Sunday, November 18, 2007

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

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