Industry Got Talent
How I got into Funny Business
Shobha Prasad says that the daily chaos and unpredictability can be super stressful and make you feel out of control. There is only one really good way to cope: laugh!
Anybody who has spent any length of time as a marketing research professional will know that it takes a real sense of humor to get through this life. The daily chaos and unpredictability can be super stressful and make you feel out of control. There is only one really good way to cope: laugh.
I have always counted on a sense of humor to be my personal survival skill. It has stopped me from taking myself or my environment too seriously, helped me see the game that this really is.
Then one fine morning, as they say, I felt this urge to “cartoonise” all the things I found funny and share it with friends.
Cartooning was a hobby through my teen years, now sadly neglected. It needed paper, the right pencils, inking tools, planning, erasing, and then what would I do with my toons anyway? My laziness far outweighed my passion, and I allowed this skill to rust. But the beauty of the times we live in is that everything is so much easier. Drawing apps are amazing tools for people like me. You can erase and redo with ease, practice and hone your skills, and then upload and share on social media. I picked up my iPad, downloaded a drawing app, and started my first cartoon.
It was like a dam burst, and I found myself cartooning on a wide range of themes. Family figured largely. Two loony owls aspiring to be stand-up comedians perched on a branch and offered a relentless stream of the most awful puns one could ever inflict on an unsuspecting audience.
But a surprisingly large number of cartoons was based on my work. I found I had a lot to say on quirky
consumers, on wild decision making, on marketers and their demands, and on the chaotic world of consumer
research.
Making and uploading these cartoons changed my outlook in a subtle but fundamental way. I found my days were
lighter, I did not stress as much, and my perspective became more positive. Through the COVID years, I cartooned
on our strange and dystopic Lockdown Life which proved a great coping strategy.
I sent my toons to ESOMAR Research World and soon I had a column going with the name “Shobservatory” and it became a thing, with a logo. I posted them on LinkedIn and found resonance with the fraternity – which is the most gratifying feeling of all!
The book was really a logical next step. This book is a collation of cartoons created over three years, loosely
drawn into themes: on consumers, on decision making, on the growing and menacing role of AI and technology, and
on work life in general. I hope it offers up insight served with a smile.
The purpose of the book is to share what I gain from making these cartoons: lighten up, laugh more at our
foibles, failings, quirkiness and general shenanigans of all the players around us, and keep the smile intact.
This journey has been fulfilling in more ways than I can count. I do have plans for another book – this time not a cartoon collation but certainly humor and cartoon based, as that is my personal narrative style.
Shobha Prasad has over three decades in research and advertising and is a Founder-Director of Drshti, a full-service marketing research agency based out of Mumbai, India. Shobha has presented many papers at the ESOMAR and MRSI conferences known to be thought provoking and often disruptive- several have won awards including the Peter Cooper Award for Qualitative Excellence, Best Paper, Research Effectiveness Bronze and more.
She is also a cartoonist under the name “SHOBSERVATORY” and is the author of Funny Business: Consumer, Corporates and other Cartoons.
Get your copy today. The book is available for purchase on Amazon.