I had written about Tata Tea’s 2007 initiative earlier. The difference between ‘being awake’ and ‘awakening’ was brilliantly captured in the Jaago Re ad. I had said that it would take a huge initiative beyond a TVC to bring this idea alive. I think they have found the big idea with the issue of voting. This year’s Tata Tea TVC drives home the point that if you abstain from voting you are shirking responsibility. And…
Add this to the mysteries of the world, but I have been invited by the good folks at Smoking Apples to write for them. They already have a great blog going on all things Apple, so why would they risk having me on board? Check out my first post here. And on a threatening note, I promise to write more for them.
I am sure a lot of people will find the Cadburys 5 Star series of ‘Kho jao’ ads funny. The proposition, ‘Get lost in the taste of 5 Star’ has been given a literal meaning in the creative idea (I wonder what the Creative Brief was) and that has an appeal to a certain section of the audience. I am controlling myself not to use words like ‘juvenile’ and ‘stretched’, but my fingers magically typed…
Closeup’s new TVC is on air in India. The jingle for the commercial has a haunting quality about it – the kind of stuff you keep humming long after you’ve seen the film. Does the film have an idea? Well, iffy. It’s the old time-tested boy meets girl story but the execution, combined with the jingle makes it highly watchable. Some youth brands really try too hard to ‘connect’ with the youth and in the…
One of those ‘I wish I had thought of this’ moments happened today. I discovered the website of a Boston-based advertising agency, Modernista. The agency is known for its work on Hummer and the re-design of the BusinessWeek website. The agency’s website unnerves you for a second – making you wonder if you have landed at someplace you shouldn’t have been. The approach: create a ‘site-less site’ that relies entirely on public resources. In other…
Over the last year or so, Indian agencies and clients have come to terms with the fact that blogs are too important to be ignored. I have been part of meetings where stuff like ‘let us start our own blog’ to ‘how do we get blogs to talk about this?’. Almost every major brand today promises to implement a 360-degree approach. The inclination to be a part of this ‘blog stuff’ is real. The issue…
Now that the headline has got your attention, here’s the point. The iPhone has been declared a dud in India, at least as of now. So one would imagine that mainline dailies would not give undue attention to something that is not creating a buzz in the market. But not a day passes by without mainline dailies and tech sites writing something about the iPhone – usually provocative stuff. What’s the deal? As usual, trust…
I am a big fan of magazines and my collection includes assorted issues of Life (1969 issues!), National Geographic, Wired etc. Among these my favourite in terms of design, typography and photography has always been Rolling Stones. American Society of Magazine Editors are voting for the best magazine covers of 2008. While Rolling Stone does not feature in the list, there are a couple of great covers. Head over here for the full list. Among…
When I joined advertising several years ago, Hovis Bread was almost always mentioned as one of the classics. In fact, a 1973 commercial for Hovis (directed by Ridley Scott) is considered one of advertising’s all-time great ads. There were several charming ads for Hovis during the 1970s (developed by Collett Dickenson Pearce) which were simply gooseflesh stuff. Clarification: I did not join advertising in the ’70s. The opening music of the ads, Dvorak’s “New World”…
Yahoo India has upped the ante on the search engine wars. Thankfully it is not limited to advertising. A new ad campaign, however great, without the platform of a genuine product differentiation is a waste. While Google is almost generic to search, Yahoo could be the default option for many. Personally speaking, I use Yahoo Search as an alternative – so it is in the consideration set. This attempt is to create mind share for…