It was the battle of the best quizzing brains, with a celebrity slice to spice things up. Friday evening saw Swabhumi play host to Advertising Club’s prestigious annual quiz event, jazzed up and renamed Max Q-factor, courtesy title-sponsor SET Max, and presented in association with The Telegraph.

The posers from Soumyadip Chowdhury (banker by day, quizmaster by evening) apart, Kapil Dev and Mandira Bedi — brand ambassadors for Max — played quizmaster too, albeit only for a round each.

After rounds of elimination, the finals saw eight three-member teams — TCS, Eveready, Times of India, Radio Mirchi, Lafarge, HSBC, JWT and IMRB INT — fight it out for the top spot through eight closely-fought rounds.

The quiz kicked off with an audio clip that the teams had to guess. It turned out to be the first ever radio jingle for Coca-Cola in 1939.

Mandira was the first guest quizmaster to take the stage. She conducted round three with questions on sports, films and brandnames.

Some samplings: Lycra has a variety of uses in the textile industry, but who owns the brandname? Answer: Dupont. Another one: IMG, known for managing sports personalities, has recently signed on which movie star? Answer: South Indian actor Madhavan (who also made his small-screen debut with Mandira in Banegi Apni Baat).

Each time the teams answered her right, Mandira added a “Congratulations, well done” and when they were stumped, she wished she could give out more hints.

Kapil, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about what was written on the cue card in hand. In his inimitable style, he rephrased almost every question, sometimes leaving the teams slightly confused. But, the audience loved every moment the jawab nahin man spent on stage.

The all-rounder was introduced to the teams and the audience with the anecdote of the evening affair. “I asked a journalist friend about the significance of Kapil’s 434 wickets, who replied, ‘simply try counting from 1 to 434 in one breath and you’ll understand,’” said quizmaster Soumyadip.

Kapil admitted that he was never a quizzer in school, and he’d rather be asking the questions than be the one answering them. “Life takes such strange turns,” he quipped , “I started out playing football, had a career in cricket, and now I’m a quizmaster.”

Some of Kapil’s outswingers — In the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England, which two countries would attain full-member status (A: Kenya and USA); Who said “When I’m asked why I don’t retire, I answer that I get to play golf with Tiger Woods, tennis with Monica Seles and even go to Paul McCartney’s wedding, then why retire?” (A: IMG head Mark McCormack).

Throughout the quiz, JWT and TCS ran head-to-head, with occasional challenges from Lafarge and Eveready. But it was some brilliant answers from TCS that saw them home, with the final scores reading TCS 125, JWT 100 and Eveready 85.

The winners collected their prizes from Kapil and Mandira, who sat through the entire proceedings.

Hardly any questions returned unanswered to the quizmaster. If the teams failed, there was a very informed audience that had the replies ready.

There were prizes galore for the audience, including T-shirts and chocolates.

But nothing could beat sharing the space with Kapil and Mandira.

On the ball, with Becks

The action kicks off on June 12, but the carrier is already having a ball in Calcutta.

The clash of the European titans in Portugal is already turning out to be one of the biggest football events — as far as on-ground promotions go — for the far-off fan.

ESPN Star Sports (ESS), the channel exclusively beaming Euro 2004 in the Indian subcontinent, has pumped in around Rs 1.6 crore in promotions for Euro 2004. “It’s simply our biggest promotion spend as far as soccer is concerned,” says Himangshu Verma, associate director, corporate communications, ESS.

And Calcutta, the country’s soccer capital, is the clear leader on the Euro 2004 campaign trail with around 30 per cent of the budget being spent here.

“The maximum visibility is in Calcutta,” announces Verma. “For instance, in Mumbai, outdoor advertising has not been done, but Calcutta has everything. The city after all got a television rating of 50.2 during the last football World Cup, compared to a peak rating of 15 to 16 that some of the top television programmes get.”

ESS has not only splashed giant ads at eight key locations across the city and gobbled up space in print, but also utilised some of the unique advertising avenues the city offers — the tram and the Metro. “The slow-moving tram covers a large area of the city and serves as an ideal ad vehicle,” feels Verma.

So, you have a Raul, a Figo, a Zidane and, of course, a Beckham staring at you from the sides of tram number 702 on Rajabazar route or 252 on Park Circus route, among the 10 that carry the stars on their trundling trek. In case of the Metro Railway, train number B2 will run the ads on its outer panels right through June.

“I think it’s our duty to promote sports and not just telecast them,” offers Verma.

More promo activities include tie-up with pubs and “hangout places” (around 80 throughout the country) to target the young crowd, and some cinemas. If Winning Streak, Cloud 9, Big Ben and Stadel make up the ESS pub list around town, Globe, Priya and New Empire are the soccer cinemas.

Calcutta would also have a little more to do with Euro 2004 than just hosting the brandwagon. Local hero Bhaichung Bhutia is flying down to Singapore to be part of the team of analysts offering insights before, during and after the matches that matter.

Batsman to Spiderman: Mandira spins an extraa web

After the batsmen, it’s time for her to weave a spell over Spiderman. Mandira Bedi is travelling to Los Angeles soon. Not to chat up a cricketer or add something extraa to a filmi show, but to interview Tobey SpiderMan Maguire.

Our ma’m Mandy is all excited about meeting sir Tobey to promote SpiderMan 2, soon to hit headlines and halls. Only visa trouble can keep her from the webbed one.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hope everything falls into place,” muses Mandira.

So do Tobey and we!