End of the competition

After the brief check, Navruz continued with the same confidence that he had before, "There will be people rushing down the streets en masse, the cuts will be brief, most of the time ending with double or triple drums as the soundtrack." While talking, Navruz could see a spark of realization in the eyes of few audience members.

"Some of you probably guessed already that this a campy style of filming. Making the subjects perceive the reality they were thrust in seriously, while also appearing to the viewers in a comical light. This is where the comedians step in. When the viewers see the familiar comedians appear in some of the reiterative episodes of the ad, they will finally be able to understand the campiness of the ad, which might have actually seemed very serious at the beginning."

Now, they had their bit of curiosity satisfied as they could themselves piece the puzzle. The connection that Navruz demonstrated indeed appeared meaningful and impactful. People watching something campy might not immediately understand that it is campy, but when there are popular comedians thrown into the mix, then the viewer can definitely get the context.

But why was it important to film an ad in a campy style rather than just epic? Well, epic sure is cool, but it is not re-watchable, especially if it is an ad. Campy, on the other hand, is more entertaining and evergreen as the sense of novelty doesn't wear off as quickly, and the element of stickiness is higher due to it being something humorous which can be discussed with friends, or be subconsciously reminded about. Ask anyone who has seen movies by Leslie Nielson whether they were once in a while suddenly reminded about some hilarious scenes from "Airplane!" or "Naked Gun" series, and whether they let one or two laughs after that. They will always answer positively.

That kind of stickiness is very important for marketing, and of course, for ads in general. The judges and some of the in-the-know dudes and dudies could already estimate the effectiveness of Navruz' approach. They had actually seen ads from different countries that bore a resemblance to what Navruz had described, but they also knew that this kind of thing had never been done in the Uzbekistan itself. So, in a sense, it was uncharted waters.

"There are two key factors in my ad. One is to make the audience feel, on the first viewing, that they are watching a summer blockbuster trailer, right until an episode with a comedian where he will say a funny one-liner. That is where they will realize that this is something campy. The second is to put a campy but still epic slogan close to the end, which then will be followed by the cool visuals of the advertised product in action."

When Navruz mentioned those two points, one of the judges thought to himself that the first point would make the viewers aware of the ad and the product, while second on would make them have a strong association with the product and then the brand. It didn't matter whether that slogan was cringeworthy or silly, as there were many examples of ads being successful even with braindead slogans. What really mattered was the short-term impact on sales and the long-term impact on the brand.

Max, who had warmed his seat enough to slowly cook scrambled eggs on it, had to admit that he would stop whatever he was doing and watch such a novel ad till the end. And that kind of thought came from a guy who actually abhorred TV commercials, at least the Uzbek ones because they were truly bland and unimaginative. The Navruz' idea worked on him due to it having foreign elements. Now, Max was actually looking forward to seeing his friend's work on national TV, which wouldn't probably be really shown as even if he won the first rookie round, he would still most likely lose the important second one.

And yep, Navruz indeed did win this competition as announced by the main judge. Truthfully, after Navruz' performance, none in the audience had doubt about the winner, even though there were still five or so people to go, yet even those five or so people didn't have doubts either. Poor fellas.

After being congratulated by the emcee, Navruz thought that he would be interviewed by some of the reporters, but nope, they just quickly took photos and immediately disappeared in the Looney Tunes fashion. Navruz was secretly glad though, as he wanted to stay low key in the presence of strangers, even if they were reporters.

While Navruz stood there on the scene receiving some praises, the curator of the event came up to him and briefed him about the details of the upcoming tender interview. He said that the second round would be held from January 13 to January 15. He also said that Navruz could book an interview by 18:00 tomorrow at the latest. And with that, he also did the Looney Tunes teleportation trick, but towards the technical area this time.

After doing all the formalities, Navruz relieved the others of his presence along with Max. Exiting the venue, he wanted to straddle up an imaginary horse and gallop somewhere beyond, just like that royal bloke from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", and Max being his trusted confidante, also strode together with him while producing that "Tok-Tok" noise of horse hooves by mimicking it with coconut shells.

It was a splendid experience indeed. Navruz felt like he returned to the golden times of highschool, when he was the centre of the Universe, well.... at least, it was so in his very objective opinion which by its very nature couldn't be anything but subjective. Very contradictory indeed, but hey, if you don't say something contradictory, it wouldn't sound smart, would it? What will become of lazy novel narrative that uses contradictory descriptions like "Fragile and Firm; Soft and Hard; Merciless yet Generous" and so on and so forth? The most meta is Yin-Yang and also countering hardness with softness and vice versa, yet it doesn't make sense, does it?

The two lovely dudes decided to do a mini-celebration with, you guessed it, the Czech. Although it wasn't summer when beer was at its most refreshing, to the Czech there was no boundary of time and space as it was relevant at any given moment and place. This time, the treat was... still on Max. The fact that Navruz won a competition didn't change the other fact that he was still a poor bloke with "Hoover flag".

On the way to home and at home itself, they never stopped discussing the second round of tender. Although they both incessantly talked about strategies and plans, they were familiar enough with each other to know that none of them felt optimistic about the prospects of winning the round. Yet, they also knew that they shouldn't succumb to the defeatist mentality, and so they didn't. They thought that with their current level of thinking the realistic chances are slim, and so, they had to think outside the box.

Maxim was, in fact, a young promising man who was slowly gaining business acumen under the mentoring of his dad Avraam. Navruz did know that his friend hailed from a well-off family, or else he wouldn't be able to afford a keg of Czech every time he visited our dude, but what he didn't know was that Max was from a really wealthy family, at least by Uzbekistan standards. All that wealth came from Avraam Herzen who, along with his cousin Islam Barotov who successfully settled in US, ran a trading company that exploited income discrepancy between the two countries and the overall state of corruption that was prevalent in Uzbekistan. It was fair to say that it was a shady company, but it was still a big profitable company nonetheless.

But what the two dudes' discussion had to with this "seamless" infodump? While Navruz mastered to some extent the art of filming, and he was good at moving people with his speech, what he lacked was exactly that growing business acumen of Max. They both decided to think outside the box, and so they had to rely on each other to come up with a viable strategy, well.... all while slurping on that tasty beer indeed. It wouldn't be a hindrance to brainstorming, would it?

At some point of their discussion Max had to again stop Navruz from going into helicopter mode with his flying hands, "Listen, that electronics company would keep this charade, and then still choose the agency that they are most familiar with. The company knows it, and the agencies know it as well. Do you think they will put in a lot of effort?" Max looked in the eyes of his friend to elicit some response, but then decided to continue with his point regardless, "They might show some professional flare, but to be realistic, they are just waiting for the people who could really decide, to do the "Eenie Meenie", and that's it." Max was leaning forward the whole time, but after he had spoken the last words, he just resignedly plumped on the back of his chair.

Navruz was slowly able to realize that where his friend was heading with the rant of his, wasn't necessarily towards a pessimistic conclusion. It was quite the opposite. All these was a setup for Max to reveal his plan, "I think we need to strike with sincerity. Do you know of the saying 'Give an inch and they'll take a mile'?" Seeing his friend nod positively, Max continued on, "What we need to do is actually 'Go for a mile to get an inch'" Only Navruz wanted to nod again, but his subtle motion came to an abrupt halt as countless questions popped up in his head.

Go for a mile to get an inch?

A mile for inch to get?

Inch a mile get to?

To mile get inch?

Milinch?

It quickly spiraled into something incomprehensible in his imaginative head