The Fun Gun !!!

An American manufacturer is showing his machine factory to a potential customer from India. At noon, when the lunch whistle blows, two thousand men and women immediately stop work and leave the building.

"Your workers, they're escaping!" cries the visitor. "You've got to stop them."

"Don't worry, they'll be back," says the American.

And indeed, at exactly one o'clock the whistle blows again, and all the workers return from their break.

When the tour is over, the manufacturer turns to his guest and says, "Well, now, which of these machines would you like to order?"

"Forget the machines," says the visitor. " In India its hard to get the workers back...How much do you want for that whistle?"

Bingo masala remix - awesome !!!

Now that is an ad... I would call it tangy and tasty to the core and serves all that an ad is supposed to be... no rocket science here but this guys have made me ( I am sure everyone of the TG) get stunned for a moment, then awed by the gun men, the kidnap ,the gun fight and the police and then shocked by the sudden breaking and then laugh when the whole MASALA drama starts again with the Bachaooooo sound reverberating .... No logic here and thankfully the makers of this ad hasnt analysed the idea and killed it... Ideas like this are funny, or it's not.... As Mark Twain said, "Trying to figure out why something is funny is like dissecting a frog. You'll come up with answers, but the frog always dies."... I loved this ad for the same reason and more...

Bingo and O&M team believes in entertaining and here again they have done that .. who does not love to be entertained? And that too, thought provokingly and without being offensive to any one ... This ad respects the imagination of the viewer and the fact that their imagination may be bigger and better than the ad makers... Even when one laughs , the fact that is clear is that- the business of snacking thrives on constant insertion of excitement and thrill on the image value of the brand. . I love this ad for all this, plus still managing to stay in track ( with all the guns, thieves and bachaooo)and sell the product idea.. at the end of all the laughing if the brand and its images are not staying in the mind of the TG , what is the great fun in making ads?

Finally this ad , as many of the previous Bingo ads, breaks the limit... they know for sure that the best of humour comes from the edge,where simply there is no limits...

Kudos BINGO and O&M....

The Fun Gun !!!

Eighty-year-old grandma bursts into the recreation room of the old age retirement home. She holds her clenched fist in the air and saucily announces, Anyone who can guess whats in my hand, can make wild passionate love to me tonight!

A witty, elderly gentleman in the rear shouts out,................ An elephant?

Grandma thinks a minute and replies,.................. Close enough!



Have fun people......but come back on Monday ... !!!

ITC- class mates - big ideas !!!

Class mates as a brand is advertising on TV after 6 long years and it indeed left a smile in me.. Not the fact that they didn't show their ads for 6 years but the fact that when they did , they did it in style...This new ad is fun, creative and different, in spite of two celebrity's whose presence looked artificial for me...

All of us who have been students have gone through a phase where books, especially note books become our essential companions , a kind of soul and place to vent out feelings and yet when it comes to choosing a brand , I guess we didn't care. At the most one looked was the cover page, for his or her favourite actor smiling from the cover was reason enough to choose a brand.

ITC class mates made a difference in this category and has made stationary products also anchored in brand thoughts of the target groups and hence make them ask for a class mate next time they buy a note book... I have ( I am sure all of us have) gone through similar situations/ scenarios that this ad shows in the Library... I have a bundle of such instances to quote and the moment I saw the ad I liked it (and I repeat I liked it) ,in spite of the celebrity presence.... The witty idea to use book titles and pass the message across without harming the decorum of the library is NOT out of the world and never seen before but I guess that is what was required for the brand, to talk to its TG at this juncture...

Classmate has recently expanded its portfolio with the successful launch of a range of complementary stationery products such as pens, pencils and geometry boxes and have made made sure that the famed distribution magic across India through its vast distribution network works in this case as well..... as far as Classmate is concerned , it is the leading player in the Rs 5000 Crore market for stationery products comprising notebooks, pens, pencils & scholastics which is today growing at a rate of 9-10% .... Now that is phenomenal... ads , promotions, customer contacts and all such stuff to follow.. IMC in its best form for otherwise what was a habitual buying product.. Good job guys... But now let me ask the question which is paining me...

Why Yuvraj and Soha? I have nothing against this two amazing people.. per se I have nothing against celebrity endorsements as well.. But see this ad again.. once more.. If there was no Yuvraj and Soha, would it have made any difference? I even feel it would have made that ad even more watchable and all attention would have been in the fun/theme/situation than on the celebrity... Here they don't steal the attention and lead to a vampire effect but they for sure divert attention for the first time viewer and stand between the ad and the viewer every time he sees the ad........

Here is the company logic ... Chand Das, chief executive of ITC’s Education & Stationery Products Business (ESPB) says , “Classmate aspires to be the leading and most trusted student education and stationery brand. It’s a brand that believes in and nurtures the “big ideas” that reside in each one of us and encourages young minds to realise them through exploration & perseverance. Both Yuvraj & Soha are vibrant icons for the youth of today. They have believed in & pursued their own “big ideas”, and today, both stand tall in their professions with multi-faceted personalities."....

Ahem ! Now that is something that we get to hear every time a famous face is signed for endorsing a brand... Even Mysore sandal guys said similar stuff when they signed Mahendra singh Dhoni....

Good ad, no creative brilliance but stands out... Kudos to Rediffusion Y&R Chennai and the ITC Class mates team for the come back.. Hope to see more ... !



Credits

Project: ITC Classmate's TVC
Brief: Encouraging young minds to be original and think BIG.
Client: ITC ESPB
Creative agency: Rediffusion Y&R, Chennai.
National creative Director: Minakshi Achan, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar
Creative director: Kishore Karumabaiah
Copywriter: Kishore Karumbaiah
Client servicing: Nachiket Sant
Production house: RDP (Ramesh Deo Productions)
Director: Shujaat Saudagar
Post-production studio: Pixion
Date of publication / release: April, 2010