What an IDEA Sirji

Yet another campaign from IDEA cellular. The theme is fantastic and with stars as Abhishek Bachchan it definitely draws attention of the viewers.

The theme goes like this... A small village gets caught into riots. After a lot of devastation around, finally two fighting groups come together in front of the "Sarpanch" to resolve the issue. But, the fight starts again, in the meeting itself. And suddenly the phone rings. The Sarpanch gets a brillian IDEA and announces that no one would be known by his or her name any more, but everyone will be identified just by a mobile phone number!! And with that the village seems to be happy and enjoying the life. The nameplates on the doors are replaced with the mobile numbers, the statues, the banners everything. The Sarpanch is very happy and his aid apprises - "What an IDEA, Sirji!! " And obviously followed by IDEA punch line - "An IDEA can change your life!!"

The ad definitely is a genius concept where it points out the fallacies of our believes and helps people to realize that name has nothing to do with how that person is. If names are replaced with the phone numbers, then there will be no way to identify if the person is from upper class or from lower class, from Hindu community or from Muslim and thereby reducing the chances of unnecessary clashes.

The ad happens on the backdrop of a village in UP or Bihar. The sets and the cast are very much matching the theme. and overall leaves a very good impression.

However ... :) I have a few doubts about the success of this theme.

First of all, IDEA is an established brand with very well reach within the circles. I don't think they need a campaign emphasizing on the brand. This commercial focuses more on the brand, than it's services and affordability. My general feeling about this ad, after watching it a few times, is that it in general promotes the mobile service and not the IDEA service. Vodafone or BSNL can run the same campaign with the brand changed. Then what is IDEA achieving out of this commercial?

Watch the video live on: Any Hindi channel or at youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STZAcD2R6YI

Everything is the same, except the name

What else, other than identical twins, can represent this concept? A very cute ad that captures the exact theme of brand name change from UTI Bank to AXIS Bank.

A cute little girl, all in pink, enters a class room and asks sweetly, "May I come in teacher?". Teacher takes a look at the girl and nods. The girl enters the room and finds a place in a corner bench for herself. Even before she is settled down, another similar voice comes "May I come in teacher?" And when the teacher turns to the door, to her surprise, she finds the same little girl again at the door. Not understanding what's happening, teacher looks back to the place where first girl was sitting, only to realize that they are twins. The second girl enters the room and sits next to her sister. And caption appears:

"Everything is the same, except the name. UTI bank is now AXIS bank."

A direct impact ad, guaranteeing a same level of service to the customers even though there's a brand change. This ad definitely succeeds in conveying this message to the customer and retains their confidence.

When I first saw this ad, I got curious. Why they are changing the name? And if they are changing the name for whatever reason, why can't they attribute it to the requirement of improvement in the service? All of these questions got answered in a recent article in business standard. A good read.

When I read the article, the ad made more sense to me and I can say that this ad is having the exact impact that creators wanted.

Here is the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7vOj5tX3mg

The ad creator: Ogilvy & Mather Advertising

Apache RTR 160

Can you think of an interesting way to teach Newton's law? Look at this Apache RTR 160 ad. It teaches the Newton's first law in an amazing fashion:

Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

Two sequences go in parallel. A professor is teaching the law in the classroom and at the same time the bike is zooming through the roads. As the professor reaches towards the end of the statement, a beautiful, sexy girl appears in the scene and bike suddenly comes to an halt.

This is not all. The cool part comes towards the end of the ad.

After that the guy on the bike reaches college and is about to enter the classroom. The professor turns and says, "You missed your theory class. Where were you?". The guy blushes and answers -- "Learning practical !!!!!!". So cute, isn't it?

Many things to be noticed in this ad. The good mixture of the two tracks - classroom and the bike, the way the bike comes to halt and to top all this, the expressions given by guy when answers the professors question. The way he blushes is terrific.

A really cool ad. Watch it on any of the channels or view it on youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYjgfs1JE7I

Lux commercial - सूरत भी है खूबसूरत भी है

This Lux soap commercial is being broadcasted for quite some time and I am trying to understand it since then. But no luck. The theme has not made much sense to me so it will be difficult to narrate it correctly. I just remember the first line of the jingle.

"surat bhi hai khubsurat bhi hai"

Even the multiple tries on google didn't reveal much information about this ad (including youtube). So can't provide more information.

Amul - The Taste Of India

One of the oldest advertisement that has started appearing again on the television these days and it's none other than - Amul - The Taste Of India - Milk and Milk products campaign. A nicely done ad. I'd rather say it's a short film depicting all the processes involved in this co-operative movement from Milk collection to processing, involving various elements of the society, right from the women carrying milk to the collection center to the persons processing it. Also includes the families of those women. The ad ends with a fantastic line:

"Every morning 17 Lac women across 9,000 villages, bringing in milk worth Rs 4 Crores are now celebrating their economic independence. thanks to the co-operative movement call Amul"

I am sure these numbers are pretty old now and they must have increased by substantial amount.

What I like about this ad?
The melodious song and smiles on the faces of women participated in the ad

You can watch this ad at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW9DSUbZX34

जो आया वो जायेगा ... Centre fresh - जुबां पे रखे लगाम

Another comedy ad that brings smile to my face every time I watch it.

A lonely road... On the way there's a bridge. Only few cattle crossing the bridge. A motor comes and stops. 4 persons, maphia gang, steps out. They carefully look all around and see only the cattles coming there way. Feeling safe, they took out a dead body from the car and throw it in the river. When they return, to their surprise, they saw a dwarf shepherd watching all this act closely from behind the cattle. Suddenly realizing that this person could be threat to them, they decide to take him to the task.

The moment, two of them pick the shepherd up, he starts acting as if he can't speak and tries to assure that he won't utter a single word about what all he has seen. The leader, with an opened shoe lace, decides to leave the shepherd and all of them start returning to the car.

And there comes the misfortune of the shepherd. He sees the opened shoe lace and .... say ... "bhaisaab, aap kaa shoe lace ....." realizes what he has just done ...." khul gayaa hai" ... Background song throws the gyan - "Jo aayaa wo jaayegaa".... with a punch line "Center Fresh, Jubaan pe rakhe Lagaam"


Relive the full ad here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZh2A2C7sHY

What I like most about this?
The expressions given by the shepherd are superb, specially when he realizes that he has committed a big mistake and that is going to cost his life. Complete helplessness and fear appear on his face.

ABN Amro

Let me start this blog with a very fantastic and interesting commercial from ABN Amro credit cards.

A group of dacoits starts robbing the train. The leader is snatching everything from each passanger including jewellery, cash everything, even the gold plated teeth from an aged person. In the process, they reach a person who apparantly doesn't have any cash, but only a credit card from ABN Amro bank. A nice sleek green colored transparent card... the moment the leader sees that, it return the credit card to the owner... and to the surprise of everyone, including all the dacoits, he, the leader returns some cash - punch line come - "Guaranteed Cash back - everytime!! India's first transparent credit card"

Things that I like about this ad - a fantastic use of the punch line and the word "transparent". The credit card itself is transparent, additionally hinting to the transparncy in the operations.

BTW: I was searching for the clipping on youtube, but didn't see it. Anyone has a link?

Party with Priyanka

"Ek idea, badal de aap ki duniyaa"...

Idea has launched a campaign where 50 lucky winners will get a chance to party with Priyanka Chopra. Ad starts with Priyanka Chopra vacationing on a beach, then appears a young model holding her hand, then a whole bunch of guys follow this couple. Same thing repeats when Priyanka is drinking coconut water, same coconut is shared by 50 odd guys along with the actress. And the punch line says - "Partying with me, is a good idea", followed by the actual product - spice phone budled with Idea connection.

It might be a dream come true for many of the youngsters to meet Priyanka and spend time with her. But the real question is would anybody really want it to share with 50 other folks? And most importantly, how would Priyanka handle this big bunch of fans? Interesting, isn't it?

We have seen some similar offers - date with Hritik, Date with Kareena etc. The fair part with these offers was that there was supposed to be only one lucky person and not a group of 50 folks and hence a definitely attractive proposition. But what's so attractive about this ad? Just the Priyanka Chopra? After all may not be ...

watch the video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8u1uksZw4