No, you’re not visiting with Alice or the Queen.

(Unless you’d like to play pretend and skip work for the day. We are all for silliness. After all, it shows that you have a spark of imagination in you.)

Coming back to that cup of tea. Why did we start there?

Because our agency was started by two women who believe that tea-time is sacrosanct, that the world can do with more butter biscuits and less plastic, that landlines should make a comeback, and holidays should last at least a week.

Our agency was started in the spirit of keeping playfulness alive. And doing some advertising work along the way. It was started with the intent of being honest about what we are selling, and being responsible for the stories we are weaving. It was started with a good heart, a sharp mind and a kettle whistling away in a corner.

We never shy away from saying no. Except when we are offered extra buttery, crumbly biscuits. And we are proud of letting the world know that we have a life beyond work. One of our partners makes pickles that put your granny to shame. And the other…is figuring it out by toying with new experiments every week (Geminis, we tell you!).

So, what’s the point of this article again (besides letting you know how much we love tea)?

We’re giving you a heads-up that this blog here is where we’ll be penning down our random musings, brilliant brainwaves, odd sightings (UFO alert!), thoughts on the industry and ideas on how we think advertising is and should be. We’ll be writing about all those things we are not allowed to write elsewhere (let’s see who can reject our ideas or kick us out of here! Ha!).

Stay tuned in. And we’ll come back with more soon.

But first, tea.

This question, posed to any Opposable Thumbs employee, inevitably leads to perplexed conversations that end up in an “Aha!” moment.

Not to make a statement, but because we truly don’t see the need for them anymore.

In this day and age, where WhatsApp and emails are the modus operandi of introductions, does one really need a card?

You’ve met someone for the first time. You’ve exchanged basic pleasantries, discussed the weather, sipped some tea, and then asked for their number or email ID. Addresses are exchanged via location pins. Once those numbers are inputted and the email dashed off, do you know where those cards go? Poof! They seem to vanish into thin air!

You may ask, “But how will that other person know what your designation is?”

They can find it in my email signature. Or they would have known it already before meeting me or speaking to me.

But my card is eco-friendly, you say. It even sprouts flowers when it ends up in a vast garbage dump.

Well done! We have no arguments with you. But the fact remains that the business card is a vestigial organ in the body of brand identity. Its purpose is not to sprout flowers. And by the very logic of what you’ve done, you expect it to be dumped.

At Opposable Thumbs, we truly believe in living decluttered lives. We are offered business cards on a regular basis, but we reject them (for reasons stated in this article). We politely make note of the details, and return the card with great respect to the owner.

We bring this approach to our work too. When brands engage us to work on their stationery, we ask them, “Do you really need a card?” And, honestly, no one has a specific answer anymore. They mumble things like, “Our sales team needs to give them out”, or, “Our CEO will meet high flying people…he’ll need one for sure”. But when we break down the logic to them, it does not lead to a concrete reason.

We grew up with cards being exchanged as icebreakers. But we must accept that it is just a ritual. And if we treat it as one, we can all reduce waste (flower-sprouting kind or not), declutter our lives, and spend time on more productive creative pursuits.

Can I have your card, please?

The other day, we were having a serious organizational-level debate. Should we declare Dec 16th an official holiday for Opposable Thumbs? You see, (for the unenlightened) it is the birthday of Park Seo Joon, the heartthrob of millions, the God of swooning teens (and not-so-teens), the 

 of all the stars in the Korean constellation (words don’t do justice to his awesomeness). The debate raged on into the wee hours of the morning, as we played his shows on loop. 


Who’d declare a holiday for this! It’s just an Optional Holiday for the fans. 

As you can guess, the Korean bug has bitten us. We get severely judged, but that doesn’t deter us. Besides the eye candy, there is something sublimely compelling about their plotlines that you willingly devote 16 hours of your life to their shows.

Put aside your prejudice and hear us out for a second. We could dissect their shows genre-wise but in the interest of brevity, we’ll spare you (for now).

In today’s content universe, love is eclipsed by lust, and love stories verge on the banal. It is true that if you’ve watched enough Korean drama, you can sense a formula there (boy gives girl a piggyback ride, boy ties girl’s shoelaces, boy exhibits cute jealousy – if we are being objective, we need to list these out here), but their stories are so sweet that we crave for that innocence we lost somewhere along our teen years (when we sold our M&Bs to the kabadiwaalah). You feel warm and fuzzy, cocooned in a candy floss pink of nostalgia.

Their society is so similar to ours that we can’t help but relate to the trials and tribulations of their protagonists. Teenagers are forced to attend oppressive tutorials, the obsession with the need to score well in math and science, go through the angst of class and society, unrequited love, coming-of-age friendships, and all the strain of unbearable parental pressure. Large corporates are corrupt and plagued with nepotism (sounds familiar?). To all outward appearances they are a fashionable, modern, progressive country. But scratch the surface and we see a life we’re all familiar with mirrored in theirs.

But here’s where the differences kick in.

While we went down the gritty, grimy, lusty, realism way (nothing wrong with that), Korean stories use these simple realities and paint them into unique storylines that twist and turn and keep you on the very edge of your seat – whether it is a cute romance, or a vampire mystery set in a dystopian future.

We are not saying one is better than the other.

But if you believe that fiction is about escapism, you will fall in love with Korean drama. It is fiction with just the right amount of believability. After watching any romance, you will genuinely feel that you could be friends with that boy-next-door in the show.

P.S.: If you want recommendations to get started on your K-drama journey, leave us a message.

P.P.S.: We can also tell you the ones where the subtitles are not on-point.