8/3/2019 To Illustrate the Point an Advertising Guru Makes the Crude

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To illustrate the point an advertising guru makes the crude, but apt comparison that a fish

lays hundreds of eggs in one go but stays quiet about it. A hen lays one egg but announces

it to the world with a loud cockadoodle doo. And the difference is pretty obvious- not many

of us can boast of eating a fish egg whereas most of us cannot do without the hens egg as

part of our daily diet. So if you want your product to be consumed, you better let it be

known to the world. However, there are times when the best of ad campaigns fall short of

sending a clear and desired message to the target audience and end up being exercises in

futility. These are either over ambitious, unrealistic or simply too intelligent for their own

good. Lets try and study a few ad campaigns in recent times that left a void in terms of

creating the right effect and made us believe in the virtue of keep it simple.

1. Motorola (Model No): The ad depicts three men in an office pouring their heads over

certain discrepancies in their financial sheets. The two bosses are interrogating a

subordinate who claims to be totally innocent and unaware of how such a misappropriation

could take place. This is when the subordinates mother calls up on his mobile and the

bosses notice the expensive looking phone. They exchange knowing glances and startquestioning him on when he bought the mobile. The ad hopes to convey in a humorous

manner that it is a cheap phone that looks expensive and if you choose to buy it, please

face the consequences.

Let's for a minute imagine that many youngsters with limited pocket money would like to go

for a contraption that looks far more expensive than it is. But isnt the advertising loud and

clear about the same aspect, which makes the phone model very recognizable and defeats

the whole purpose. What is worse than being stuck with an average looking cheap phone

after all? Being stuck with a phone that set out to look expensive, but looks cheap now

because everybody knows how cheap it is!

2. Maggi Healthy Soups: Now we all know what powdered soups are all about. A

dehydrated glib glob (read mass) of some circumspect vegetables with oodles of

hydrogenated fats and mono sodium glutamate thrown in for flavor. They are high on

convenience and the MSG ensures that we often even end up yearning for these products.

But to actually call them healthy soups is getting a bit over ambitious. Just because you

have printed added calcium, vitamins, iron and what not on the cover is no proof of its

nutritive value. Therefore this ad campaign fails to make a mark. It would be better if they

just highlighted it as an indulgence that any overworked working woman resorts to in order

to feed her family on stressed out days. But show me one woman who serves Maggi noodles

or soups to her kids without an iota of guilt and Ill show you an ad campaign that failed

before it started.

3. Ponds Age Defying Complex: Ok, those on the wrong side of thirty generally know

about the fine lines appearing on their faces, the crows feet, the laugh lines etc. Not that

one is thrilled to bits to see the first signs of aging, but the point is the way in which the

campaign tries to sell the product. To think that their models are basically shown as these

8/3/2019 To Illustrate the Point an Advertising Guru Makes the Crude

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unsure, not-so-confident and unaccomplished women in their late thirties with the sole

ambition of getting their husbands to notice the overnight change in their looks and take

them out for candle lit dinners leaves a lot to be desired. One almost feels like screaming

and telling them, Please go and get a life first. I, for one, would not be caught dead

buying such a cream. Wouldnt it be much better if a campaign celebrates all that a woman

of substance stands for, who is not mortally scared of aging gracefully and definitely not so

insecure about her husband passing her on for someone younger. The ad fails to create a

positive vibe among smart older women of today who would take pride in the wisdom and

maturity that comes with age and managing to look young is just a bonus and not the end

of life.

4. Tata Sky: This ad is planned around the World Cup fever where a person is off on a trip

to the West Indies wearing a costume made out of grass. Hrithik Roshan makes a timely

intervention in the guys holiday plans and suggests watching the matches on Tata Sky with

the possibility of his being the lucky winner and watching the Final in Hrithiks personal

theatre. Is the ad aiming to dissuade people from traveling to an exciting destination wherethey can watch great cricketing action unfold live in front of them? Or is it a small hint that

given the form of the Indian team, it is really not worth going all the way. Whatever be the

intention, the ad fails to make an impact and Hrithik is truly wasted.

5. Guru- Abhi Ash: In recent times this was the most well planned ad campaign to

promote their documentary style movie, Guru, in the theatres. So we had Big B himself

making announcements in the media about how Abhishek had proposed to Aishwarya in the

US where they had gone for the premier and how she said yes and so on. Considering that

both the Bacchan parivar and Ash have spent a major part of the last few months doing the

rounds of all possible temples and shrines under the media glare, why this sudden need toinform the masses of their alliance just a week before the release of Guru. The fact of the

matter is that even though Abhisheks role is reasonably good, once you know it is

Dhirubhai Ambanis story there seems no reason to watch it till the end unless you

romanticize watching a couple about to get married in real life. Thank God the audiences did

not fall for the silly campaign and gave its own verdict