Will the real Einstein please stand up?

As I was heading towards Maharaja restaurant (now quickly renamed 'Saheb' given its proximity to Matoshri) to end my fast against the Cleartrip Commercial, I saw this hoarding.
Let us for a moment forget who is the advertiser. or what is on sale here. What in the blazes name has happened to financial advertising? From the days of Pooja Bhatt donning a bikini and the regulatory 'bodies' going up in arms against misleading financial advertising, we have managed to come a long long way. (or was it Pooja Bedi, sorry I was not looking at the face. Blame it on my youth back then!)
Investors getting misled by advertising creativity was long banned by SEBI (this information is for the benefit of those new to advertising), But how about investors getting misled on roads and banging into the cars in the front because they tried reading the body copy on a hoarding?? Read the offer document carefully, they say, so you can't blame those who are screaming at each other over smashed bumpers.

Regulators, wake up! This is a HOARDING. Its a reminder medium, or have you not learnt advertising? Oh you didn't. Sorry, my bad... Sigh! Whatever happened to those neat asterisks which made you aware about the risks factors...
 Needless to say, I turned around. I had to get back on the 'fast' track again. The taste of that butter chicken is still haunting me. And this makes me really really mad.
I am taking this opportunity to introduce an EXCITING CONTEST! The first one to tell me what is the seventh word in the third line of the bottom middle paragraph on this hoarding will win a butter chicken dinner for two at Saheb Restaurant!*

Jai Pressman. Jai Hind.
-Anna

*Stop fantasizing, I am going to be your dinner companion...

Can we please be clear?

First, I thought my old age was showing its dark side, but then I looked up this ad on the internet. There are over 57,000 YouTube views for this ad but not a single comment! Like me, it really has left everyone speechless!

This is what the sole comment (obviously by the creators) says: Our 10-second video stamps were designed to reaffirm Cleartrip's commitment to clear the way for you to travel. They're quick, they're clear and they look rather good. As some would say, a bit like how your travel booking experience should be.

My oh, my! Are they happy with themselves or what! Let the viewers be dumbfounded. So stop staring at the screen, shut that open mouth and immediately log on and start booking! No? well, seems you should see the rest of the ads. One says LOUD & CLEAR. Then perhaps you will log on. Saw them? No? Not convinced yet to book that flight/hotel/train you always wanted to??? Oh, you must be joking!!

And now there will be a different category at the award shows called Video Stamps! So if you say, "I don't understand this ad" you need not look stupid. It's not an ad anyways! Rather a page out of a typography book overzealously edited.

Ok, enough with the criticism. Let me be absolutely clear: I am going on a fast to protest against this ad because Cleartrip is such a great web service. So simple, so efficient, that it is at sharp contrast with this advertising binge. No doubt the creators and brand managers are toasting its grand success in a conference room far far away from the consumers. Let them. But if any jury member anywhere gives an award to this campaign, I will make sure that he/she stays on complete fast throughout the duration of the judging process!

Jai Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, Jai Hind!

- Anna.

I Hate Tears

It is one thing to be forgotten. It is quite another to be remembered as a hero getting old and frail. I'd rather the former happens to the icons of an era than the latter. I love Kaka. And I absolutely hate puns that do not go along with the character of a hero (he was not a comedian, guys). Shove all those fans up certain place of whoever wrote this ad along with the client who approved it. Sigh! There is no respect for seniors nowadays. He does not have fortunes of the Bachchan. But he was what he was, and I am going on a fast against this insensitive ad. I will continue this fast until I have seen all movies starring Rajesh Khanna.

Jai Jatin. Jai Hind.
- Anna.

Oh, Come On! Not Again!

Abbreviation used: WIBSNSCTTA (Woman in Blue Saree Not Showing Cleavage This Time Around)
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Dear Followers,
there is a limit to me supporting non-violence. And that limit has been crossed.
The pain has been caused by the makers of a pain relief balm, Amrutanjan.
And that's not the last of the cruel jokes.
I wrote about their a-la-savita-bhabhi ad a few months back, but evidently the post has not been read in the exalted echelons of the advertising agency responsible. Perhaps they were busy taking cleavage screen tests for the next ad. And here is the result of it:

I can see a lot of changes from the last time, but it is extremely difficult to decide which commercial is worse.
1] The WIBSNSCTTA's saree colour has changed.
2] The WIBSNSCTTA belongs to an older age bracket.
3] This time both the WIBSNSCTTA and the guy in pain are not taking public transport.
4] The wife has a small role to play this time! She applies the product on her husband. So what if he still asks WIBSNSCTTA out to dinner as a result?
6] Much like last time, there are a lot of questions about the plot, such as, why does WIBSNSCTTA drop the guy home instead of apply the cream herself, but let them be.
7] In all this the much anticipated 'pronounced cleavage' is missing, but viewers still can't see the packshot because they are doubling up in pain by then.

Which is a better commercial of the two? This is like asking would you like to get hit on the head with a large stone painted blue or painted red? The correct answer would be - "Just don't!" But since when television viewers had such luxuries?

I am on a month long fast, and this time, I am going to pull in BABA, too, who sent me the link to this commercial in the first place!

Jai Second Coming! Jai Hind!
- Anna.

May your plate be full of carrots!

  It is good to be back! Back from the hospital. Back from all those sessions with psychiatrists. Back from the gluttonous binge...
   It all started when I had a fight with my cable operator and he cut my connection. I did not see any ads for a long time, and something in my head just snapped! I started overeating! All I thought about was food, food and freaking food! As if everything was well in the advertising world!
   After about a month of struggle to keep me away from the hospital canteen, the doctors gave up. So did the chef. But the world is full of miracles, and one came in the form of, you guessed it right, a commercial! One fine evening lying on my hospital bed I saw this commercial, and it worked liked magic! (by that time I had gained the strength to look up from my dinner plate to the TV set). I found a reason to survive! I threw away my dinner plate and announce at once that I was back on a fast!!!

   I really thought it was an Axe commercial. I really really wished it to be. And what was that suggestive reference to carrots? Hmm. I decided to wait and watch. So the guy is made to sit in a bathtub! Not a large pot like the jungle tribes have in movies. perhaps these women have not seen those movies. How can they? They are in a jungle, silly!! They only know how to drive an SUV like James Bond. So one of them rescues the guy from the clutches of evil man-eaters (now, don't start thinking).
   Wait! isn't she one of them?! What is it now, instant Stockholm Syndrome? But isn't that one where the captive falls for the captor, and not the other way round? Maybe she saw the potential in this guy, that if they get along, he could take her out to a five star hotel where they serve carrots!
   By far the only believable thing in this commercial is the character of the friend. He looks completely stupefied! Like he has just read the script and trying to find reason in it!
      Thanks to this display of creativity, I am back on my feet, and have decided to continue this fast until someone explains the marketing wisdom behind this commercial, or gifts me the XUV, along with the hungry chauffer.

Jai David Livingstone. Jai Hind.
- Anna.

Here Wego Again!

What's with all the two wheeler clients? A few weeks ago I went on a fast against one bike ad that confessed it to be a cleverly filmed deception! And now this! So you make a claim, then disprove it. And then consumers are supposed to miraculously start trusting the brand with their life (literally, as we all know the safety record of two wheelers). So we are to believe that Wego has won those awards? Or has it? Who are we to trust?

Many years ago, Jerry Della Femina tried playing with truth for Isuzu. He found a clever way of using the fact that car salesmen, in those days, were generally understood to be cheaters and liars. Supers in the Isuzu ads informed the viewers when Joe Isuzu, the spokesman, told a lie and when he did not. Thus the truth, or shall we say brand propositions, got drilled down into the viewer's subconscious and worked wonders for Isuzu. Here is one of the commercials that I could find on Youtube:

 

Compared to this, the Wego ad is just a hollow attempt at situational humor. When it first aired, I ignored it, but now it is too much in the face. I am feeling a bit weak after the 3 week fast against the Amrutanjan ad, but Anna's got to do what Anna's got to do! So I am going on another week-long fast against this mindless use of humor in advertising. (I am telling the truth).

Jai Jerry Della Femina, Jai Hind.
-Anna.

Let there be light (CFL, preferably)

Last week I had made up my mind to go on a month long fast against that ad with a WIRSSC. But this week I am revising my plan. Now I will fast for just 3 weeks. Why? Because I happened to see a commercial that shed some light on the situation of advertising creativity in this country. And it is encouraging. Here is the illuminating commercial...

I think it is a good sign that advertising itself is mocking advertising clichés. I just have one question, though. Why can't this commercial have the same production values (execution finesse) as the fairness cream ones? Or is it that CFL lights do not spend as much on advertising as fairness creams?? But let's be fair to those who have written the script (I understand that every good script has many fathers - real as well as hierarchy driven - hence the plural) and say, good job! You have saved a few antacids in my medicine box!

Jai Lee Clow. Jai Hind.
- Anna.