Unapologetic & guilt-free
4Ps B&M Take: First the good part… this one steers away from the curious stereotype of condom television commercials in India – where either the characters seem to be indulging in something illicit or else pretending that condoms are a desperate precaution against having too many children or merely an AIDS-prevention machine. Unapologetic and guilt-free condom advertising is hence in itself a bonus, but to have it tastefully executed – minus the overtly erotic and contrived gestures – is an even bigger relief. The TVC starts with a scene from a football field. A player is seen sleeping peacefully in the middle of a game, even as his bemused colleagues look on. The second is of a radio jockey who slips into dreamland while his show is on-air. And the last one is of a teacher… who blissfully falls asleep while writing on the blackboard, much to the surprise of her students. The message? ‘XXX Condoms… they’ll keep you up all night.’ This one stands out for its tasteful execution in a category known for either guilt-driven or drab advertising. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve that perfect mix of cinematography, humour and most importantly the emotional connect – an experience which the audiences find important enough to remember and one that resonates for a long time.
Blink and you miss it
4Ps B&M Take: You rope in a celebrity brand ambassador; spend lakhs in signing up drop-dead gorgeous models (not one but three of them), go through the pains of developing an interesting storyboard … and then goof up on the execution and deliver a blink-and-you-miss advertisement. Well, that just about sums up the latest Aramusk deodorant commercial – from the Wipro stable. So you have Bollywood cutie Shahid Kapoor literally bathing himself in the deodorant and venturing out on business. He gets into this tube and barring one woman who is literally giving him the cold shoulder, all the hot babes vie to sit next to him. Yes, because he smells so good of course. But he politely lets the opportunity pass, gets up from his seat offering it to the girls. Later we get to know that he was actually in the tube to placate his angry girlfriend. Yeah, that’s the one giving him the cold shoulder. Nothing fancy about the idea. It’s really more of the same as far as the deodorant category goes. But somehow you had hopes from this one, given that pretty boy Shahid Kapoor was up there bright and shiny and so-very good looking. Also, a simple and upbeat storyline often can turnaround an ad, if executed well. But this one faltered on that end too. Anyway, not all lilies are white. And so, not all expectations are always met.
Relax, it’s just a parody
4Ps B&M Take: Okay, let’s talk about the 101 of television advertising. What creates a winning television advert? Audience appropriate humour, relatable characters and situations and building an emotion connect top the list, right? This one tries to have them all but fails to cut any ice. Conceptualised as a parody of Bollywood masala films, the protagonist of the advert (apparently a Bollywood superstar) is shown going through all the motions of his everyday life – right from the sets – where he is seen performing in matrix-style action sequences, drama scenes and dancing atop trains with an ensemble of supporting dancers (a la Shahrukh Khan?) to after-parties where he shakes a leg with pretty damsels and flanked by fans. Of course, from the first scene to the last he keeps looking into the camera and uttering the seven magic words: ‘hero ke baal kabhi kharab nahi hote’ (a hero’s hair is never out of place)… And every time he is seen using this red colour gel to style his hair and keep it in place… the end slogan is ‘Gatsby set karo, forget karo’ which translated means that set your hair with Gatsby and forget about it. If the big idea was to make audiences laugh and thereby strike a chord, this one is too in your face and way-too-loud or that. And as we said, minus audience-appropriate humour, relatable characters and building an emotion connect, it’s all advertising money down the drain.
