suncorp.in or browse through http://www.flickr.com/photos/suncorp to have a look at some of our models.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-- Mahatma Gandhi, Statesman

The business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out.

Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment. He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy.

Suddenly an old man appeared before him.

"I can see that something is troubling you," he said.

After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you."

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time."

Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.

The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

"I can erase my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the uncashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the uncashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man.

"I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you.  He's always escaping from the rest home and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller."

And she led the old man away by the arm.

The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.

Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

First, we survived being born to mothers, some, whose husbands smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate whatever food was put on the table, and didn't get tested for diabetes. They were mothers who did not check their blood pressure every few minutes.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking or going out on our own. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We would share a dosa, dip a chapatti into someone else's plate of curry without batting an eyelid. We ate jam sandwiches or pickle on bread and butter, raw mangoes with salt and drank orange squash with sugar and water in it.

We ate at roadside stalls, drank water from tender coconuts, ate everything - Bhel Puri to bhajias and samosas, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day during the holidays,we were never ever bored, and we were allowed freedom all day as long as we were back when the streetlights came on, or when our parents told us to do so. No one was able to reach us all day by mobile phone or phone. And we were O.K.

We swam with an inflated tube which we got from somebody who was replacing their car tyres. We ran barefoot without thinking about it, if we got cut we used iodine on it which made us jump. We did not wash our hands ten times a day. And we were OK.

We did not have parents who said things like "what would you like for breakfast, lunch or dinner". We ate what was put in front of us and best of all, there was never any leftovers.

We fell out of trees numerous times, got cut, broke bones and teeth. We ate fruit lying on the ground that we shook down from the tree above. And we never washed fruit. We had a bath using a bucket and mug and used Lifebuoy soap. We did not know what shampoo and conditioners meant.

Yet this generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck and good fortune to grow up as kids in India in the 50's 60's and 70's.

Those were the days my friends !!