Rediffmail

In a nutshell: Geek comes across studs harassing girl. Geek tries to intervene, and is rebuffed. Geek logs on to Rediffmail for some reason (clearly the thing to do in times of stress — log on to the Internet) and, um, sends out email. Assuming Geek has contacted a LOT of people very, very quickly, a few thousand turn up to teach studs a lesson. Studs have, conveniently, refused to move to another location.

Why it sucks: Where does one start? With the crappy storyline? You can almost picture the kind of person who would come up with something so stupid — some B-school grad from Jharkhand, desperate to show how savvy he is among contemporaries in the big city. Even bad Hindi films — and there are five out each week — have better sub-plots. Then there's the tacky filmmaking, which makes a very bad idea look magically worse. Why the need to spoon-feed an audience that can grasp things by allusion? Why the childish David-Goliath scenario? And what about practicality? Last time I checked, there were just two non-celebs canvassing votes for ridiculous causes at rediff. I've sent not EK, but DO rediffmail. A few thousand supporters for this blog ought to arrive outside my window any minute....

Possible solution: Is this about promoting a product, or showing how a site is trying to address society's larger needs? Either way, the ad fails to convey what it's supposed to. What about changing the situation from something as inane as eve-teasing to something a little more believable, like an online campaign to knock off an ugly hoarding, or to make sure the number of streetlights are increased. Then, the light can illuminate an otherwise dark room. Message across. Rediffmail bhejke dekho. Until then, this one's a joke. Fire the copywriter.