Now this is the ad war !!

with that middle finger this ad war seemingly came to an end..... Games advertisers play !!!!

axe..because you never know !!!

A bit of dirt, is part of the game as far as axe is concerned.... its amazing that the theme is maintained with such fire and ,yet the fun part intact !!! and yes it can roll and roll to extremes too ..still the fun part is there and Axe sells !!!

beer commercial... lick and lick !!!

For a beer will you lick all the way???..... this ad seems to be saying so !!

Bush to endorse !!!!

Brilliant ,though insulting to the face shown here..the ad explains why ,what and why not??? without talking too much... the right picture is always a value add ....

celebrity endorsement !!!

ad agencies please note !!!

The fun gun...!!!

the
Dove evolution ad which made ripples........



and a spoof for you to laugh over the week end !!!

Ukkarungo...Bingo sappidungo..!!!

Im sure you have seen it... those bingo ads which have at last broken the hell of clutter that was ravaging in the category.... ITC determined with all the money and muscle and more importantly with a mindset tuned to strategy and success, is making the waves even here in a category ravaged by unorganised players and infinite brands....



If the earlier flamingo ads rocked, the glad bangles one made us glad and giggle... and almost took out our breathe ,till the last minute when one sees the ad for the first time...



Now dont get upset that the product benefit aint clear and the promise isnt made and all such stuff....the category is such that the clutter breaking is important... bakki sab...Well u said it.... Bakwaas !!!

Good advertising from Ogilvy and Mather
...!!!

oldtimer...new approach !!!

is there a better way to advertise and get noted???

Politics &advertising ...what a deadly combo !!!

'Labour isn't working. Britain's better off with the Tories'

Saatchi and Saatchi's advertisement for Margaret Thatcher in 1978, not only made the conservatives in the UK get a spectacular win, and made the Saatchi’s famous, but also opened the doors for the entry of professional agencies into the world of British politics…. And later everywhere where politics was played…… Indian politicians though was always skeptical in the usage of professional agencies, may be because they thought that, there is nothing like mixing advertising and politics. On the one hand you have a gutter of lies and on the other you have... Wait just one minute! I don’t see any difference….!!!

Political advertising, in a sharp contrast to product advertising, have got to get outcome in a little period of time, and hence more than a few kinds of political advertising methods are employed: like for instance…. image, issue and negative advertising. Although there exists no rule in using political advertising, prior to the 1980s at least in the west, candidates usually used issue or image ads at the beginning of a campaign to establish their positive image and then used negative ads at the end of the campaign to attack the opponent. That is in the west …the more gentlemanly west as they claim and as even we, seem to believe..... A momentous inclination in today's political advertising is the increasing use of negative political advertising even from the beginning and regardless of propriety and decorum.

It was knotty for some one to compare George Bush to Hitler using ads and simply walk away with applause…… but in India it seems that we have a free run …late Rajiv Gandhi used the services of a professional agency way back in the 80’s but till recently the politicians had been averse to the idea of an outsider deciding their marketing strategies.. BJP employed a micro level market study in the state elections 2004 ,constituency after constituency and made custom made solutions to each ( well I mean ads were made with promises and shown and who cares whether they delivered or not… and in any case promises are like making babies…easy to make but hard to deliver )…. And they won in many states….

The first 30 – 35 years was free run for the congress party as it rode smooth on the tradition and the aura of having fought the British and got us the freedom. when it started to wane , came the war of the 70’s and it kept the brand value and the good will growing… it was a cult almost when the phenomenal mistake which they called emergency happened…India then made the negative vote for the fist time and the positive was kept aside for some time and this could be seen even in the next election when , the bickering and backbiting motley crowd , or Janata party as they aptly branded it,was swept away in the USP which the Congress went around advertising…. Stability…

1989 and 1991 India voted on the sympathy wave and that was the ESP and no one else could do anything…. But again with the advent of regional players, it was clear that the rules of the game is here to change…in fact the game itself was changing… Segments evolved clearly, like the mandal and the mandir segments, the young lads whom a Shrewd Rajiv, benovelently gave the power of franchise….

The Brand ambassador trap was not to be the prerogative of the congress party but the BJP too landed up there and had reaped its ups and downs… but one positive thing is that they harped on the positives , things that they have done and they would do , again if voted back to power in a powerful campaignwhere the 'Feel Good Factor’ was the main theme of communication, named the INDIA shining campaign or the Bharat uday as they called it… IT though didn’t work for different reasons ,and the Aam aadmi campaign by the Congress worked and could help them drag to power, but the agencies behind both, had reasons to smile… they had opened a wide new world for advertising agencies in India……. Increasingly they wanted to be branded, of course have or pretend to have good product, package it well, differentiate (or die..) brand, have strong ambassadors ( Indian or foreign)….communicate… ads… posters.. print ads…. Even telephone calls ..Remember.... Vajpayee talking to the unsuspecting you , on the day of the poll, asking you to vote for him….. Indian political advertising had changed.. for the better…….or is it not???

The recent UP elections have thrown open a can of worms …. Well the aftermath is well known and trio which ruled the state is running for cover…. As Mayavathi has made it clear by words and deeds , she doesn’t plan to be Mulayam (read it as soft..) on her enemies…. Bachan had waxed eloquently on TV ads issued by The Samajwadi party as to how UP is next only to heaven, if not above it.. UP main hain dam kyonki jurm yaham hai kam…said one slogan, implying that in UP the crime rate is less ( interesting… aint it…?? they don’t claim we are crime free..honest guys one should say ..).. in a reply, to those who said that violence rules India’s biggest state. Congress ,a poor player in the state, virtually non existent as the election has proven it, responded..... UP main tha dam,kaham pahunch gaye ham… trying to ignite the reminiscences of what they believe was the golden past when (obviously) they ruled UP and India, with no opposition at all… Spoofs went on air and the whole show turned comical....

In UP there was every type of advertising… Informative ( where they talked about their policies ( if they have some) and what they have done and what they plan to do… etc etc… they had mere entertainment too which even went to ridiculous extends….Amitabh with his wife and jayapradha the actor who also is with the SP bandwagon, walked up and down with slogans which ridiculed others ,praised Mulayam and so on… The SP had some carpet bombing too which went to the level of mudslinging when they made this series of ads which made a Muslim say for instance
“ Mulayam mera marham hai” and an old lady cry that "Mulayam mere budhape ki lathi hai……. The BSP , which at the end of the mess has emerged as the victor, said…" UP main hai dam, kyonki aparadh yaham hota hai hardham"…. Now that completes the level of political advertising in India…. It is bickering and wrangling as pigs would do in deep sludge…..

Comparison and negative advertising is good to an extent where it is kept within a boundary since "people are more apposite to vote 'against' than 'for' something"…. But too much of comparative advertising ( the negative stuff is nothing but comparison ) will have something called as the boomerang effect… it is very obvious here…that when messages negatively desecrated people's linguistic and cultural expectations, it backfired, with receivers changing to the position opposite to the one advocated by the communicator…Gina Garramone defined a boomerang effect as one which "may create more negative feelings toward the sponsor, rather than toward the target”…. SP lead the mud throwing game spending all the money and tired and sick, the mass showed them the way out..

Simple !!!

Foot note :-

A Eunuch candidate , Mr.. errr...Ms... huh... whatever Saroj Kinner also came up with ads... well (S)he couldnt be left behind anyways... and the ads said... "Kalyug mein hoga kinner raaj; Ram de gaye ashirwad".... Lord Ram has blessed, modern times eunuchs are going to rule ........



Well I thought they already are doing it.........

Say no to child labour

Mudra Team Wins the AAAI-Cannes Young Creatives Contest 2007
Arun Chakkravarthy, Mohan Jo Manjooran and Mukund Olety of Mudra, Chennai were adjudged the winners in the national creative initiative taken by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and supported by THE TIMES GROUP.

the Hutch ad.. eskimos are here

The latest from O&M for Hutch search engine services.....Cool classy and composed !!!

Whats cool about the ad??
Its simple...
whats classy ??
It builds this suspense that is so very unique and makes sure that it is maintained till the last shot...
whats so composed??
It has no brauhaha.. its slow and yet vibrant,so very convincing...

Kudos to the O & M team... creativity still survives.....

Memorial Campaigns : A Class Apart

I was half-asleep in my sofa, when I heard about it first-" World Trade Centre had fallen down!" and " Pentagon was attacked". I didn't believe!.. I asked my mom to check the news again. The television didn't tell lies.. It was true that air-attacks had brought down the WTC buildings, which were standing as a mark of pride for the Americans. It made them paranoic and suspicious of everyone , else themselves. We, Indians, hear such shocking instances almost every day, but it happened in US, where people felt they were " free and safe".

We shed tears, we empathised with the relatives and friends of victims of 9/11. We thought " Why it happened?" . We left them as sad memories. We have to come back to life leaving the dead to rest in peace.
Making an advertising campaign for " memorials" is quite difficult as it should be simple, memorable, thought provoking. They must be able to become part of our memories. They must provoke us to change and lead a better life!. Such incidents and their rememberance should make us better people!..

The fun gun...!!!

A young woman several months pregnant boarded a bus.

She noticed a young man smiling at her she began feeling humiliated on account of her condition.She changed her seat and he seemed more amused.She moved again and then on her third move he burst out laughing ............ ....
She had him arrested.

When the case came before the court, the young man was asked why he acted in such a manner.

His reply was: When the lady boarded the bus I couldn't help noticing she was pregnant. She first sat under an
advertisement, Which read: 'Coming Soon: The Gold Dust Twins.

I was even more amused when she changed her seat and went to sit under a shaving advertisement,Which read: 'William's Stick Did The Trick '.

Then I could not control myself any longer when on the third move she sat under an advertisement,Which read: ' Dunlop Rubber would have prevented this accident.'

And The case was dismissed... .....!!!

Vienna insurance group... laugh !!!

Hilarious !!!! but will it work?? Has this advertising
helped the Vienna insurance group to sell more???

mGinger and all the spice !!!

Here is a text from the latest online money making stuff named mGinger......while some points that they claim to be making are true, will it replace conventional advertising?? sounds impossible as of now.....


With mGinger we, mGinger employees and you who have joined, have started nothing short of a revolution. A revolution in the advertising space. It is a new concept, a new paradigm.
Aren’t advertisements a pain?

You switch your TV on wanting to watch your favourite show and what do you get? A horde of Ads.

Switch on your radio…same deal.

Try reading some news and more ads.

Hoardings, Tele-marketing calls, carpet-bombing SMS ads.

The list goes on and on….They tax our brains, squeeze out our energies and turn us into zombies.
But take a second and think about this:What if they request for your permission before exposing you to ads? What if you are exposed to only those ads that are relevant to YOU at that point in time?
Then, the nature of the exposure changes. Ads turn into “Usable Information”. They empower you both in terms of knowledge and profit.
mGinger is a revolution because for the first time in Indian history, the users are asked for permission. The users are asked for their interests. The users are requested for a convenient time and convenient number of ads per day.
Then, should you get paid for such useful information?
No! Because the information itself pays you (since you will use it).But, the ground reality is, however precise your targeting gets there always remain some out-of-control variables which decide whether the information is useful or not. mGinger pays you for this wastage since it taxes your mind and time.
We welcome all of you to this revolution where each one of you gets empowered, gets to lead and gets the power to tell the big advertisers what you would like and what you wouldn’t. Every advertiser would like to become your friend and this gives you a chance to tell them how. Mind you, this will be a ground-up and a tough fight. A fight because we are going against conventionality, against a wildly prevalent attitude of taking us consumers for granted.But, eventually we will win because we believe it is the right ...

Right ..that is what they believe.... just go in...wander in the site and the blog and come back.... will agencies and advertising as we know it will really come to an end???

HP ..turing IT on its head !!!

Click on the ad to see its full glory...cool work guys !!!

Advertising. is the game of IQ ...imagination quotient I mean ....

Love Bites, Musst Bites or Dog Bites- Which is your hot favourite?

We like to bite, don’t we? Chips, French fries, biscuits and what not? - Parle Musst bites too. But I am a little afraid to try it because I don’t know whether my friend would bite me out of love, or out of being jealous, or because she had seen the “musst bites” advertisement .

Comments from the makers:

Shalini Desai , brand manager, Parle Musst bites says , “Most of the snacking category has its communication harping on the feel good factor of sharing and caring. It was to be positioned as a product that was so tempting that its consumer would actually feel possessive about it and go to weird lengths to protect it. “

Santosh Patil from O& M commented that “Today’s youth speak a different language, one which is wacky, humorous, edgy and individualistic, so subtlety was not an option for us.”

Yes, it’s different from that of “KurKure”, where Juhi and family eat up jumbo family packets or that of “Lays” where Saif and friends are having a party. They don't seem to be tempting!..

Our own Munna Bhai would say,
“ Apun zara busy hai, tere girl friend ko ek packet musst bites de do, kaam ho jaayega”

The world is flat ..!!

for those who love
advertisements
of a bye gone era.. and old time stuff which they call vintage.... see it here....

Budlight...get bannned !!!

Dirty? yes.. but my salutes to the mind that thought it ...visualised it... or observed it... that is the key to good advertising
!!!

Vicks- the blocked nose !!!

Not a very great ad, but cute... and simple in ideation and execution...the fun element is there ...and so is the suspense... and the climax is cool....
effective
advertising !!!

If Tying a Knot with Someone is Enjoyable!.

Seeing this matrimonial advertisement at the Yahoo web page, I was thinking of the marriages which I have attended recently and if it would be a mix of tamilian and malayali culture, the onlookers will have all the fun!.. The bride and bridegroom will have a tough time following traditions , in a marriage extravaganza.

The bride, wearing mehndi and an assortment of jewels , wearing lot of bangles, covering her hands and unfolding herself as a magical diva covered with gold, would be sweating in the pandal, waiting for the groom.

One of the elders , would be worrying a lot regarding keeping the time, to know whether muhurthum is over or not. The groom's family would be searching for the cabbies to rush to the wedding hall as fast as they can.. And if all this troubles are not enough, two sets of camera men would also be waiting for clicking the fabulous shot in the wedding.

After having tied the mangal sutra and signed in the registers, or being declared married ( as it happens in Christian & Muslim marriages) , a queue will form up. The vistors are in hurry to meet the newly weds. They shake hands, hug , smile, take photos and finally load them with gifts. The bride and groom would be searching for a little bit of oxygen to breath. By the way, now the rush begins, not at the wedding hall, but where the food is served..It happens to be the routine in almost all weddings..

Quite expensive!...but it gives you an occassion to meet relatives, friends and the newly wed couple...But should it be so elitistic or should marriages be made simpler?

"It seems the ad looks more simpler than marriage."

OSHO - That Four letter word!!!!!

Enjoy the weekend

Electrolux- it really sucks !!!!

It really sucks, this advertisment
, inspite of being a good out of the box stuff, I wonder how the markets would have reacted .. would they have rushed to buy?? because it SUCKS???

Sex ...is good !!!

well I dont have a difference of opinion either... about the caption ,I mean... but why the hell all the controversy? watch the ad carefuly and you will know..... even
advertising for good reason can create ruckus !!!

Go air !!! We have not changed ....

Now that is heights of competition,literally !!! Refer to the previous article on the same topic and have fun>>> cant imagine what Jet airways and its agency would be thinking now...? is it not the opening of a pandorras box...? a can of filthy worms...?

Did You Know?

Some advertisements are unusual.. they enter into our spaces at unusual places like zebra crossing, traffic signals..and what not? Even at our bathroom mirrors!..if you are still looking for some unusual ideas to impress customers...see them here.

The World is Flat

In this Flat world, information sharing is key. One could see a hell a lot of platforms for Sharing his/her thoughts, ideas.

This is Starbucks way of sharing one's thoughts

La La Shakira........ its Money Spinning!

Shakira’s performance was second most expensive show in India, first being that of Michael Jackson’s. The young college going Indians, who didn’t have swelling pockets, had to shell out 2650 or 3650 for the show and these young things were begging literally to find free passes for the show. Over 20000 passes…oh that means around 100 million
rupees from the show. People also crowded around Shakira’s albums for a week at Planet Ms and Music Worlds…

The shows like these often generate huge revenue and fan following. Not only that, it often bring new offers for upcoming artists. When music would also go global, who knows.. We are likely to hear Latin music in hindi albums and movies too.. Choreographer Farah Khan was quite impressed! And even Shakira was so fond of her that, she personally invited Farah to her show. She was also likely to sing in “ Om-Shanthi-Om”, an upcoming bollywood movie.


From her show for the American Idol program, it was believed that it boosted sales of “Oral Fixation vol.2” , from 50000 copies a week to to 81,000 copies a week.. So shows, are one of the best forms of promotion for cassettes and CD companies, for the performers, as it would boost sales, as they come in contact with more people and by the way creating huge fan following. Nokia, Reliance Industries, Kingfisher, Planet M etc were co- sponsors of the event.

Sometimes you may get lucky, bcoz Madonna did, Michael Jackson did, Shakira did, Kylie Minouge did…so why wouldn’t we?

Many companies seems to have fallen in love with the ‘events method’ like Virgin Airlines, Kingfisher and many others. Hey, advertising community, are you listening?

The Fun Gun

Audrey and Marilyn, two retired schoolteachers from Chicago, save up all their money to go on safari in Africa.They are having a wonderful time going through the jungle, when suddenly a huge gorilla swings down out of the trees, sweeps Marilyn into his arms, and disappears.He takes her back to his cave, and for a week makes love to her all day and night.Finally, Audrey organizes a rescue party, and Marilyn is saved and rushed to the hospital.She is treated there for a couple of days and then her friend comes for a visit."Oh, Marilyn!" the friend sobs, "what a ghastly experience! How do you feel?""How should I feel?" sobs Marilyn, "he never writes, he never calls...!"

Enjoy the weekend!!!!!!

Who moved my client?

A stockbroker was cold calling about a penny stock and found a taker.

"I think this one will really move said the broker, it's only $1 a share."

"Buy me 1000 shares." said the client.

The next day the stock was at $2.

The client called the broker and said, "You were right, give me 5000 more shares.

"The next day the client looked in the paper and the stock was at $4.

The client ran to the phone and called the broker,

"Get me 10,000 more shares said the client."

"Great!" said the broker.The next day the client looked in the paper and the stock was at $9.Seeing what a great profit he had in just a few days, the client ran to the phone and told the broker,

"Sell all my shares!

"The broker said, "To whom? You were the only one buying that stock."

Scene 1

A big educational group ......

They spend money on advertising but largely written by the chairman and his wife, both ignorant as most of the advertisers are...
they had business any ways ...but as and when they grew, in age, size and turnover, some one told them to PROFESSIONALISE their advertising....
So they called up a family friend who worked with advertising agencies and is in a retired life as of now. He with his expertise and experience of having worked with the real life ......full time international agencies ,who were the shaolin warriers behind the success tales of many a brands, choose one agency whom he thought was better of the lot, and rang them up.

Hello......

Hello......

is that LMN&OP agency???

Oh yes dude... whats it about...?

well I am from the holy ghost school group.. we are planning to professionalise our advertising .. and we thought we could give that duty to you...

Cool... then ill put you to Mr Rastapopulos...

Oh who is that???

He is the branch head, and Can help you...

after a long gap ...again....

hello ...

hello see I am from the holy ghost school and we are planning to advertise...

Wait.. tell me what is your budget?

what?

tell me ur budget man....

Oh well.. that.. rrrr. no idea sir....

Oh yuck... this is the problem ...you have no idea about what you want and...

well I guess that is precisely why we are talking and I want you to do it for me.....

Can you send some one to our side and let us discuss it straight....

ok my client service sup will meet u soon...

what ..what soup???

Mr Jagapalakan ...our client servicing supervisor would be meeting you soon......

How soon?

Well ... cant say....

well what u mean? can he meet us today and can u tell yes or no now...?

ok ..he will be at your office by 4 today...

Rasta banged the phone and said to himself... seems to be a messy client.... what the $%^#... he is over demanding...

what happened Rasta? asked the sup....

They want service yaar.. and you be there by 4 ...today
*************************************************************
Scene 2

By 5 that day Holy ghost, unable to see any one from the LMN&OP agency, called up again and so happened...

Hello..

Hello LMNOP agency

oh yes..im calling from Holy ghost school...

holy what???

Holy ghost....

funny man.. !!!! so whats it? tell me ya...

well we had an appointment with one Mr Jaga.....

Jags...oh yee... he is gone out with his gal friend.. I guess he is gonna back only on Monday...

Oh God !!! so is Mr Rastapopulos there??

He...huh.... god knows which bar he is in.... well he is in a meeting and will come back to his senses.. i mean come back to office only tomorrow morning...

What?

what u mean what?? did i not say in English?...

Oh yaaaa...

So any message for them?

Well there is a message.. tell them that we have decided to do our advertising for ourselves and if they dare to come here again, im gonna take kick their ass out.. do you get it dude..?

hey ..hello.. helloo.. wait let me explain... hey... shit..........

Midweek Musing !!!

"Advertising is the 'wonder' in Wonder Bread."

- Jef I. Richards (1995), advertising professor, The University of Texas at Austin.

Don't Scream !!!

The caption says " The bad energy can be near ". The advertisement is for Society of Spiritualists and I feel it is inspired by Scream!.. Would you like to scream, laugh or cry?
Its the brainchild of Media P advertising agency, Buenos Aires.

head ache !!

Now what can the lazy creatives say? Every head ache ......even the worst of clients can be given the best of ideas, for their problems...... ad agencies
but have to get out of their ivory towers for sure.... This one really stands out and illuminated ....

King fisher vs Jet...the ad war for the skies!!!

A shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business much like his own opened up next door and erected a huge sign which read
'BEST DEALS.'...........
He was horrified when another competitor opened up on his right, and announced its arrival with an even larger sign, reading
'LOWEST PRICES..............

'The shopkeeper panicked, until he got an idea. He put the biggest sign of all over his own shop. It read .........

'MAIN ENTRANCE'

*******************************************************************

Its heating up …in air and in the ground…. The KF vs Jet fight…. The war of words that the competitors are engaged in, is entering its third phase now… Kingfisher and Jet Airways are fighting each other on the streets, in an advertising battle which has enormous potential and clearly is a fun to watch….

When Jet Airways embarked on a Rs 10 crore campaign to announce its change, ( we have changed …It said..) it least expected to be in the non enviable position of having to see its competition hijacking its campaign right from under its nose tips… Every where in Mumbai streets especially,right above the“we have changed” Jet ad at Cadbury Junction, which is around two kilometres from Jet chairman Naresh Goyal's residence, KF and its war managers put up another hoarding which proudly proclaimed “ we made them change”…!!!!

Kingfisher is into this tongue-in-cheek method,thanks to Swapan Seth & his Equus Advertising, obviuosly to narrow the gap in market share. Jet leads with a 31% share while Kingfisher has 10.5%.( Well I am not sure about the exactness if this numbers, still…). Jet Airways, which spends up to Rs 50 crore a year on marketing, has increased its budget after it bought and rebranded Sahara into JetLite. But its ad agency M&C Saatchi preferred to ignore the issue of competition and embarked on the much touted campaign which we are talking about today…..bitten by the sarcasm bug, Jet was forced to withdraw the campaign, and start a new.."Take Off To New York Daily" campaign…Not to be left behind…taking the war of words forward, Kingfisher Airlines again changed its hoarding which stated, “They’ve flown from here to New York.”

This seems to be the sequel to the war on talents that this two majors ( Indian or the Indian airlines seems to be no where in the picture here…) are already engaged in. The seasoned market player ,Jet Airways witnessed an exodus of its senior executives ,at least five top-level officials of Jet Airways joining Vijay Mallya's Red brigade…..and this all is happening amidst the rebranding hype that jet has launched with M&C Saatchi and US-based Landor Associates…..

Competition is good, at the end of the day, because that helps in the players getting more innovative and the customer stands to be benifited....

Now a defensive Jet should react, in the mean time Mumbaikars are having fun… watching the otherwise monotonous hoarding sites getting spiced up !!!!

After all everything is fair in war ,love and advertising….