The Daily Chime

Over this summer, I had access to what we usually don’t, television. Being kept away from television, I hadn’t seen ads for a year. This post is a sequel to a post of mine about a year ago. This year, I was surprised that Pepsi and Coke did not come up with ads lashing out at each other as fervently as they did years before. Also, the quality of ads were not as good as they used to be. I can only name a handful of ads which are worth a mention.

Monster com’s ad about ‘being caught in the wrong job’, in my opinion, is the best ad of the summer. Unlike jobsahead’s rather pessimistic ad campaign of taking about its site when a batsman gets out, both naukri and monster have chosen an optimistic (a better) outlook. Naukri’s “Hari Sadu” ad (H for Hitler …) is a close match to the monsters. Over the years as well, these two companies have come up with good ads like “Aladdin: he is gonna be rich” among others. I think positive tone to the ads is very important in luring people to such sites.

HSBC’s ‘world local bank’ ad and the slogan ‘understanding your needs better’ is yet another example on how abstract advertising is a great idea. A simple issue like torn jeans being stylish for the daughter and a completely opposite view of the mother brings about the idea that the bank changes according to your need. Earlier this summer, HSBC floated another ad (animated) with months of years making up a car or a house. Though it would have made a great idea for a hoarding, it was ordinary on television.

Sania Mirza’s question-answer session turned out to be one of those ‘good-to-watch-ones-irritating-the-next-time’ ads. The worst in the bag of soft drink ads was Aamir Khan’s ‘thanda samosa’ ad. It is unlike soft drink manufacturers not to come up with good ads especially during summer.

Running up to the foot ball world cup, several ads were featured on football. Adidas ad on two young boys choosing their teams has a touch of brilliance. Also in the context is a well done ad by Maruti Swift, the one with the car playing around with the foot ball. There was one more ad by adidas or nike in which a foot ball is passed around in two lifts until a trophy is captured using the ball. That was choreographed extremely well.

Again, the ads by soaps, shampoos and detergents haven’t explored outside their domain. There are as boring as they can get. It can only take a genius to come up with ‘nihar mein hai kudrat ki sakhi’ for a coconut oil product. We will have to wait and watch before any other product comes up with ideas like that. Till my next vacations, no more television ads on this blog.

# posted by Shankar : 3:30 AM