Life in 2020: Industry folks share some funny moments from the year gone by that helped them look at the lighter side of life

• 2020 has thrown a lot of curveballs at us and work from home has destroyed our work-life balance and affected our mental health. At the same time, it has brought us closer to our family members and colleagues.
• We have all had unusual and funny one-time experiences during this house arrest.
• We reached out to creative experts of the advertising industry to find out if they have had any funny incidents during their work-from-home period.
• So, scroll through if you need a good laugh.

It was during an interview with a fitness brand that the newest member of my family, Coco, my cat, found an unusual object. She started snarling at it, touched it with her little paws and started jumping. She panicked and wouldn’t stop jumping from one room to another. She spilled my coffee and it was all for a tiny, little ball I bought for her the day before. Luckily, it wasn’t a video interview. I did go blank for a while and finally excused myself for 10 minutes to calm my cat down. The interviewee was quite patient and understanding and that credit goes to 2020 and the continuous curveballs it has thrown at us. It was while working-from-home during an interview that my cat saw a ball for the first time and almost gave me an anxiety attack. But now, when I look back at it, I can’t help but laugh.

Year 2020 has also pushed us all to learn more and don new skills. In a short span of time, we have become professional housekeepers, chefs, fitness freaks and the list goes on. While we were miles away from each other, technology kept us together and entertained us. It also gave us funny experiences over Zoom calls that we would cherish for life. There was always this one colleague who would forget to keep their mic on mute, one who lives in a poor network area or one who is soft-spoken and always unmutes to ask, “Am I audible now?” (Guilty. I am that colleague)

Talking to each other from our living rooms, cute pets and kids interrupting serious discussions around new campaign ideas or revenue goals, has brought us all closer. It was these little laughs that kept us going, reminded us that there will be a better tomorrow, taught us to value the little things in our everyday lives. When we all go back to office, we would have a lot more to talk about and laugh at than before.

So, we decided to speak to creative folks of the advertising industry to find out if they had any unusual, funny incidents to share with us and they did not disappoint.

Here is proof that 2020 was unusual but also had an upside side:

Rajdeepak Das, Managing Director - India & Chief Creative Officer – South Asia, Leo Burnett:

When I think of the most memorable moments – what stands out for me is not one moment, rather one campaign that we were working on. While I can’t share the name of the brand, there was one brief that we worked on for 4 months...no exaggerations. What we were trying to capture in this campaign was the current sentiments of the nation and every time we thought we cracked the idea, suddenly the mood would change - we went from fear to hope to fear back to positivity to uncertainty to happiness. And for four months without fail every week we would be in a new briefing session!

Another incident that stands out in my mind. I was talking to one of my friends who is a CEO of one of the top companies of India. And we were in the middle of an intense discussion when suddenly he goes – Raj I am sorry but I have to call you back. I was a bit taken aback and I asked, all okay? – and he says No. I have to leave.. I asked again ‘all ok my friend’ to which he said “Actually I put Harpic in the bathroom and I have to clean it in 20 mins”.

One of the many things this pandemic has taught us...not only does sh*t happen, you have to clean it also!

Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group:

"Before the lockdown, I had piled on quite a few kilos. I could almost hear my weighing scale groan. But during the lockdown I was able to strip back on quite a few of those kilos. Nope, I didn’t go Rocky Balboa at the end of each day nor was I Jane Fonda-ing my way through zoom calls. I just started cooking. And before you guess again; it has nothing to do with how healthy my cooking was. This is about how terrible my cooking is. From someone who had watched probably every cooking show on earth, I couldn’t believe how bad I was. So my wonderfully awful culinary skills turned out to be an incredible diet plan. If the lockdown hadn’t ended when it did and my cook hadn’t returned, I would be in Maldives right now showing off my six-pack."

Deep Chhabria, Creative Director, BBH India:

"We were in the middle of an intense pre-pitch review. Imagine, T-2 hours. And I was irritating my sister sitting next to me by shouting monumentally dumb things and making random noises like a lunatic. And suddenly, I heard my boss say 'Deep, Deep, please'. And that's when I realized that the biggest horror of my life had come true. My mic had automatically unmuted itself. Now, no one takes me seriously at work, my sister laughs at me all the time, and I live in constant fear of my mic unmuting. I check it like it's the gas or geyser before leaving my house. Also, not looking forward to going back to office, now that I know everyone's discovered who I really am."

Srikanth Kanchinadham, Senior Copywriter, Wunderman Thompson, Mumbai:

Working from home has its perks. But it also comes with a series of unseen responsibilities. Like when I started staying at my parents’ place during the lockdown, we all embraced the situation together. But little did I know that missing out on one day’s playtime with my dog could send me through a spiral of guilt-trip.

One evening when I was in the middle of making a presentation for a pitch meeting, I couldn’t squeeze some time out to play with him, and Django my dog just looked at me with the most adorable eyes. That’s when I realized that it’s these little moments of innocence that remind you that working from home is equal doses of endearing beauty and uncompromising stress. And it takes a year like 2020 to remind you of how to live with both, with a smile on your face.

Geethalaxmi Rajasekar, Manager, Brand Strategy, Gozoop:

Fun story!? Are we not running with "trauma", the official theme of 2020 anymore?

That's not a great start to this. Just like 2020. Okay, no more 2020 depreciation. I'm still mad at it though.

Damn, it's already December. That's 9 months of WORKING FROM HOME. I mean I've worked from home more than in the office. Starting your day with 'hey, can you hear me now, this is the closest I can keep the mic' to ranting about the never-ending pandemic over brainstorming calls to crying about missing pani puri to virtually sitting on the designer's head to get the KV right a night before the pitch. It's been wild.

I was never a fan of WFH. It never made sense to me. So, when it was the only way to continue doing business, I was quite bummed. But, not having to shower before a meeting or taking a power nap with your pet; the little perks in between made it not so bad. It's not one incident that made this period which feels like an era memorable. It's really a series of those inadvertently funny and mental moments that I cannot wait to bring up and laugh at when I meet my team in person and smother them to death.

PS - Wishing y'all a better 2021 and significantly fewer backaches.