For Whom the Bell Tolls

If there’s one set of advertisements I’d been meaning to talk about but let pass in recent times, it would be the campaign for the newly launched brand Uninor.

When Uninor was set to launch in India, it started off with a bunch of teasers with random people making random statements like “Ab mera number hai” (strangely reminiscent of the old “Mera number kab aaeyga?” ads by Pepsi, which can’t be a nice thing in this case) and “Ega naan mumber”. All very vague and enigmatic, which I suppose is the point of teasers anyway.

Then the actual ads were splashed all over the place with larger-than-life images of just as many random people and some more random statements like “My dreams are fulfilled in just 29 p”. So between the teasing and revelation, notice that we were neither teased much nor was anything substantial revealed. People still didn’t know what Uninor was all about and why someone had such lowly ambitions that they required only 29 p to get fulfilled.

Then people realised it was just another telecom brand, with just another price-wars kind of strategy. All right then… two more questions? Why did the extreme close up shots of your models (uhm… pardon me… “real life people”) on gigantic billboards have to be so real that I could count the number of hairs of the woman’s upper lip? And two, having sponsored advertising on every kirana and hardware store but with little branding on stores that actually give you a Uninor connection, where do I get a SIM card or ticket to success from your brand? Seriously, it wasn’t until weeks after the brand launched that I noticed a dedicated customer store for Uninor in Koramangala, as opposed to the likes of Airtel and Vodafone, which can be found in every little stationery store along the way. Like actually found and not just some advertisement thrown in anywhere, just because.

And the whole campaign left me so pissed off that I didn’t have the heart and energy to write about it. (Yes, a great loss to the ad fraternity, waiting with bated breath for yours truly’s enlightening thoughts.) But that was till yesterday when afaqs! covered a story on Uninor’s TVCs. Did it change my understanding of the brand and soften me towards its positioning? No. In fact, it left me all the more pissed off. And here’s why:

So now you see what I’m talking about. The campaign is so pretentiously preachy that I fail to understand what the teams at Uninor and Leo Burnett were talking about when they said (and I quote), “Our positioning statement, “Ab mera number hai”, is the voice of a young Indian who is restless to succeed; who knows that his or her time has come and it is now. We at Uninor believe that heroes need not necessarily be celebrities and stars. The real heroes are out there – succeeding every day in their own lives, making it on their own and wanting more. And these are the faces you see in our TVCs and on our billboards” (David Meneghello, executive vice-president, marketing, Uninor) and “We want this brand to be placed in young people’s everyday lives and play an active role in helping them achieve their ambitions. We want it to be a brand that is inspirational, more than aspirational” (KV Sridhar, NCD, Leo Burnett).

Alright, FINE! Don’t use celebrities! Nobody said they want celebrities! Put them egg-shaped suits for all we care and we’ll still listen. Just say something new. Because if you going to thrown aspiration/inspiration in my face and say this is something a telecom brand hasn’t done before, I’m going to have to accuse you of either blatantly lying or being alarming ignorant of your own industry & client. Because it wasn’t that long ago that Tata Indicom aired its “Suno dil ki aawaz” TVC which was also about a phone call being the best thing to ever happen to you. And they did it slightly better.

Of course, Tata Indicom shifted routes with its newer ads about laughing and breathing and was accused of emulating Airtel later, but that really didn’t mean you had to go and occupy that space.

Plus, what weird ass understanding of the youth do you have? It’s like this friend of my mine said, “Uninor seems to have picked up some people from the Mandal Commission who’ve been waiting in line with a token for their turn to arrive.” And I couldn’t have put it better myself. I think I would fall under the same age group that you’re talking about, I would like to think I’m ambitious, yet I have never seen either myself or anyone I know walk around with a look of determination that only going into battle could justify. And you know why? BECAUSE THAT’S NOT WHAT WE DO! You want to know what the youth does? It waste hours of precious time on Facebook, poking its compatriots and playing Mafia Wars and some farming game is what it does. We’re an utterly hopeless lot and even if we do have goals and aims and ambitions, we do not go around waiting for things to just happen. We send out resumes and between waiting for call backs, we scratch our heads. So if you must go around parading as the keepers of reality in advertising, at least stop deluding yourself about what is real and what isn’t, and get it right.

I’m just hoping that if Uninor continues with this positioning, it does something more than these painful ads and maybe looks at some other brand building activities such as actually giving someone a much awaited break over a phone call and support it’s weird ass promise with activation that people would like to believe, so that it doesn’t seem so far-fetched after all. And that’s all on Uninor.

In other news, Virgin Mobiles, which also likes to call itself the youth’s brand, has gone out and roped in two “youth icons”. I didn’t say it, they did. The two people who are supposed to be standing for our generation are Ranbir Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza. The ads aren’t out big time yet, but you’ll spot a few billboards here and there. So this, we’ll just have to wait and watch.

Only I think there’s this small faux pas that Ms. D’Souza’s already made. In her interview with Bangalore Times that featured today, she very politely mentions she’ll soon switch to the brand herself. Maybe I’m overreacting, but saying you’re endorsing a brand but are not using it yet seems a bit off for me. Or maybe that’s just me.

So now in the battle of ambitious youth vs. happy youth, who do you think is going to win? Comments are welcome, whether you were able to read through the entire post or not.

Learning on the Job: 20-01-2010

I turned 22 a couple of days back. 22… that’s 20 + 2 & not 2 + 2, as they would have you believe. That’s old. In going from 21 to 22, you suddenly find you’re no longer on the fringes of the 20s. So I go to work dressed in black, hoping it would suffice as a sign of mourning. Then for the rest of the day, I dodge the following words and gestures:

• Yay!
• Parrrty!
• Treat!
• Daaru!
• Random thumb to mouth movement

In short, anything that warrants an exclamation mark warrants avoidance. So I turned 22 as silently as I could, answered “What plans?” questions as politely as I could and went on doing what I do best. Obsessing.

I didn’t realise until very recently (this isn’t really true but it makes for a good opening statement so I’m using it) that I have a tendency to obsess about things. This happened when someone happened to ask me if there’s anything else that I think of outside of advertising. And I realised that there is actually very little really other than advertising that keeps me occupied. This is not something I’m proud of, but it’s true. Fortunately for me, reading finds its place in a spot close by. ‘Cause otherwise, being stuck on a deserted island wouldn’t be a lot of fun for me.

So, obsessed as I am with this lowly and pathetic activity of our consumerist times, I’m also kind of stuck with it. Which means, if I am going to be spending the rest of my life being a good-for-nothing “ad person” (it’s like our kind doesn’t even have a real job), I need to kick ass at it. The reasoning may be flawed, I admit, but being the best of the worst is slightly less painful and humiliating than being the worst of the lot. However (and this is a big however), I’m nowhere near kicking ass at it right now. Not even by a mile. And this means I’m not a happy person.

So I’m not a happy person, I’m slightly obsessive and I’m 22. It’s as if in a rare moment of inspiration, it suddenly dawned on me that the thing I’m so obsessed about needs to be done well if it needs to be done at all. It needs to be done. And acknowledged. Almost like a living thing. And birthdays being an excellent time for a little introspection, I’m thinking… I need to know where I’m going with this obsession. So I obsessed and indulged in introspection until I realised, in retrospect, that I hadn’t had a performance appraisal kind of thing in like forever and hadn’t thought of what I was doing in a long time. So I hadn’t stared at a sheet of paper and put down goals for the next year and all of that. Until now.

Yes, after a very long and convolution exposition, I’m finally getting to the point. I’m setting my professional goals for year 2010 and (wait for it)… I’m making it public. You must understand that this is a huge move for me. To go from the realms of the conference room to the limitless expanse of the blog is a frightening thing. It means I’m putting it down for everyone to read and I might never come close to realising them. That said, here goes nothing.

Over the course of the next 12 months, I’m setting out to:

• Write at least three ads with real copy – By which I mean, with copy that’s actually arrived at after a long and slow and thorough process of fermentation, as opposed to all those hastily and badly written headlines I have. Copy good enough to make people understand what a copywriter does and good enough as a retort for people who say, “You mean, people actually get paid to write that stuff? Even I could do that!”
• Write and see at least one radio spot to completion – Radio’s by far my biggest mountain and I’ll skirt around it as much as I can. But there are are occasions when writing one well gives me joy and I would like to see it go from voice-in-head to voice-over artist.
• Write and see at least one TVC to completion – Writing for television is probably what I enjoy the most. This is in a grossly inverse proportion to the opportunities of writing one.
• Create at least one campaign idea that doesn’t feel like advertising – I’m super partial to this category of advertising. I love ads that don’t feel like ads. And I want to be able to say why much better than I’m saying it now, by creating one of those myself.
• Finish reading The Brothers Karamazov - I understand this has nothing to do with my job, but I’ve been reading that book since forever and it shows no signs of being completed any time soon. So as long as I’m going public with the targets, adding one more isn’t going to do anyone any harm.

And there we go. 5 targets, not particularly ambitious but enough to make me happy, carved in stone. Now to see how far we can get with them. But that’s not until next year. Manana.

“The Insanity of Sane…”

“…And Other Such Horrendous Jokes.”

That really should’ve been the title of Omkar Sane’s book, “Welcome to Advertising. Now Get Lost.” Because that’s exactly what you get if you do ever get down to reading this book.

“Welcome to Advertising…” is Sane’s take on the advertising industry, its idiosyncrasies (to put it mildly) and its people. Ironic, considering Sane himself spent not more than a few months in the industry. That doesn’t matter, of course, considering all advertising professionals all over the world are the same. So you don’t really need time to put them in pretty little boxes that define them.

That said, here’s ten reasons why I think you should give the book a pass.

1. It’s Stereotypical – Of course, stereotype is the very foundation of many a genre of humour. Racist jokes, dumb blonde jokes, “My Wife” jokes… all function on stereotypes. So why doesn’t it work here?
2. Because it’s Stereotypically Stereotypical – That is to say, if you’re even remotely associated with advertising, you’re already familiar with all the jokes and the characteristic pigeon-holing of its many people types.
3. Which is Why There’s Nothing to Take Back – If you picked up this book hoping to learn something about advertising, put it down now. Because, like I said above, if you’ve ever been associated with the industry at all, you already know how the book is going to “unfold”. If you don’t know anything about advertising and want to know what you’re getting into, this is not the book for you. It may make you completely dismiss the thought of ever being a part of it, perhaps, but it won’t make you want to pursue it any further. Which kind of seems to be the point of the book in the first place.
4. This is Especially So if You’re a Girl – This is not me trying to be all feminist and women empowering, but seriously… notice the number of times the NCD in the book refers to his teams as “Boys”, “Men” or “Young Men”. In fact, the only time Sane thinks it legitimate to give a woman an actual job role in the book is on page 116, almost exactly midway through it. And then too only to say, “The number of layouts depends on the time of the day or week or, if you’re a female art director, then the time of the month.” Really? PMS? That’s your best excuse? Other than this, the only other times Sane speaks of my kind is to talk about the hot receptionist (who’s never around), the hot intern who gets to “ride with the NCD” (a 12-year-old boy could come up with a better way to put it) and the hot model who’s slept with everyone. Even the secretaries in “Mad Men” depicting the 1960s scene of advertising were taken more seriously than this.
5. But that’s Not the Only Eye Candy He Speaks Of –  Because there are other things to tempt the young men who are considering a career in advertising. This includes, beer (at the closest bar, the offsite and everywhere else, at all times), endless games of cricket with some paper ball, being allowed to think they’re cool, being able to smoke a joint at work, and therefore feeling good about being in advertising. (Of course, Sane chooses to ignore the fact that if you do get to smoke so many joints a day, you’d feel good stuck in the middle of nowhere, even in Afghanistan… so advertising’s nothing by comparison, but no matter that.)
6. And He Makes Sure You Get This – By repeating the same juvenile jokes about beer and cricket and pot and unshaven men and pizza and beer and cricket over and over and over again.
7. And Again
8. And Again – Till you’re engulfed with a sense of deja vu so strong you begin to wonder if you’re re-reading chapters.
9. Until You Realise that that’s Impossible – Because reading it once is painful enough and more than you can take. And dialogues such as “Yah man… let’s just sit on this tomorrow” and “Cool man” make you wonder whether you accidentally picked up a second standard kid’s attempt at writing a story for the school magazine. The book reads less like a book and more like a blog strung together in paperback. So that’s a few months’ worth of research on the book’s subject and a chapter a day (blog post a day?) for some 20 days and ta-da… your book’s ready. (And they say Indian literature is failing.)
10. And to Make Things Worse – The book’s far, far away from what it seems to preach. For all of Sane’s cynicism about advertising, the things that actually sell it include Cyrus Broacha’s introduction to it, other ostentatious blurbs by people such as Prahlad Kakkar and Josy Paul, and the cover design and chapter illustrations by Jezreel Nathan and Aindri Chakraborty.

Apart from this, the book has some good moments if you look hard enough but definitely not enough to justify its being written. So if you still want to read the book, here’s five reasons that will permit this.

1. Absolute Boredom – As in, there’s nothing good on television, moths got to all the other reading you had lined up for yourself before you and this book is the only thing left for you to fall back on, then you may read it. But this is definitely not the book to be stuck with if you’re ever stranded alone on an uninhabited island.
2. Curiosity – If you’re someone like my sister and want to know what we “creative types” do for so many hours at work and still manage to put out such embarrassing stuff in the papers and on television and on radio… then the book might answer some of questions, albeit ambiguously and not always truthfully.
3. Too Much Time to Kill – I read this book while stuck in traffic on my way to and from work, between mouthfuls of lunch at work, when the server was down and pages took forever to load at work and at home, with the television switched on. So anything that doesn’t call for devoting exclusive time to read this is permissible.
4. Self-indulgence - This should’ve been the first reason, because the only thing that the book (as in, its content) has going on for itself is that it makes you want to identify with situations from it (because all agencies all over the world are the same, remember?) or it makes you want to look for yourself and figure out where you fit in. I found myself in parts on pages 173 and 174.
5. Client Servicing is Always Wrong and the Client Doesn’t Get It – Two universal truths we’re all too familiar with and because we needed someone to put it in writing.

And that’s that. Sane seems to be to advertising what Chetan Bhagat is to the call centre. I confess I’ve never read any Chetan Bhagat but I’m openly judgemental and therefore assume they’re one and the same in style and content. I could be wrong about that.

But  I hope I’m right about Sane’s next project, “Welcome to Writing. Now enough already.” (And that’s just me being polite.)

I Lied

You know how I said the boardroom situation ad was my favourite Bingo ad? I lied. This one wins hands-down.

sms & d eng lang

im bck. i wz bck erlier bt I kpt a lw prfile cuz id sed id b bck nxT yr.. dis yr.. dat wz cuz i wz sposd 2 b bak l8r. bt dey kpt tllin me advertiZn dsnt pA rly weL & it turnD out it’s true. so i wz brOk b4 d nd of d pl& holidA & bck erlier thN XspecD.

if ur stil rEDN DIS, U eithR rly lIk my blog (I <3 U 2) o R jst pln bord o R jst curious. bt im goin smwr w dis.

d othR dA i wz watchN tlvsn (o shud i sA “TV”?). So i wz watchN dis tng wen Hrthk Rshn aprD on scrn. & he sits n 1 chAr & hst8s & hst8s sum mo & hst8s stil & thN finalE sndz sum1 1 msg. 4 d amount he hst8s, ud thnk he jst typd out d 1st msg n d history of txt msgN 2 b grntd d status of lit. Ah, whee. bt als, wot he sndz iz dis:

Cn v b frndz agn

& im lft thnkn mr. rshn iz stil n dat rtrded st8 of arstd dvlpmnt az n dat mvie w <0>..<0>z & sht. cuz i cnt thnk of d lst tym a grwn man sed somTIN lIk “cn v b frndz”. & thN i thnk bout how i grew ^ n an age wen cht & ims & txt msgN blssmd & hw i alwys found it so anoyN 2 rED dis & dat RitN lIk dis & how stuff lIk “diet SMS” iz goin 2 kill wot ltl hOp wz L 4 vowLz & pnctuatns.

& thN therz d ad itslf dat sed Nuttin bout svin thOs frkn 10 p. o NEthng Ls 4 dat m@R.

of corS, a non spkg Rshn iz nt hlf az anoyN az aL thOs blnd cukiez wh r flOrD by a crip wlkN rownd w a “<3 S” on Hs rist.

bsidez, dis whol idea of drppng letRz bcame a fad lIk a gzln yr.z ago wen d lIkz of orng (o wz it htch?) came out w hdlns on blbds dat rED, “Shrt is swt” & “Ct a lng stry shrt”. i cnt fnd d imgs 2 thOs ads bt datz pritE mch wot dey wer. dey wer brlnt thN ‘coz dey wer smpl & 2 d pnt & nu. sms iz not nu NE mo. drppng letRz iz not nu NE mo. bn chargd 4 exctli wot U typ iz.

By cntrst, it also rmndz me of d oldr htch ads dat cam out w d S-M-L cmpgn. dat wz 4 flxbl tlktm, of corS, bt dey sed d stry so much BetA dat U stil remMbR it.

d ads n :-Q, hwvR, Lv U w ltl 2 thnk of othR thN wot George Orwell wud sA f he wr stil alv.

(P.S.: If you’re old school and can’t read the text on top, please scroll down for the easier-to-read version. Translation of text to SMS type courtesy transl8it!.)

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

I’m back. I was back earlier but I kept a low profile because I’d said I’d be back next year. This year. That was because I was supposed to be back later. But they kept telling me advertising doesn’t pay really well and it turned out it’s true. So I was broke before the end of the planned holiday and back earlier than expected.

If you’re still reading this, you either really like my blog (I love you too) or are just plain bored or are just curious. But I’m going somewhere with this.

The other day I was watching television (or should I say”TV”?). So I was watching this thing when Hrithik Roshan appeared on screen. And he sits in one chair and hesitates and hesitates some more and hesitates still and then finally sends someone one message. For the amount he hesitates, you’d think he just typed out the first message in the history of text messaging to be granted the status of literature. Ah, whee. But alas, what he sends is this:

Cn v b frndz agn

And I’m left thinking Mr. Roshan is still in that retarded state of arrested development as in that movie with aliens and shit. Because I can’t think of the last time a grown man said something like “cn v b frndz”. And then I think about how I grew up in an age when chat and IMs and text messaging blossomed and how I always found it so annoying to read this and that written like this and how stuff like “diet SMS” is going to kill what little hope was left for vowels and punctuations.

And then there’s the ad itself that said nothing about saving those freakin’ 10 paise. Or anything else for that matter.

Of course, a non-speaking Roshan is not half as annoying as all those blonde cookies who’re floored by a creep walking around with a “<3 S” on his wrist.

Besides, this whole idea of dropping letters became a fad like a gazillion years ago when the likes of Orange (or was it Hutch?) came out with headlines on billboards that read, “Shrt is swt” and “Ct a lng stry shrt”. I can’t find the images to those ads but that’s pretty much what they were. They were brilliant then ’cause they were simple and to the point and new. SMS is not new any more. Dropping letters is not new any more. Being charged for exactly what you type is.

By contrast, it also reminds me of the older Hutch ads that came out with the S-M-L campaign. That was for flexible talktime, of course, but they said the story so much better that you still remember it.

The ads in question, however, leave you with little to think of other than what George Orwell would say if he were still alive.

Hello. I Must Be Going.

I just borrowed Groucho Marx’s title to say that this is going to be brief post. I’m just writing this brief post to say I’ll be back next year, post the winter break.

Until then, as promised, the pixie dust (or snow, if you prefer) will keep you company. Enjoy it while it lasts. You can spend hours watching its measly trail. But it’ll be gone on Jan 04, 2009. Pffft.

Learning on the Job: 19-12-2009

So see… it’s that time of the year again. The end of the year, I mean, of course. So everyone is going around making these resolutions that will mark 2010. Now me, I’m not the kind of person to make resolutions. But yet, here I am, contemplating a post on it. It’s not the resolutions that tempt me to write this, but the way it will be written that does. See, all these social media experts (they’re everywhere now), they keep telling me that you must write posts with lists. People love reading lists. Which I somehow find strange ’cause I read a to-do list every morning and really, it doesn’t fill me with a warm and fuzzy feeling on the inside. An occasional hot flush, perhaps, but that’s about it. But the social media experts told me to write a post with lists ’cause people love reading it and ’cause everyone today has the attention span of a fruit-fly and ’cause a post where everything is written in bullet points makes it easier for everyone to take it in. And you can’t argue with the social media experts, so here I am doing the two things they asked me to do:

• Writing a “lists” post (starting now)
• Writing on “trending” topics

So yes, it’s that time of the year again and I must make resolutions. And as I move closer towards closing in on my second year on the job and on my twenty second year staying alive, here’s what I promise to do:

• A Little Less Cynicism, A Little More Ideation – I think it’s safe for me to say that I’m not exactly everyone’s daily dose of sunshine. I wrinkle my nose way too often and leave the room with a bitter after-taste. But well, like my CD once said, “If you can’t think of anything nice to say, make something up.” Those weren’t his exact words of course, but it was something to that effect. So starting 2010, I resolve to spend a lot more time thinking of niceties and spend a lot less time saying “It won’t work”. Perhaps it’ll make me a better person too, but I wouldn’t hold my breath and wait for that one if I were you.
• Swear to Swear Less – Yes, fewer “The fuck is wrong with him/her?”s, “What kind of a retard made this/wrote this/thought of this?”es, “Why are being made to act like boorish idea whores?”es. Come 2010, I’m going to be refined and polished and calm and composed. Some four-lettered words can’t be avoided, of course, and we’ll just have to learn to deal with them even though they taint and mar our otherwise chaste work environment. These include (I’m really beginning to kick ass at these lists):
  • Can’t
  • Won’t
  • Don’t
  • Hmmm
  • Nice
  • Good
  • Okay
  • This. Idea. Can’t. Sell. Crap.

But anything over and beyond is totally and utterly non-permissible. “Love thy client, colleague and vendor and slowly arrive at a state of beatification”, is what I’m going to see myself do. God promise.

• “Why so Serious”, No More – No wise cracks on this one. I’m serious. I take everything (including myself) too seriously and more often than not, it’s not worth it. This doesn’t mean you’ll find me putting on a pair of stilettos and dancing on table tops (erm… I mean, it’s only the end of a year, not the apocalypse, no?) but still… from now on, I will smile at least three times a day without any provocation and be found basking in the warm & toasty warmth of the world. I might even stop biting my nails to get rid of all the nervous tension and start getting manicures with pretty little French tips. Imagine that… Shikha Gupta – copywriter by day, poster girl of exhilaration by night. Kafka didn’t know what he was talking about when he wrote “The Metamorphosis”. Because this, ladies and gentlemen, is the real deal.
• Open to the Idea of an Open Relationship – You know how sometimes you’re working on something and you spend a fair amount of time on it and you think it’s niceish and then when it gets printed you put it up on your desk as a tiny memento for yourself… you know the feeling? And you know how sometimes another agency works on a similar cause/brief and does it well and does it so much better and gets the world to stand up and applaud it and how part of that world includes your team and your client… you know that feeling? If you don’t, let me paint you a pretty little picture. It’s kinda like being married and having your husband drool over your frenemy and tell you how hot she is, is what it’s like. And it makes you want to punch your husband in the face (or wherever it hurts most) and dramatise the whole situation and say, “Yeah, I’m never going to be good enough for you!” But then you arrive at a state of reconciliation (with yourself, not the husband) and understand that some things can never be changed. The grass shall forever be greener on the other side (excuse the cliché) but two can play the game. This for that, tit for tat. It’s very immature, I must admit, but at least I no longer come off as a prude. That, and also, despite all the anger it makes you want to better yourself just so that you can stand up, point and say, “Ha ha! Who’s hotter now, bitch?” So well…
• Stop Inflicting Self Harm – In spite of all my anger and resentment, I don’t come home and slash my wrists every night. No, the self harm I’m talking about is this… ranting and venting without restrain on my blog, pretending that NO ONE will read it. But it does get read. Not read enough to be made into a movie, perhaps, but read nonetheless. And for reasons understandable, I don’t feel like jeopardising my job or career just yet. So from now, everything’s going to be a lot more bowdlerised and cryptic and “read between the lines” types. And you must prod and probe to arrive at the larger truth or forever await your moment of divine revelation.

And there you have it… my plans for 2010. If you can think of anything I can or need to add to this list, do add it. I might even consider it for real. For the rest of you, I’m going to leave you with a little pixie dust to add to your holiday cheer. Poof.

Love & Life… Direct to Home.

Shahrukh Khan has never been one of my favourite brand endorsers. He’s never been much of my favourite anything, actually. And with the new set of ads for Dish TV, I have two more reasons for it. Watch:

It’s strange for something to promise something as big as bringing home life and for the creative to be completely devoid of the sentiment. For all the PR and drama that ensued regarding Khan’s turning old, you’d think they could’ve brought in some of that drama into the ads as well.

But somehow an adopted kid finally being convinced over Tom & Jerry and an extremely unconvincing Khan as an old man didn’t bring in the same kind of charm Aamir and Gul managed to bring in for Tata Sky Plus or even the convoluted emotional hook the Airtel DTH ad thrived on. It’s got someone who’s supposed to be a force to reckon with and it’s still got nothing. Almost tragic like.

Going Viral – Two New Great Ideas

The more I think about it, the more I realise I use words like “great” and “bleh” too easily to describe things I love and hate. But then when I think about it some more, I also realise that I wouldn’t have it any other way to describe what I’m about to describe.

What I’m talking about are two recent attempts (successful attempts) at viral marketing. Few “new media” campaigns have been able to create a stir the way the Whopper Sacrifice campaign did, until now.

The first one was for Ikea, created by Forsman & Bodenfors. I’ve somehow always liked the advertising for Ikea and now with their latest venture into social media, I think I like it still more. And here are my reasons for it. For starters, it makes me happy to think furniture can have life. Which is what Ikea’s advertising somehow always manages to do… like with the “Decorate for the Holidays” campaign. And with the new Facebook campaign, they’ve managed to get people to engage, without trying too hard. That’s the second reason to like it. With the no-reins feel that social media tends to bring along with it, it’s easy to get swept away. But Ikea’s attempt was simply… simple. Not too gimmicky, not overly “Ah, look… we’ve changed the world!” types. And most importantly, it had Ikea involved via their store manger. Which means this wasn’t just something left to the agency to take care of by themselves, but also had the brand’s presence created through their person. And I’ll admit that I am partial to this set of social media advertising only because it makes a lot more sense, even if it isn’t all glitzy and glamorous. So here goes:

The second one I’m talking is for Skype. This isn’t the first time Skype’s gone viral; its earlier “Laughter Chain” was also quite successful. But not Skype launched its first-ever, live streaming campaign where they put a guy in the middle of nowhere, next to a phone booth, gave out the number of the booth to people and got them to get in touch with him… via Skype of course. I can’t think of a better way to get people to try out a service and a better way to get the word going. And it’s exactly this that I love about advertising today… the way you can do absolutely anything and do it all the better than ever before.

Day & Night I Am Waiyting

Bingo chips brought slapstick humour to advertising with an undeniable fervour when it launched. Undeniable and addictive. So much so that it actually keeps you waiting (or… erm… “waiyting”) for the next batch to be doled out with all its inanity. Much like the latest commercial, which is nothing short of entertaining. If there was some place where it did fall short, it was the accent that wavered ever so slightly. Because really, the mark of the authentic Mallu accent is one that’s accentuated by its “crenginess” and never (I say, NEVER!) by its crunchiness.

My personal favourite, of course, remains the “Flip It” commercial but only because it reminds me of my ever-so-flippant clients, who never tire of asking for “more options”. Here’s to them and the ability to laugh at the situation, if only at a later time and date.