Advertising Opinions

I am not much of a supporter of using celebrities in advertisements but at times celebrities may be necessary when the ad agency runs out of creative ideas. There are two (celebrity) ad campaigns which have foxed me totally; one is a TV commercial for Ujala Supreme and the other is of Nano Clean – a range of liquid cleaners. Ujala uses Sachin Tendulkar and Nano Clean uses Amitabh Bachchan. Ujala is a well known liquid blue brand which has been in the market for many years, as far as I know the sales of this product has grown over the years. I therefore wonder why they needed celebrity endorsement now, and why Sachin Tendulkar? In what way does he contribute to the brand? My personal feeling tells me that Sachin was a wrong choice for a product category like this; his endorsement will have no significant value. With or without Sachin the  effect of the ad campaign is unlikely to be any different. It was possible that the sale graph for Ujala was not moving upwards any more, perhaps...

On the morning of May 29, 2012 I picked up The Times of India to check the headlines and noticed a refreshing aroma of freshly brewed coffee hitting my nostrils. At first I thought someone in the neighbourhood was preparing coffee but I knew very well that it could not be so; from where was the coffee aroma coming from I wondered? I realized that it came from the newspaper I was holding, did someone spill coffee on it? No the aroma emanated from an advertisement of Hide & Seek – Caffé Mocha, a new variant of Parle Hide & Seek biscuits just launched. How did the coffee aroma get into the press ad? I learnt from Everest Brand Solutions, the ad agency handling the account, that the paper was first sprayed with the coffee odour and then printed; after that the paper was once again sprayed with the coffee odour. I have known eye-catching ads but this is a case of a ‘nose catching’ ad, the coffee aroma actually directs you to the ad and makes you take notice of it. The reader is also...