Why do we do ads like these? Hint: Don't ask twice.

Recipe: Take a semi-successful ad. Let it go out of people's long term memory. Take a new product. Make a spoof ad for this product based on the ad that everybody has forgotten. Hope that people will make the connection. Serve with a smile. (after all, aren't the consumers keenly interested in the history of advertising?).

Why (and I am going to ask this only once) do we resort to such ads? Is it because Pepsi takes on Coke and Apple takes on Microsoft? With all due respect for the brand managers involved, the two products in question have precious little in common with these giants.

Wait! I do have a plausible explanation for this! The Hajmola Mint (mentioned as 'Spoofer' hereafter) ad was conceived way way back when the Chloremint (mentioned as 'Spoofee' hereafter) ad was running, and perhaps was intended for quite a different product competing with the Spoofee at the time. Senses prevailed and the script was shelved. Years passed. The agency took it out of the cold storage (many agencies have a large one) and presented it to the Spoofer client after the Spoofer client rejected all good ideas and chided the agency for its lack of mustaches and tea testing abilities.

"But the Spoofee is no longer running their ad", said the Spoofer client! The agency said "Much better! now the Spoofee won't take us to court for using the same Paanwalla!"

Anyways. Even if all this was true, the question remains (that I have already asked above). Therefore I have decided to fast for 3 days against this ad. (don't ask why 3 days again, dam phool).

Jai Anthony Simonds-Gooding, Jai Hind.

- Anna.

PS: Please find attached (reluctantly) herewith both Spoofer and Spoofee ads for your perusal.

Sabka number ayega

Must say, the client has shown some balls buying this. The low key, uninterested voice-over, the choice of nerdy model smells of 'award entry'. The radio spots are better, perhaps because they can't show much and are a little intelligent. The agency must be busy taking a 360 degree view of this. All they need to do is to look at Yellow Pages campaign done by Enterprise a few decades ago (or any international Yellow Pages work). Its the same campaign anyway!
Sure this idea has got legs, but I wonder how would they tell people to call Ask Me for memory sticks, paperweights, ball bearings, bottle openers, batteries, ball point pens, pencils, erasers, safety razors, pocket torches, scissors, key-chains, toothbrushes, plastic gloves, test tubes, tea bags, stirrers, safety pins, shirt buttons, aspirin... Well, you get the picture...
I am fasting against this ad because if you watch it more than once, you don't feel like eating anyways.

Jai Claude Hopkins, Jai Hind.
- Anna.

Pretty maids all in a row...

My maid thinks she is Madhuri Dixit (I wish she looked like her, too). She's got a flip-open cell phone (it's an android). She keeps talking on the phone about her job and about things she has to put up with. She complains that we eat too much oily food and leave subzi stains on plates (so what are we supposed to do? squeaky-clean the plates with our tongues?). She showed disgust when we told her that we do not use some hitherto-unheard-of cleaning liquid (their union must be endorsing it). She generally behaves as if she doesn't need to work, her husband's got a high paying job in medical profession and they live in the US where they  plan to buy a shopping mall or something!
In all, she makes it evident that she is doing us a favor by showing up in the first place! But then, most of the maids in Mumbai are like that.
Coincidentally, she was watching TV (as usual before starting her work) when this particular ad came up -

She didn't like this ad at all! Perhaps she thought it was all too realistic to be of any interest. But I could identify with the expressions of those housewives.
I have decided to fast for a day. Not against this ad, (although there are enough reasons to do so) I'm doing it this time just to keep the plates clean.
Jai Winston Fletcher, Jai Hind.
- Anna.

How can anyone eat anything after this?

I pinched myself hard when I saw this for the first time. Hoping I will wake up. Often when I fast against something or the other, I get such nightmares - food everywhere, women singing about eating, a pot-bellied chef who looks like bad news. But I panicked when I did not wake up and had to go through the rest of the ad. I do not understand much of what is being said, neither am I fully aware about this actor's fame, but all this just seems excruciatingly horrible. (If there is a temple dedicated to him somewhere in southern India, I will face a lot of opposition from that quarter after this post).
I can't tell you what I think is wrong with this ad. I just saw it 3 times and I can't even think!
Therefore I am going on a week-long fast against this mind-numbing experience. But I doubt if I ever will be able to eat again. Did you see how he could not even get up from his chair to dance?

Jai David Ogilvy, Jai Hind.
- Anna.

Lambi fasting ka faarmulaa

Well, for starters, my dear friend Baba is not going to like this! Walking on fire is a feat reserved only for those who seek spiritual attainment, but in this ad, it becomes accessible to everyone who puts on a dash of Jinjola! Sacrilege!
And don't miss the clever competition-bashing by repeating repeating words words like like cool cool. But just because you shoot in Rajasthan and use strange looking cast, you don't sit alongside those Ogilvy-Piyush-Prasoon-Chetan kind of ads of yore.
I strongly recommend you show this ad on Radio from now on.  Because there's only so much visual Jinjola one can put up with. I was going to sit for an indefinite fast against this ad, but will protest with just a day-long one. Because, thankfully, the monsoon is here and will soon drown all prickly-heat-talc ads.

Jai Charles Saatchi, Jai Hind.
- Anna

PS: As recommended by a disciple of mine, I will be fasting Maharashtrian style: eating 'only' the following food items: Bananas, Sabudana Khichadi, Sabudana Vada, White Potato Subzi, Variche Taandul (a small grain rice), Daanyachi Amti (a curry made with groundnuts) and all this just three times a day. This should really shake up the competition...

25 join in the 'Satyagraha' against bad advertising!

It gives me great pleasure to welcome the 25th follower of this blog! Things are heating up as pageviews reach close to 1,500! But this cannot continue unless you all contribute by reporting stupid ads that I should protest against.
Since I have just completed a two-day fast against the Parx Deo commercial, I would not say too much. I will just finish this glass of juice.

Jai David Ogilvy, Jai Hind.
-Anna

Train of conflicting thoughts.

Indian trains are crowded. People who travel in them belong to all age groups and all 'socio-economic classifications’. Unlike the train you see in this commercial. This one is an advertising paradise! All travelers are of SEC A+, or thereabouts and belong to the 25 to 35 age bracket.
No amount of deo can help you in Indian trains, and you don't get to move your arm to reach for the deo in your bag, let alone spray it on yourself! But here, there is room for all the good-looking and flirtatious co-travelers you can fit in thirty seconds.
Here people don't mind if you sit on their luggage. They don't mind your kiddish behavior when you play 'bike'. In fact, others join in and wave goodbye when you get off the train because you are such a cool guy! (Well, sitting on someone else's luggage is the only touch of realism, but it is not followed by people questioning your parentage, your sexual preference, etc).
Demanding suspension of disbelief from your audience is not wrong. But it should be for an effect worthwhile. Look at the way Axe demands it in the following commercial and you will see what I mean.

The Parx commercial demands a two-day fast. Partly because what it is, and partly because I still have bitter memories of my youth when I used a deodorant, and it did not work the way the ad said it will.

Jai William Bernbach, Jai Hind,
-Anna.