Shotguns in the world of Advertising ;)

First it was Coke and Pepsi; sometimes Burger King took a shot at McDonald's, Kingfisher Airlines aimed at Jet Airways, and recently Horlicks & Complan, two health-drink majors in India, slung mud at each other. And now we have the newest entrants in the arena of Comparative advertising. Well, these are more vague in terms of what they are trying to sell, but they are big players and assuming people already know what they're selling, they could take this risk.
It's a lovely set of ads, witty and serving their apparent purposes of attempting to deface each other in front of their target consumers. Take a look.

Ridiculous Ads Again

ahh.....the sadistic critique in me has risen once more. Well, don't blame me....I have food for thought ;) While last time it was the 'Extended Stay Hotels' group this time it's a candy ad (in print) for Marbles sour candy (from Mentos). Have a look at the ads below.



I'm surprised at the idea of beings puking as an effect of the candy, which ironically has the USP of being an extremely sour candy. The ad was designed by Ogilvy and Mather, Mumbai, India, one of the wittiest pros in creative advertising. They had a sour candy campaign earlier for a gum named 'Centre Shock' and it was simply terrific. Witty humor punched into a punky storyline was blended absolutely perfectly with the product USP.

This is a funny concept; sure it is.....but not for a product that we are trying to entice people to eat/chew/whatever. Yukkkk!!
I love the idea of getting creative and wild with concepts when designing ads for not-so-serious products like gum, but hey, let's tug-on somewhere.

Hate mess food :(

That's a glimpse of some yummy food that I had prepared for bhai and me about 2 months back :) yeah ...i know ... i burnt up the fish a bit......but believe me it tasted good....'coz the condiments got so well-mixed inside the real stuff (that's baked salmon, btw :p ). Then there's a healthy mixed veg item with some italian seasoning tossed in, crunchy lettuce, baby carrot, and tomato salad, with a light vinaigrette dressing, and baked yam, cut up and seasoned with a light brush of olive oil and salt, roasted on a tawa...tikki style, and served with a dash of lemon-pepper dressing.

Ahhhhh.....that was one of the happiest months of my life....I simply had fun....unadulterated.....sans wrung-up thoughts and worries about the serious questions in life....life was like it used to be about 4 years back.....happy :)

Everything was magical.....I was with bhai :)

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Jatua!!

Mr. Jatua, the Minister of state for Information and Broadcasting, said that he was aware that quite a few of the present day ads in India are "deceptive"; e.g. fairness cream ads, and that they would be dealt with, under stipulations of the 'Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995', whenever issues were raised. Well, have we seen the Advertising Standards Council of India (“ASCI”) terms of regulation on ads? AMBIGUITY is the keyword. The job of the ad guy is to make a cute ad, just ensure it's saleable in the market at which the ad/product per se is targeted, and relish the ecstasy of success. NO RULES in the ad world here ;)

As long back as in 1928, Braithwaite (wrote that the primary motive behind a producer’s advertising decision is that advertising has the potential to concentrate demand upon the sponsored brand and hence provide the corresponding producers with increased monopoly power in the market; in simple English....the ad should be able to ease the product in to the market. The Economists Advisory Group (1967) and Batra, Myers, and Aaker (1996) referred to this potential in advertising as persuasion. Since we can't go about coaxing the potential buyer into purchasing the product we have to hit the right chord in their head, so that they feel the need for the product, while also believing that this one's the best bet for them. When the market is flooded with umpteen no. of look-alikes, what does the poor ad guy do? Spend the bucks and say "ME TOO"? Well?
Hmm....so they go about deceiving in some way or the other. Remember the funny Fairglo ad? "Yeh hai Mr. Kale, Mrs. Kale" (well Kale is a Maharashtrian surname, and PUN INTENDED, it also means black in Hindi, the language in which the ad spoke); and then we are introduced to Ms. Gore, the FAIR young daughter of the Kale couple, who apparently got bleached?? into a fair shade by a Fairglo soap. Somehow the ad was funny, the creative team managed to make the characters look thus. Well, the ad was ordered to be discontinued by the ASCI, under recommendations of the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) that it was discriminatory and offensive. But well, all the other fairness creams work the same way.....they break just as many rules that the ASCI and the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 flaunt and which Mr. Jatua swears by. However, I understand, since no one has raised the issue yet ...they won't regulate the ads or their resp. contents.

Arererere..... Shahrukh bhai.......Aap bhi??

The recent ad wars between Horlicks and Complan also break the rules...BIG TIME. They are hugely deceptive, and to a more vulnerable clan of consumers. Well, the Coke & Pepsi ads can get away under terms of being ambiguous in naming the brands they were fighting. However, the issue here is not about taming ads and stripping them down to the boring product-detail levels....Yawn!!...but at least remove these pretentious stipulations when they are never conformed to.