Advertising Opinions

 Last year we saw an interesting TV campaign by Union Bank of India. It was a three ad campaign featuring Ajit Tendulkar (Sachin’s brother), Aruna Anand (Vishwanathan Anand’s wife) and Manoj Singh (Vijender Singh’s brother) and was listed among the top ten in 2011 by All About Ads (NDTV Profit). This campaign is based on the insight that an individual does not fulfil his dreams only through his own efforts, but people close to him have crucial roles to play in fulfilling his dreams; this is the theme of the campaign as well. The actual advertising message, to my mind, is that Union Bank of India can help you achieve your dreams; this message is not said in so many words but is implied. The campaign is targeted at the youth who have dreams and need some help, in this case financial, to achieve them. The Bank had also organized an event in Mumbai where people we invited to talk about their dreams and Union Bank offered to help them fulfil them through their various loans which are av...

In the post below my co-blogger Shilpi Bose makes her observations on acting by models in three TV commercials which were released in the year 2011.   Aroop Bose  When films are discussed or reviewed, the review or discussion focuses on the story, script, direction other technical aspects and above all the performances of the actors. However when ad films are discussed, what do you hear? Is the ad cutting through the clutter? Has it managed to grab the attention of the target audience? What was the advertiser’s message? Nothing wrong with this after all the whole purpose of an ad is to grab attention, but I have very seldom seen anyone drawing attention to the performance of the actors in an ad film. I think that is pity for good acting helps grab the audience attention.  Sometime back I had done this post -- Celebrity Non-Actors and Non-Celebrity Actors which focused on good acting. Now once again I would like to highlight some more ads where the acting riveted my...

In this post I would like to briefly discuss my favourite ads of the year 2011: Policybazar.com Airtel Bournville Tata Sky – Poochneme kya jata hai Volkswagen – Metallic press ad Tanishq – Mr. & Mrs. Bachchan Greenply Laminates – Always Hoyenga   I have also given links to our earlier posts or to the relevant TV commercials, so read on ... Policybazar.com This is a very entertaining and humourous TV commercial. It shows a man being turned into an ullu or owl quite literally. What I like most in the ad is the manner in which the voice-over says “ Ullu banna koi achchi baat to hai nahin… ” (Becoming an owl is not really a good thing). Ullu banna is a Hindi phrase meaning getting fooled or cheated. Humour has been used very effectively to convey the message that one needs to do a proper study before buying an insurance policy and Policybazar.com will help you do that. Link to the ad Policy Bazar Ad - Ullu Campaign   Airtel   This TV commercial has an ...

Perfetti is known for its brands like Alpenliebe, Center Fresh, Big Babol, Happydent, Chlormint, Mentos and others. What is interesting is that humour has been used very effectively in promoting these brands over several years. The company has now entered the snack food business with Stop Not Golz . Following their tradition the advertising for Stop Not Golz also takes the humour route. The TV commercial shows a battle scene, soldiers are busy fighting except for one soldier (for the sake of convenience let me call him the Golz soldier) who is absolutely unconcerned about the battle; his attention is only on a pack of Stop Not Golz . Though I have always enjoyed watching Perfetti product ads because of the humour and I also rate them very high, this ad of  Stop Not Golz is absolutely in bad taste and blatantly disrespectful to the armed forces, all in the name of humour. No the ad is not funny at all although it pretends to be. There is a sequence in the ad which shows another s...

Ever since the insurance sector opened up several new players have entered the fray, each trying to make a place for itself. In the good old days the life insurance sector was synonymous with Life Insurance Corporation of India or LIC, a public sector undertaking, which was the only player. Since there was no competition the advertising was relatively basic. LIC did not have to worry about competition; it only had to fight resistance of people towards life insurance.   Times have changed, now there are many private players, at least 22 of them other than LIC. Life insurance plans earlier comprised mainly of whole life and endowment and few others. Today we have ULIP linked policies, special policies for children’s education and more addressing different needs. Not only have the offerings of life insurance companies become innovative, ads have also become interesting. Aviva Life Insurance and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance rely on celebrities – Sachin Tendulkar ( Aviva ) and Amita...

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...

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...