Ads. They are a regular part of our day to day life. All the things that we buy from the market first grab their place in our minds through advertising. Usually, the decision too is already made before actually reaching the shop. Such is the influence of these hammerings, that people develop their likes and dislikes by viewing advertisements.
Generations together have cultivated their tastes and choice by merely watching and reading ads. If these advertisements can be dominant to the extent of affecting the buying decisions, then, they certainly ought to be highly innovative and creatively inventive. Advertisements play a major role in stimulating inquisitiveness within the general public regarding the product or brand.
There are some ads which have simply been legendary or revolutionary, and have been lauded by the masses. One such advertisement, which created ‘larger than product’ impact, was the ad of Onida TV, released on air during the 1980’s. Its slogan or tag-line ‘Neighbor’s envy, owner’s pride’ was instrumental in giving the brand an identity or class in the market, which until then, it had failed to gain. It immediately opened the doors for the brand among the middle-class consumer market. The base line or the copywriting proved successful because it was derived from the analysis of middle-class mentality prevailing during those days.
During the 1980’s and early 1990’s buying just to show off or to establish self-esteem in the society was the in thing. People were tuned in to buying things just to bloom their pride and flash their life styles. Those were times when installments and other feasible finance options had entered the consumer durable market and hence, people could change and buy at more frequent intervals. Colour TV was considered a part of elite lifestyle and whosoever owned one was but naturally envied by the others. This famous tagline of Onida very precisely targeted this insecure mentality and inferior complexity of the middle class and upper middle class. The hammer rightly hit the nail and the sale of Onida TV escalated beyond imaginations.
When this tagline was created little did its copywriter, Ashok Roy know that together with the devil of Gopi Kukde, this ad would become famous in every household? For over 2 decades, it continued to deliver good results for the brand. A unique conceptualization with an equally creative and ingenious tag line was the highlighting feature of this ad. What would have happened if the envious devil did not get a parallel line to match its message? The ad could not have been so appealing and famous.
So, this is one of the most famous advertisements which created a stirring in the world of copywriting. The copywriter was applauded for this feat, usually a rare thing. Most of the time, the art and design department walks away with the trophy but this time the copywriter got his due and once again proved that a few words can be more effective than extravagant colorful representations.
There have been many good copywriting works done before. Amul butter’s ‘utterly butterly delicious’ is very creative and is still being run. Pepsi’s ‘Nothing official about it’ very successfully jerked the Coca Cola campaign which said ‘The official drink of the cricketers’ during a Cricket world cup. However, many tag lines lasted only for a particular period of time, while others, though they became a regular feature, lost their initial charm. The ad of Onida though, continued to entice viewers for more than 2 decades and more importantly delivered the profiting revenue statistics, which the company was expecting from it.
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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in September, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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