Five Indian Advertisements that Were Too Intelligent for Their Own Good

chillibreeze writer — Shivani Mohan

Advertising is one of the most important factors behind the success of any product today. The quality of a product may be superb, but if it fails to create a buzz in the market in terms of visibility and covetability, it is more or less written off.

To illustrate the point an advertising guru makes the crude, but apt comparison that a fish lays hundreds of eggs in one go but stays quiet about it. A hen lays one egg but announces it to the world with a loud cockadoodle doo. And the difference is pretty obvious- not many of us can boast of eating a fish egg whereas most of us cannot do without the hen’s egg as part of our daily diet. So if you want your product to be consumed, you better let it be known to the world. However, there are times when the best of ad campaigns fall short of sending a clear and desired message to the target audience and end up being exercises in futility. These are either over ambitious, unrealistic or simply too intelligent for their own good. Let’s try and study a few ad campaigns in recent times that left a void in terms of creating the right effect and made us believe in the virtue of ‘ keep it simple’.

1. Motorola (Model No): The ad depicts three men in an office pouring their heads over certain discrepancies in their financial sheets. The two bosses are interrogating a subordinate who claims to be totally innocent and unaware of how such a misappropriation could take place. This is when the subordinate’s mother calls up on his mobile and the bosses notice the expensive looking phone. They exchange knowing glances and start questioning him on when he bought the mobile. The ad hopes to convey in a humorous manner that it is a cheap phone that looks expensive and if you choose to buy it, please face the consequences.

Let's for a minute imagine that many youngsters with limited pocket money would like to go for a contraption that looks far more expensive than it is. But isn’t the advertising loud and clear about the same aspect, which makes the phone model very recognizable and defeats the whole purpose. What is worse than being stuck with an average looking cheap phone after all? Being stuck with a phone that set out to look expensive, but looks cheap now because everybody knows how cheap it is!

2. Maggi Healthy Soups: Now we all know what powdered soups are all about. A dehydrated glib glob (read mass) of some circumspect vegetables with oodles of hydrogenated fats and mono sodium glutamate thrown in for flavor. They are high on convenience and the MSG ensures that we often even end up yearning for these products. But to actually call them healthy soups is getting a bit over ambitious. Just because you have printed ‘added calcium, vitamins, iron and what not on the cover is no proof of its nutritive value. Therefore this ad campaign fails to make a mark. It would be better if they just highlighted it as an indulgence that any overworked working woman resorts to in order to feed her family on stressed out days. But show me one woman who serves Maggi noodles or soups to her kids without an iota of guilt and I’ll show you an ad campaign that failed before it started.

3. Ponds Age Defying Complex: Ok, those on the wrong side of thirty generally know about the fine lines appearing on their faces, the crow’s feet, the laugh lines etc. Not that one is thrilled to bits to see the first signs of aging, but the point is the way in which the campaign tries to sell the product. To think that their models are basically shown as these unsure, not-so-confident and unaccomplished women in their late thirties with the sole ambition of getting their husbands to notice the overnight change in their looks and take them out for candle lit dinners leaves a lot to be desired. One almost feels like screaming and telling them, “Please go and get a life first.” I, for one, would not be caught dead buying such a cream. Wouldn’t it be much better if a campaign celebrates all that a woman of substance stands for, who is not mortally scared of aging gracefully and definitely not so insecure about her husband passing her on for someone younger. The ad fails to create a positive vibe among smart older women of today who would take pride in the wisdom and maturity that comes with age and managing to look young is just a bonus and not the end of life.

4. Tata Sky: This ad is planned around the World Cup fever where a person is off on a trip to the West Indies wearing a costume made out of grass. Hrithik Roshan makes a timely intervention in the guy’s holiday plans and suggests watching the matches on Tata Sky with the possibility of his being the lucky winner and watching the Final in Hrithik’s personal theatre. Is the ad aiming to dissuade people from traveling to an exciting destination where they can watch great cricketing action unfold live in front of them? Or is it a small hint that given the form of the Indian team, it is really not worth going all the way. Whatever be the intention, the ad fails to make an impact and Hrithik is truly wasted.

5. Guru- Abhi Ash: In recent times this was the most well planned ad campaign to promote their documentary style movie, Guru, in the theatres. So we had Big B himself making announcements in the media about how Abhishek had proposed to Aishwarya in the US where they had gone for the premier and how she said yes and so on. Considering that both the Bacchan parivar and Ash have spent a major part of the last few months doing the rounds of all possible temples and shrines under the media glare, why this sudden need to inform the masses of their alliance just a week before the release of Guru. The fact of the matter is that even though Abhishek’s role is reasonably good, once you know it is Dhirubhai Ambani’s story there seems no reason to watch it till the end unless you romanticize watching a couple about to get married in real life. Thank God the audiences did not fall for the silly campaign and gave its own verdict.

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—About our writer:

Shivani teaches Customer Care at a premier Airhostess training Institute. She is a Hotel Management graduate and a Post Graduate in English Literature. A die hard foodie, she loves to read, write poetry and watch romantic comedies.

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