As per my general knowledge, Diwali is festival of lights. It is not about saying thanks. Yet the youngsters in this commercial seem to be lighting two lamps for everything that helped them along the way. Why can't they give away coke bottles Instead? They give one precious bottle to a woman, that too in return of a few more lamps! The VO seems like taken from Prasoon Joshi's writing pad when he was not looking! And why two lamps? Oh, I get it! 'Ek diya' would have sounded a bit odd...
I am not going on any fast. It's Diwali, for crying out loud! I will just say, 'Doh aur laddu, iss ad ke naam.'
There are some commercials that leave you amazed. At the technological wizardry. At the production quality. You ask how did they do that? How must have they shot it? And then there are some commercials that leave you with questions. Questions like what are they trying to say? What are the consumers supposed to think of the brand? Is there anyone checking the logic behind these 'kickass' ideas?
The new Pulsar commercial is both. More the latter than the former. Because it actually shows how the stop motion was created. And the consumer goes, "Ah! So all this is fake! Very clever! But what do you mean? Does Pulsar need all this around for it to look fast while standing still? Is your ad a lie? A deception? Or do the other bikes deceive? And why am I spending so much time analyzing a television commercial? Experts say that as an average consumer, I don't deeply study ads. I just make up my mind about the brand and move on! Alrighty, then. Pulsar = Fake."
Now hold on, before you start doubting this simplistic analysis, take a look at this commercial. This one is also trying to say that the vehicle appears to be fast even if it is standing still. Now tell me what must have gone through the consumer's mind after watching this.
I am going on a day long fast against the Pulsar ad. I was going to say three days, but since the production values are not so bad, my team has requested me to take it a little easy.
Why does it have to happen? You buy a great commercial from a small but effective agency. You also buy in to the concept, and then completely screw it up by asking your totally-depending-upon-your-revenue-hence-incapable-of-saying-no kind of big agency to create another commercial based on the same concept?
After buying "Har ek friend zaroori hota hai" from Taproot, They have made JWT create this banal version of it for Airtel Digital TV. Where is the fun which they had with Kanjoos Friend and other extensions? Now here the agencies were different, and reputed creative forces in their own right, but the client was the same, so I am going to blame the client.
Of course, JWT would be most unwilling to add to the glory of the campaign which is not theirs anyway! Bharti Airtel should have given even the Digital TV account to taproot! Or ask JWT to create a fresh new campaign for the digital TV business. This multi-agency practice has only one victim - creativity.
Who owns a creative property? The agency who creates it? The agency who has to follow it? Or the client who is paying for it? Who's baby is it? I know this is a difficult question to answer.
Here I was, thinking "what a nice commercial, it will surely continue to be entertaining in every avatar" but I was sadly mistaken.
Sorry for a harsher than normal tone of voice, but it hurts more when you see a good ad getting a beating. I am going to fast for three days and would go for Tata Sky who have a much more entertaining commercial based on the same proposition.
Jai Jay Chiat. Jai Hind.
- Anna.
PS: Here are the two ads I was referring to for the uninitiated...
I was dreaming for sure. It was an Arabian dream. Like a Sindbad story. At least the background music sounded like that. First it was a painting, then it turned into a lake in Kashmir where an immaculately designed Chinese monster and her immaculately designed baby were terrorizing the wits out of two innocent oarsmen on an immaculately designed ship. (this is what happens when a design agency makes a commercial)
First the monster picks one of them up and feeds him to the baby. The baby monster chokes! (like you choke on fine Kashmiri silk). Worried, the monster looks around to find a Bisleri bottle in the other man's hand, she snatches it and helps the baby gulp down the man! The baby is saved, and instead of eating the other man, blows kisses at him!
Now I am choking on a lot of questions.
1] If you choke on food, get saved, you still would like to eat the rest of it, wouldn't you? Or would you kiss the remaining food?
2] The monster lives in water, but looks around for water! (Always mineral water for the baby, remember?)
3] Monsters, according to popular belief, are much larger than the men or the boat, but a mere liter of Bisleri (should measure a teardrop in proportion) is enough to save the choking baby!
4] Ah, lets give it a rest, shall we? after all, it was a dream.
The only thing real was the brand, but once the communication enters the unreal space, it shuts out all critics.
This splash of creativity hit me in the face and woke me up from my dogmatic slumber! Maybe this is what quenches the thirst of the new generation, makes them laugh, makes them like the cute monsters (or write a post or tweet about how chweet all this is and say things like, 'dude, this is the shite'), and by some well researched form of subliminal persuasion makes them also think positively about the brand and eventually ask for a Bisleri (they do that already, don't they? And peacefully walk away when they are handed an Aquafina instead!)
"But look at the styling, the character design", a friend from another design agency told me. "We are defining the 'brand space' nowadays, and man, its going to look so stunning!"
But the consumers are oblivious to this. They don't know how to stay protected from all this blitzkrieg. Maybe the creative strategy is to stun the viewers, just like those two poor men, so that they don't reach for the remote.
Sigh. I miss the good old days... I am on a week long fast against this, and this time I am not even going to drink water - mineral or otherwise.
There are times when I am speechless. People think I am following 'Maun-Vrat' or something. But I am too disturbed to say anything about certain ads. The case in point is this ad forCentral Board of Excise and Customs . (a tiny preview appears at the center of this page, and you can't download it, so dear followers, I apologize for this technical difficulty)
Oh, don't click. I apologized already.
Click The URL on top instead.
I like Hariharan. I really do. But why should he appear in an ad that looks like produced and directed by a bureaucrat? He appears to be bored to death. He also plays tabla on the piano! (must be his way of protesting against the script). My fellow Indians, the time has come to speak out against the torturous government departmental advertisements. These are so horrible, that nobody uploads them on YouTube, nobody speaks about them (perhaps because nobody understands them), and sadly, nobody notices them!
They are badly shot, badly produced (there are about 28 producers empaneled by the Directorate of Public Relations & Publicity. I don't think they would be getting any real advertising film work. With a portfolio filled with messages released in public interest, (or shall I say disinterest) how can they?
The reality is that the messages of public interest or public service ads need to rise above the noise levels of marketing communication to have any effect. But I don't think DPPR ever consults the real magicians of the advertising world. With the less-than-one-percent money (as I suspect) finally reaching the producers, who would want to touch it? Hey, I have an idea! DPPR should convince Cannes to create a separate category for these ads! Then see how hotshot creatives will line up with ideas!
In all fairness, perhaps Hariharanji did this ad for a good cause free of cost! ("Well, more for us, then!", whispers the democratically elected client).
A war is brewing in the nation. Looks like my namesake in the social arena will finally get his way. Kabhi kabhi achhe kaam karna bhi zaroori hota hai. Jaise har ek friend zaroori hota hai. So I hereby declare that Anna of Advertising is lending his moral support to Anna of the Nation.
I find Airtel's new commercial appropriate to this occasion. Sometimes you just have to agree that even the biggest of the brands, albeit intermittently, gets it right. And I have to say, this one gets a place in my book of good ads (which is an extremely thin book). Good casting, good lyrics, good execution, and a good tune that will make up for all those banal commercials they dished out postExpress Yourself and Border commercials (which were not too bad, but who remembers these prehistoric ads?).
Therefore today I sit for a fast. Because of this ad, but not against it.This ad suggested to me that that is what I should do in support of our friend.
A while ago I wrote about the Surf Bar ad which raised the bar for unbelievable advertising. This time (I know, this is a re-run. But what to do? I was busy fasting against some other ad back when this went on air for the first time) the unbelievability has been raised to another level altogether!
I am sure some SEC A+ housewives in metros and mini-metros may find it cute that the kid in this commercial wrecks a perfectly good sheet of foam mattress, uses expensive colours to mark his anatomy onto it, uses a hacksaw blade to cut two hands out of the sheet (doesn't cut his own in the process) and props them onto the washing machine. Very very cute indeed.
I dare say it is a tad bit unbelievable that the mother walks in and lovingly informs the kid that thanks to Surf Excel Matic, she does not have to use her hands anymore to remove stains after machine washing the clothes. I was expecting one tight slap for the kid for messing about!
But hey, slap yourself! This is HUL (Unilever). They must have done their research that provides clues to the real reality as opposed to a fake reality that we all think is real, which, in reality, is not (complicated sentence? not to HUL execs). And I have heard that the agency brought in some foreign creative guy to conceive the script. Unbelievable!
Needless to say a fast is in order. But Unilever pockets are deep, so no matter how many deaths I die because of fasting, they will keep showing this commercial. I think it will be prudent to fast for a week to protest against the slap that never came down upon the bratty kid.
Jai Lord Leverhulme, Jai Hind.
- Anna.
PS: Do the right thing for society. Report a bad ad today.
