Advertising Opinions

Hindustan Unilever Limited launched a campaign for Dove Shampoos just around the time summer had set in this year; the campaign is on right now while I write this blog. The ad copy is pretty direct and reads: ‘Normal anti-dandruff dry your hair. Dove is different. NO DANDRUFF NO DRYNESS.’ The model is shown wearing, what looks like, a woolen pullover; she is shown to be pulling up the neck of the pullover which is a normal behaviour of a person who is feeling very cold. Some white specks are shown on her hair, what are they? Dandruff? No, does not seem like because these specks are very large for dandruff flakes, are they snowflakes? I really have no idea. I like the ad for its straightforwardness but I do not understand why it was given a wintry look when the campaign was launched in summer.

Over the years, especially in the last ten years or so there has been a profusion of institutes offering courses in various foreign languages, English tops the list. The claims made in the advertisements placed by these institutes are quite interesting, while some are downright humorous, others are totally bizarre. Some institutes teach American style English, some teach neutral English, (what is neutral English? I have no idea); there is one which teaches ‘Stylish English’ , you can see their wall paintings along the railway line in the Western Suburbs of Mumbai. Two or three years ago I had noticed press advertisements of one institute which said ‘Learn to speak English like Parsis and Catholics’ . But what takes the cake was a poster campaign I witnessed a year ago in Bandra, I do not recall the name of the institute but I do recall some of the copy matter which said: ‘Learn to speak English like James Bond and hypnotize people with your talk………..’ I don’t remember the entire copy