Advertising Opinions

On November 14, 2011 the Mumbai Mirror carried a rather unusual ad (shown above). It was from an ad agency called Joshbro Communications; this agency wants to recruit people.  At first glance it appears to be an ad from O&M; the ad gives a fairly detailed map showing how to reach O&M but wants job seekers to send their applications to Joshbro instead. I wondered if Joshbro’s office was located somewhere close to O&M’s office, I checked their site and found this was not the case. I found this ad bizarre, why mention O&M? How can this agency compare itself to O&M? The ad undoubtedly succeeded in drawing attention but it was of the wrong kind. I wonder why the agency did not give their own address or at least could have mentioned their website which it did not do; is the agency not proud of itself? When I checked Joshbro’s website I found that some of the work done by them for their clients were pretty good. Joshbro perhaps wanted to present a r

I have been toying with the idea of writing about the Airtel – “Har ek friend zaroori hota hai” campaign but for some reason or the other was not able to do so, I have decided to do it now; better late than never. The fact that friends are important in one’s life is usually taken for granted although it is a very important aspect of life; you realize its true value only when you are lonely. Everyone needs friends regardless of age, not only does one needs friends one also needs friends of different kinds and abilities, that’s what makes life meaningful, purposeful and interesting. Airtel’s current ad campaign is based on this simple insight; I do not think one needs to do elaborate market research to arrive at the conclusion that everyone needs friends. Something as common as this has been very effectively used in the ad campaign, all the ads in this campaign have been executed very well -- they can really charge you up. When I first saw the ad I had mixed feeli

  Suzlon, a leading in wind power company launched a new ad campaign very recently called p.a.l.s (an acronym for Pure Air Lovers Society). The campaign comprised television, press and also digital media; a website -- http://pals.in has also been launched. The whole purpose of this initiative is to form a community of like-minded people who believe in keeping the air clean and also the environment clean and can also spread the message to others. The campaign addresses the youth. Suzlon is committed to sustainable development and wishes to go beyond business, beyond making wind turbines and connect with the common people with a message on caring for the environment. With this initiative the company wishes to bring about a ‘Clean Air Revolution in India’ (For more on this please read Suzlon powers new campaign for cleaner air called p.a.l.s ) While I found the press campaign quite eye-catching I cannot say the same about the TV commercial (TVC), in fact in the be