We did our own little research and came out with the 5 adverts on Television we loved in the recent past. Check them out and let us know what you feel and which ones are your favs?
5) AXE Dark Temptation
Agency: Vegaolmos-Ponce
Advertiser: Unilever
Well when you are a toiletry brand which makes men’s perfumes and deodorants, there’s not much you can innovate. Right? Wrong!!!
What’s the next best thing to a 24 carat diamond ring that you can gift a girl to impress her without digging a hole in your pocket? Yes, Chocolates. So, Axe thought ,why not make a deodorant in Chocolate flavour. Thus, came the Axe Dark Temptation.
This commercial is bold, kinky and fun. No doubt then that this was frowned upon by the Indian Government and termed “Indecent, Vulgar and Repulsive”. But, we love it!!!
The commercial shows a guy getting transformed into a human chocolate after applying the Axe dark temptation deodorant. As he walks down the street, girls ogle over him and each one wants to take a bite of him. The background song “That’s the sweet touch of love” goes perfectly with the feel of the ad.
This ad definitely gets thumbs up from us as it’s interesting, witty & humorous and at the same time targets and caters to the right audience.
4) Pulsar 220- The fastest Indian
Agency: Ogilvy and Mather
Advertiser: Bajaj
Bajaj has come a long way from the ‘Chetak’ to the ‘Pulsar’ and so has their advertising campaigns from the ‘Humara Bajaj ads’ to the ‘Pulsar-mania’ ones.
This commercial draws the qualities of the product it’s advertising and does it in style. Pulsar, with it’s 220 variant has in fact become the fastest bike on the Indian roads.
I like the attitude of the commercial, which is laid back, smart and at the same time confident. Nowhere does the ad show riders doing stunts or speeding or dragging their bikes.
The ad shows a Bank being looted by this guy in formals without a gun. He takes the money from the lady cashier who seems to oblige. Meanwhile the cops have almost reached the bank. Our man does not bother a bit. As the ‘I am the man’ song plays in the background he takes the money, puts a note into a child’s piggy bank and casually walks out in front of the cops and sits on his Pulsar. Revs up and zoooom. Vanish!!! The cops along with their cars and helicopters are left stranded with mouths wide open.
Now, that makes a statement and makes it without any fancy stunts.
3) Tata DoCoMo
Agency: DraftFCB Ulka
Advertiser: Tata Teleservices
Tata DoCoMo dared to enter the already over-crowded GSM space where it would have tough competition from biggies like Vodafone and Airtel. Not to mention the task ahead for advertising it was even tougher because both Vodafone and Airtel had brilliant ads running on the tele.
Idea had a faced a similar challenge. Not very sure as to how successful were they but DoCoMo has definitely made a mark.
Must say, Docomo has done a splendid job in positioning the brand and it has been ably helped by it’s commercials. Be it, the strange but interesting name ‘DoCoMo’ or the
catchy tune of the ads or the smart taglines like- ‘Do the new’ & ‘When life can change in seconds, why pay in minutes’.
2) Vodafone/ Hutch
Agency: Ogilvy and Mather
Advertiser: Vodafone
When you are one of the biggest telecom service providers in the world you can easily rope in brand ambassadors like Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachan, Shah Rukh or Aamir Khan. Vodafone thought thats just so boring!!! They took creativity to a different level and brought in the faithful Pug, the cute Zoozoos and the hilarious Irfan Khan.
This is where for me the Vodafone ads have scored over Airtel. While Airtel went all out to get all celebrities from Shahrukh to Saif, from Kareena to Madhavan, from Rehman to Vidya Balan and a host of cricketers; Vodafone kept it simple. And focussed on making an impact so that the brand stays with the consumer even after he is done watching TV.
Something that was a little irritating was the viral ad campaign that Vodafone had taken up during the IPL but, then again it was on purpose.
1) Tata Tea- JaagoRe Campaigns
Agency: Lowe, Lintas
Advertiser: Tata tea
How creative can you get in advertising a cup of ‘chai’? Visuals of tea gardens in Assam and Darjeeling, freshly brewed hot cuppas? That would be so clichéd, isn’t it?
To take the metaphor of waking up in the morning and awakening of one’s conscience and responsibilities is sheer brilliance. (‘Har subah sirf utho mat, jaagore’) What’s even more fascinating is the execution of this brilliant Idea. The timing of the Jaagore campaign was perfect, just before the polls. The advert asked the viewers the question “Aap sote rahoge to Desh kaise jaagega?”
It created a kind of mini-rage, atleast in the urban youth. People got themselves registered for the Voter Ids and many amongst them went and voted.
Post Elections, the latest Tata Tea Jagore campaign is against bribery with the tagline – ‘Khilana band, Pilana shuru’. I hope it creates the kind of effect the election campaign did.
There were many brilliant ads which I could not write about in this post due to space and time constraints. Some of them worth mentioning are- Airtel series, Aegon Religare, Safari Dicor, Neo Sports and many more.
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