Advertising Opinions

When you think of Tata Sky Aamir Khan its brand ambassador is always top of mind. Aamir Khan has been associated with the brand since its inception; he was featured in about a dozen Tata Sky TV commercials and each one of these had an interesting story to tell. We have seen him as half-man & half-woman, a salesman, an old sardar, a milkman, a Bengali babu stereo type, as Gul Panang’s husband, as a ventriloquist, as himself, and there were more. The celebrity was used quite obviously to draw attention to the brand; Tata Sky’s nearest competitor Dish TV also had a major cel...

The international tyre brand Michelin recently announced its presence in the Indian market with a print campaign. The ad which is a print version of their television commercial, appealed to the child in me thanks to the Michelin Man and the cute looking animals. The claim in the advertisement that the tyre helps the vehicle stop upto three feet shorter is in a way similar to the Ceat bike tyre claim that focuses on the driver being able to stop the vehicle in the nick of time. However, while Ceat bike tyre deals with the foolishness and carelessness of people, Michelin’s message is that the tyre prevents the death of innocent animals on highways and lonely stretches of road. Since I found the print ad appealing I searched the internet for Michelin tyre commercials and there were quite a few interesting commercials but what I found more interesting were the comments. It’s quite obvious that people have a sort of emotional bond and there is also a sense...

In this post I would like to recall and comment on five noteworthy ads which were released in 2010: 1.  LIC of India – Father & Daughter Sometimes talking about death can be a tricky although it is inevitable, no one likes to be reminded that he will die. Here is an example; once I happened to witness a young man trying to sell life insurance to someone. The young insurance agent began his talk by saying “Suppose you suddenly die …” his prospective client looked unpleasantly surprised and jovially requested him not to remind him about his death. Once a gentleman told me that he always tried to avoid a certain insurance agent because he was reminded of death whenever he met him, such people are resistant to life insurance. In order to avoid the unpleasant topic of death some insurance agents try to sell life insurance as an alternate savings plan where risk is also covered, the word risk means ‘If you were to die suddenly’. Some agents prefer t...