Friday, March 9, 2012

The Hindu - Extremely Effective Ad

I got introduced to this ad through a friend of mine as a comment on my other post related to online advertising. The ad is surely a gem, a must watch, and that is why here I am, writing about it :)

The ad starts with a fairly bland mechanism of taking a survey, apparently surveying the college going students. The questions are pretty simple, so to say and doesn't really need one to comb his/her brain for the answers, well... only if you are reading right things. Questions like "meaning of UPA" - no one is able to answer, about Dhyanchand - respondents were completely ignorant. This heightens when one of the fellow student answers that Ratan Tata's son would be his successor and names him as "Mukesh Ambani"...

By this time the curiocity is at it's height. Are the college students so ignorant about the latest happenings around? Don't the read even the newspaper, forget about in-depth study of some subject or GK for that matter. The last but one question, kind of hints where it is going. Each one of the respondents was feeling triumphant while answering the question - they really knew the answer to the question - What is the nickname of Hritik Roshan (a well known Bollywood star) - Unanimous answer was "Duggu" which obviously was correct. While the answering students were joyous about their answer, next question came - which paper do you read? ...

And it makes it all clear. Each one of them uttered the same name, which very shrewdly is "beeped", but gives sufficient hint to the audience which name is being pronounced. And then follows the punch line -
STAY AHEAD OF THE TIMES
 And a rolling paper comes with it's name on it - The Hindu

Many things to note. A perfect college audience and backdrop picked up for this ad. The respondents chosen seem to be from varied background/culture occupying various places in the college campus - one is doing his exercises, another one just lazying around in the canteen, yet another just standing in the college lobby etc. The expressions given by each kiddo (well ... ) are perfect and do not look like made up expressions. This makes the overall plot very genuine and essentially makes you very susceptible for the last punch.

See the ad here