The best of Advertising - ' 09

2009 was not just another year for business- the business of advertising in particular…recession spell a shock wave and the cost cutting that ensued first affected (who else but advertising?) and affected bad …. the scene looked doomed as more brands cut advertising , more brands managers talked accountability, more demands for faster results and flab cuts made life miserable for ad guys.. Branches closed down and all of a sudden all the jargons evaporated into thin air..talk and quest for metals at Cannes and wherever they give them came to an end…. Suddenly the industry became realistic; it required a crash landing though!

Advertising and its spell on me happened way back in 1996 and to this day it continues… when we say a good bye to 2009 let me just look back and scan through all those ,whom and what made advertising happening for the last 365 days !!!

Advertising does not cause people to buy bad products. Nothing will put a bad product out of business faster than a good advertising campaign as said by ad guru’s who walked ahead of their times…. And particularly in testing times when people got choosy it really required good ads to sell good produce… the ad world requires a kudos for keeping up the spirit and going on, fallen and tired at times though !!!

Thanks to the great launches of Docomo doing the new, the closer to nature stuff from Saint juice and the parking fee ad ( even though it wasn’t up to the brand’s magic) from VW Beetle..

Pepsi and their youngistan variants (with confusion and color spread alike) amused me while by leaving SRK alone half way through in their long drive ,Hyundai amazed me, but so did Toyota when they did leave Amir, so did Katrina who unseated Aishwarya and Sushmita from Nakshatra and Pantene ads respectively….Deepika, Genelia , Asin and Dhoni ( the cricketer) were the faces that came for many brands , God knows which all ,in the last one year…( and who cares?)

Garnier and John did connect to me and a large number of men whom it was aimed at, Quacker Oats struck with the Good morning heart campaign and the novelty in it was quite awesome… Mont blank left a lot of smiles with Anil Kapoor and his daughter Sonam and the good ad that made some waves but let some eyebrows high with the Gandhi pen… Cadbury’s and its classic diary milk failed to impress me (a non existent arm chair critic that is) with its Pehli Tareek Hai ads that left bad taste in me long after the first time I saw it on the first day of its launch…Surf and its daag ache hai has reached a level where a drunkard would typically say, the fourth beer is never as good as the first one…

Videocon oscillated and came up with a new logo only to walk to oblivion again … Geojith BNP pissed me off with their transparency ad which was a sheer and pure copy cat… Bekar ads were not that churned out making the industry look stupid, dumb and senseless about the clients money,(thanks to recession)…. Creatives stopped talking to themselves and/or to the competitors creative (to a large extent that is !!!), formulae and cliché were kept in the shelves, the industry of course indulged in some self pat , and bestowed awards on itself with a comical grace that is very own to us and us only but lesser than it got so self used to,,,,...

Onida killed its devil once again and so did Hamara Bajaj scooters.. The Hole came back to the mint called Polo in a new form but...Pulsar DTSI called itself the fastest Indian but for me the Indian looked like a Mexican and quite a confused one at that… Yeah ! India was fast- to forget this ad… Bingo red chilli and its hyperbole entertained me and my class while jago re kept me thinking and even vote.. but did I start buying Tata tea? The TOI Lead India campaign struck like lighting on a lonely tree while virgin and its naughtiness gave me back my lost college days partly ( I work in a college as a Prof so I haven’t lost it totally )

Airtel and its magic realism with the boy and his toy phone made life look beautiful, the Fiat Linea creative got my admiration for guaranteed and Visa way to go assured me that it really is going to go places…. The ING blow horn ad blew my laughter lid off and the Centerfresh ( Zubaan par rakhe lagaam) ones made me talk and talk about it in my lectures while the Fevicol 50 years moochwali ad left me wondering- is there an end to creative thinking in advertising?

Idea took the walk and talk idea to newer levels and kept it good , while Zoo Zoo lead the pack with its sheer simplicity and awesome innovation that made people wait for the Zoo Zoo ads in commercial breaks than the programmes that interrupted …. Programmes in TV remained the same, the same christmas tree like heroines, the deceit and betrayal, the vidhai and balika vadhu’s , the vamps who look like painted scare crows… Ekta Kapoors made more money and so did cricketers and movie stars who endorsed anything from under garments to under eye gels….

This is just a list of most seen TV ads.. out door, digital ,internet and the likes are untouched… The boom in the new found social media( Twitter/FB and the likes) is amazing but I will wait for 2010 to take on it more...While this list is not entirely final and exhaustive, this is what I got in my top of the mind recall.. in Advertising ultimately that is what matters isn’t it?

Advertising amuses , totally !!!

Adformula wishes a very happy new year to all its readers !!!!