Have you noticed that some of the old spots of Fevicol are back on air? This 2003 spot perhaps started the trend of conveying the brand promise of ‘sticks anything’. Fevikwik, with a ‘sticks in an instant’ proposition has also got its famous ‘fishing rod’ commercial back. While the strike rate of Fevicol has been fairly high (I loved the bus one and the kid wandering off), they’ve had some bouncers along the way. The…
A print campaign for an advertising festival – awarding Effective Advertising is doing the rounds of the ad blogs. The campaign’s central idea is to say that effective advertising makes even a bald man buy a hair dryer. The website for 100Watt even has a TVC explaining the same idea. The campaign is getting some positive comments. But this is the kind of stuff that gives advertising a bad name. Many believe advertising seduces…
Came across this article at The Unofficial Apple Weblog: one of the bloggers bought a Macbook Pro last week. And this week a new version of Macbook Pro was launched. Instead of whining and cursing his luck, the author went to the Apple Store and spoke to them. They looked at the receipt and asked if he wanted a new one. Simple. When I took my MacBook Pro to the Apple Store, they immediately looked…
Social service ads could perhaps fall into two broad categories: those that urge you to feel differently and those that urge you to act differently. The former could include changing habits or attitudes – urging you to not drink & drive, urging you to quit smoking, save the environment etc. The latter could include messages that compel you to take some specific action – reduce driving speed by 5 km/h, have a designated driver for…
You thought the oldies (ahem) haven’t a clue about blogging? And that they are scared of technology and new media? Have a rethink – here is an awesome blog from an 82-year old woman in Texas: MargaretandHelen. She writes about politics in general and her acerbic wit is simply awesome. No wonder she gets over a 1000 comments on a single post! I would give my left arm for that kind of talent. I hope…
I have briefly touched upon some of the critical issues facing the advertising industry in this blog – the oft-quoted talent crunch, new business pitch shenanigans, attitude towards new media and such. But I have skimmed the surface and have only whined about the problems, never presented any concrete solutions. Not to mention being unhappy about the quality of writing (as always). I was thrilled to discover Ad Contrarian, a blog from an agency CEO in…
Today is Blog Action Day and I thought I would write about an advertising campaign that has some relevance to the issue of poverty. In India, eradicating poverty has been a slogan since the ’70s. Garibi Hatao (eradicate poverty) has unfortunately remained a slogan. Us Indians come face to face with poverty almost every day. In cities like Mumbai, slums thrive cheek by jowl with the most expensive property on earth. It is common to…
There are several subscription based websites that showcase the best of global print, TV and Outdoor ads. Best Ads on TV is one of them and I recently discovered their video podcast. Sure, the content over there is already available on the web, but the video podcast does two things: increases the probability of viewing the content (because it is available offline on iTunes and on the iPod, if its transferred), increases the viewership base…
Here is an election campaign with a difference. It’s election time in New Zealand and it’s Green Party is running an outdoor campaign focusing on what it stands for: the environment. Via Campaign Brief New Zealand A far cry from the theme of political advertising in India. Wonder when we will reach such evolved levels of sophistication and simplicity of message?
On October 15th bloggers are being encouraged to publish posts that discuss poverty in some way. This is an initiative of Blog Action Day, for the second year running. The objective: by all posting on the same day we aim to change the conversation that day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause, says the website. It asks bloggers to publish at least one post, video or podcast…