Ad world…

Ads have always been my favorite pass time; I enjoy watching them and analyzing them.

The other day I was watching this program the world's very funny ads on TV. There was this whimsical ad by Mc Donald’s which was quiet funny. It’s a Mc Donald’s ad from other country which goes like this. There was a small boy who asks his dad ‘what is sex’. The father then takes him to Mc Donalds and explains the whole of it… aha we can only hear the background music ;)… the small boy then takes out a form to fill up from his bag showing a small box after the column sex and asks his father ‘will all that fit in this small box?’ hahaha funny isn’t it??? Well I liked the message they wanted to convey though, they were showing Mc Donalds as a place where people can feel free as home and have an open conversation.

Though I am very much fascinated with ads I actually doubt if they would increase the sales directly. I am sure they would increase awareness, but do they really boost the sales… not always… that is what happened with Hutch. Do u remember the ‘You and I in the beautiful world’ ad by Hutch? they focused on something but people caught something else. Just to remind you.. it was an ad where a small puppy keeps following a boy with the song ‘You and I in the beautiful world’ in the background (very catchy song indeed). Well they wanted to show that their network follows where ever you go but ultimately something else caught the viewers more… the sales of the particular breed of the dog they were showing soared but not the Hutch. Well its quiet difficult to catch the pulse of the people.

Sometimes it’s a caption which catches people. Example santoor, from years they have been using the same dialogue… ‘College aur main’ and then a girl comes in calling mummy… they have changed many models… many directors but the concept has been same. Infact it has become so popular that we use santoor as a word to describe a younger looking girl… just like googling instead of searching.

One more ad which is in the list of my favorites is LML ad… it came long time back with Madhavan as ambassador which goes like this. School children stand outside the gate with a donation box in their hands circulating the pamphlets for donations. People just take the pamphlets and crumple the paper without even reading it and the kids end up without any donation in their box. Then comes Madhavan riding his LML trendy, he happens to notice the kids, comes to them and gives them an idea. The kids then crumpled the pamphlets and started circulating them, people when handed over the crumpled paper, became curious and opened them to read. Ultimately people started giving donations after reading them. A very good ad indeed. Played on people’s psychology, that is how people are. While the message they wanted to convey is, the vehicle is so very simple that u need not concentrate on driving, you can think while driving. Madhavan got the idea to crumple the paper while driving. In software language ‘multi tasking’, which I am very poor at. Reminds me of my chat with Kalyani the other day. While I was talking on phone with my friend Shravan, my other friend Kalyani happened to come online. Instead of typing ‘I am on phone’, I typed ‘I am on road’ as I was discussing on some roads and maps with Shravan… :))