Between the Briefs

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.

It’s not everyday that you get to see good advertising for juice. Nothing beyond the “100% natural. All fruit.” kind of messaging. Which is why when I saw the TVC for the new brand of Saint Juice, an uninterested “Ho-hum” was all I could manage. This, despite the fact that the execution was quite neat.

Directed by Prakash Varma, Nirvana Films, Bangalore

However, a chance discussion at work about the TVC got someone to share Saint’s print ads. I haven’t actually seen them in print, but I have to say it’s been long since I saw copy-based advertising that made me feel like there’s still hope for us copywriters.

I particularly like this last one. And just for that, Mr. Raj Kurup and team at Creativeland Asia, thank you.

For quite sometime now, everyone’s been talking about reality television and how it’s taken over our lives. But the new set of campaigns for Dove got me thinking about reality advertising and how it’s so much more effective at getting people to listen and, well, be a part of it.

I suppose if we are speaking of Dove, the whole aspect of “reality advertising” is not exactly new. Dove has, for almost always now, harped on its “real beauty, real women” aspect in all of its communication. Its “Campaign for Beauty” has known its share of success by just making women feel good about themselves.

So sometime early in 2009, Dove in India brought in its classic “Half Face” challenge, asking women to share their experience in switching from soap to “one-quarter cleansing cream”.

A billboard asking women for half their face

Of course “real” women participated and got to feature on the TVCs, with a few teasers prior to the actual revelation showing the women fumbling as they delivered their shots. I don’t have the set of these commercials, so you’ll just have to make do with these:

Then there’s the Damage Care Expert set of commercials, also adapted from the US. Although the TVCs don’t offer much to write home about, I did like the copy on the print and outdoor advertising. Here’s one of them:

A Dove print ad

Following suit in the same category, Pears is asking for mom’s to send in photos of themselves with their kids to indicate the innocence & purity of the soap is like the mother-child relationship. Not half as effective in my opinion, at least from where I’m standing.

A Pears print ad

And I just haven’t been able to make any sense of the TVC that talks about Humayan and Babar and whatnot. Please let me know if you can:

At the other end of the spectrum is reality advertising that has tried to become a movement of sorts, while pushing the actual product somewhere in the background. After the whole noise Jaago Re raked up around the elections, it’s now back with the”Khilana bandh, pilana shuru” campaign. Even thought I really like the commercial, I don’t see it creating as much of a stir. Perhaps it’s because there’s only so much of it that people can take, these causes, or perhaps it hasn’t gone as all out as the previous campaign. Whatever the reason, I do hope it evolves further. ‘Cause I just don’t think taking a pledge online is going to be enough to do this.

But I suppose looking at the certain campaigns that have done well while adopting this “real” approach, you can only wait for more advertising that will do the same. Because it’s really just a win-win situation for everyone. The people forget that advertising is advertising as they finally want to believe what they hear, and for the advertiser, it quells the existential brouhaha that arises ever so often about why we do what we do and what good will come off of it.

The first time I saw this, I just caught the ending where the man smiles at the female actor in the ad. And I thought KFC was going the Mc Donald’s way where a father brings his daughter along to get her to agree to marriage or something. But when I finally saw the entire commercial, I was a little confused. I just cannot bring myself to understand why they chose the people they did for the commercial. Am I missing something here?

This is for anyone who ever saw a commercial and said, “Geez, it’s just bottled water.” Because nothing, NOTHING in advertising, is ever what it is.

After the crazy “Live Young” ad for Evian, here’s one for Kinley by Ogilvy, Delhi. If one is selling the Fountain of Youth, the other will sell you hope in a bottle.

Film produced by Foot Candles.

What happens when you sell bottled water with the “Live Young” proposition without using the whole “pure, healthy” approach…

Watch the making of the video. It makes stuffing women and children into egg-shelled suits seem like a cakewalk.

The Evian microsite has more.