Expect the Unexpected...part II

The doctor said, "Joe, the good news is I can cure your headaches. The bad news is that it will require castration. You have a very rare condition which causes your testicles to press on your spine, and the pressure creates one heck of a headache. The only way to relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles."

Joe was shocked and depressed.

He wondered if he had anything to live for. He had no choice but to go under the knife. When he left the hospital he was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he was missing an important part of himself.

As he walked down the street, he realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning and live a new life.

He saw a men's clothing store and thought, "That's what I need - a new suit." He entered the shop and told the salesman, "I'd like a new suit."

The elderly tailor eyed him briefly and said, "Let's see... size 44 long."

Joe laughed, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the suit. It fit perfectly. As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, "How about a new shirt?"

Joe thought for a moment and then said, "Sure."

The salesman eyed Joe and said, "Let's see, 34 sleeve and 16-1/2 neck."

Joe was surprised, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the shirt, and it fit perfectly.

As Joe adjusted the collar in the mirror, the salesman asked, "How about new shoes?"

Joe was on a roll and said, "Sure."

The salesman eyed Joe's feet and said, "Let's see...9-1/2 E."

Joe was astonished, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the shoes and they fit perfectly.

Joe walked comfortably around the shop and the salesman asked, "How about some new underwear?"

Joe thought for a second and said, "Sure."

The salesman stepped back, eyed Joe's waist and said, "Let's see...size 36."

Joe laughed "Ah ha! I got you! I've worn size 34 since I was 18 years old."

The salesman shook his head and said.........................................................


"You can't wear a size 34. A 34 underwear would press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you one heck of a headache."


dummmmmm.................................


ALWAYS get a second opinion......

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The creative guys in my story ,which I left half last day were as adamant as any other creative in any other agency.... but this time as there think tanks had gone dry, relented to hear the Junior executive .......

He said.... The client just want one message to be delivered... "Expect the unexpected"

The scene is an office.. a tough boss into his late 50's...tall.... fiery ..fiercesome... everyone is afraid of the guy...

The secretary to the boss... hot ..sizzling...sexy..tantalisingly exposing and exposedly tantalising......

The only weakness for the boss is this chik..the secretary...she is crawling in his blood and veins.... as a desire...as a forbidden fruit...


Wow... chuckled the young guys....
mmmm ...gruntled the old guys...

The man couldnt lay his mind open before the girl, for he doesnt know how she will react,,, if it happens to be on the negative side, then his good will may go down the drains....

One day the girl walks in ,as sexy as ever, and tells him... please come home sir, today evening , for a party... and she walks offff...

She turns around half way through and says invitingly... I am going to be alone at home...

THUD... our hero falls flat....He HAS heard what he wanted to hear...finally ( he thought) he has won her over..." tonight I would be rocking that dame..."

He goes over to her place... she is more sizzling , as she opens the door.. and invites him to the large sofa at the hall....

Pls bear with me for a moment .......she says, as she went inside.... im just back....

Our hero gets impatient.... he cant wait... he takes off his clothes and sits ready expecting the heroine to come for him to " rock"...

Trrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Opens the large curtain of the hall and hero looks back from his sofa in expectaion... but gets a shock of a life time......

There is his whole family....His wife..sons..daughters..son in laws..daughter in laws..grand kids.. the whole brigade...

Happy birthday to you...they sing and sing as they advance into the hall.....

And then they see him naked.....

Close up of the hero.. and a punch on his nose...

The caption appears..... XYZchocolates... "expect the unexpected".......

Oh God.... it is simply amazing.... the crowd seemed to be agreeing unanimously......



foot note : Idea..... it can come on anyone ..but not every one can accept it....

Expect the Unexpected...

The best of Adformula series....

If you can't write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don't have a clear idea. ~David Belasco

The client sold chocolates and candies...and was good in that...We ( My second agency which took me to Europe) handled the creatives and the going was smooth..they weren't a trouble making client ..No IKE 's.. no shocking surprises... no tantrums.. a dream client....

They came up with a new type of candy which would cause a "revolution" as per their brand manager ..It was as normal as any other candy form out side and when one starts eating but as you go in.. voilaaaaaaaaa it rocks..it turns sour...funny...shocking.. and then slowly you start liking it...that unconventional taste of this new candy starts slowly tickling you, and by the time you finish it you fall in love with it......oooppppssss..... you even feel that all those sweet candies which you had been having all these years were bland and insipid.

The agency went celebrating...the product as described by the client ( for every crow and for even a crow, its baby would be the most charming, the most attractive thing in the world).. and before we guys could troop to the nearest bar for the success that was going to be ours ( the ad guys are bad guys---we celebrate the success that may come, will come , most likely come, shall come ,is coming, come, ohhhhh it didn't come...anything is a reason to celebrate..), the client gave the One liner that was what was going to be the brief....

Expect the unexpected...It said simply...

The brains cluttered together, confused, confessed and confined, astray and astute, wild and vivid, varied and voracious, vocal and vociferous....everyone thought thought and thought..but nothing evolved except crap and holy crap......

Finally the one evolved, did so from a junior client service guy who had just joined, who had an Egyptian father and a Danish mother ( he looked like Menses 2 the Pharaoh of Egypt..and we called him MUMMY...) it was some story which some one somewhere had told him which had this climax.....

It was simply stunning....


( to be continued)..................

Airtel & Sharman Joshi - Baath karna baaki hai !

After 3 idiots, the scene has changed.. If Indusind bank roped in Omi Vaidya (Chatur for beginners ,if any), Airtel has taken in Sharman Joshi in what I would call as a brilliant move which but didn’t seem to be taking off… Brilliant because Sharman can easily be ranked amongst one of the most talented actors in Bollywood today. He tickled our funny bone with Style, Golmaal and Shaadi No. 1; played the high spirited guy in Rang De Basanti and then the rest is you know what !!!! Simply a dude with super cool attitude and effortless enacting of his fun of a role which made cinema goers sit up and take notice of him in 3 Idiots.

After having established a name as an actor, Sharman took the logical next step- brand endorsement. His first ever endorsement is for Airtel and when I read the story I felt a bit relieved that at last some fresh faces will now sell us this and that …. Tired of the old faces, I am sure people would feel great about new faces… Madhavan –the other actor in the 3 idiots trio, is also an endorser in his own style. Remember his romantic ads with Vidya balan… ?

When Airtel signed on Sharman, his immense popularity that he got after the roaring success of 3 Idiots was cited as the main reason and also the youthful and bubbly image that he has and which Airtel also wants to stretch to its young TG…. No wonder why the actor has been paid a whopping amount for the endorsement and soon after Airtel’s announcement came Nokia took him as well/ this time again with Adah Sharma ( who appears with R Madhavan in Joy Alukkas ads) as their latest brand ambassadors for their latest X series range…


The series so far has 5 ads .- Roaming, Night calling, Mobile internet ,SMS and STD services….see them here... But my trouble is not in the idea of Sharman, not even in the whole idea of “baath karne se hi baath banti hai”- talking only can make things work ( what an idea guys ooppsss sirji… ) I will give a standing ovation for these choices… My worry is that inspite of the guys next door boy looks, his boyish charm and the naughtiness, his mischief married with the plots the ads do not have the killer effect that they could have had if the creatives had pushed it a little more further..

The HERO convinces girls to YES him just by texting love quotes, sells 'his price' to a shop keeper by making him talk to his maaji, makes his dad agree to send him more money by emotional black mailing, again appeases his professor by praising his books on thermodynamics and hoodwinks an irate brother of his girl friend are all funny even though not very gulpable , just like that.. The ideas do not fully represent today’s guys true naughtiness and they don’t really and in total connect with the real guys of the real world ( who are these days locked in with the IPL matches and there are better ads that score well.. for instance) the yo yo guys are more creative, more convincing , more appeasing, more black mailing and more hoodwinking and you cannot even feel it…

They for sure are better than the Vodafone Zoo Zoo’s that have come back, the Idea Ungli chalao ads (from tree savers to fingering , Idea seems to have run out of ideas!..at a point I even thought that Idea will come up with 'Stop exams and save trees campaign'…!) .. Sharman and the Airtel ones stand out, but are they getting the place they deserve.. ? I doubt…

May be I am wrong and for a change I would be happy to be proven wrong!!!

As of now Airtel and Sharman is an awesome duo but we want more… because with a slight push you can give us that more… baath karna abhi baaki hai bhai !!!

Aides+TBWA - Just plain talk...

Pls wait if its taking time to buffer,, and have your speakers on.. !!!!

This is one of the most discussed video for the last fortnight.. It has raised many an eye brow, have taken debates about sexuality into a new level… It had some superb factor in it that can kick start a conversation among people who takes it as a topic to be conversed and fuel a controversy among people who see a controversy even in a drop of milk. This commercial was realised and released for Aides- a French association fighting AIDS by TBWA Paris …..

Controversy but then is the other name of TBWA- be it in the Beijing Olympics Chinese pride ads vs the Amnesty international ad showing the Chinese torture of its athletes both at the same time done by TBWA or be it the 'Pincha la Rueda de Hamilto' or the Burst Hamilton's tires or recently in India the Haagen-Dazs India and its “Access restricted only to holders of international passports” ad and the acrimonious client walk out after the beating…

Funniest advertisement it is, but it is an eye opener.. of course I don’t agree to the suggestion that wearing a condom works like magic or even a magnet that draws to it the female sexual organ, which in a way encourages promiscuity but yes the protection factor is well depicted… We have seen much about AIDS awareness and not many are so open and so very piercing…. Needless to say that graphics and animation is just brilliant. It may be notorious, even be enjoyable, for some it may be detachable but for me it is distributable and most importantly something that will be effective on a wide range of targets…..

Now such messages that suits the audience in other places as well needs to come out, and use the new media tools as well to keep hitting the targets and keep the conversation going and even augment it..

For the time being but three cheers to the awesome team work, and taking advertising as an art and for the simple plain talk..... and hey -thanks to good friend and brother- Rajiv Rajan for sending me the links required ....

Credits

Agency: TBWA, Paris
Client: Aides
Executive Creative Director: Eric Holden
Executive Creative Director: Remi Noel
Art Director: Ingrid Varetz
Copywriter: Ingrid Varetz
Agency Producer: Virginie Chalard
Agency Producer: Maxime Boiron
Production Company: Wanda Productions
Director: Yoann Lemoine
Music Company: AOC Productions-Paris & NY

Ad Speak - Big Idea !!!

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.- Victor Hugo

Much is being talked about the BIG IDEA.. every ad man says this… every ad lecture touts it… what is it in actual?

The big idea is one which makes the BRAND or product PROPOSITION relevant, clear, distinct and memorable. Agencies strive to merge their strategic analysis, their MEDIA choices and gut feelings into an elusive big idea, combining the place a product occupies in a Consumer’s mind, the appearance of the advertisement and the SLOGAN that encapsulates it............ the crux is that the big idea should be big and stand much above the rest in cluttered markets.. The Vodafone Zoo Zoo is an example in the last year of Indian Advertising ..it was relevant, clear, simple, distinct , memorable and hence BIG…. They didn’t take it to where they should have but that is an entirely different thing ….

One classical example from UK is from a 1980s ad for the Volkswagen Golf. They could have relied on the usual checklist of performance criteria, quoting magazines or touting boring fuel economy statistics. Instead, it featured an charming Paula Hamilton storm out of a house after a lovers’ quarrel, throwing away her fur coat and pearls and then, after a masterfully measured pause, holding on to her keys to sweep off in her beloved Golf. The message was that all other pleasures are transient, momentary, superfluous and dispensable, but a VW is a lasting pleasure; if only every-thing in life was as reliable.

An American example of the big idea is Snapple, a non-carbonated soft drink that began life as a niche brand. Its strategy was expressed as “100% natural marketing” which originated from the company appreciating that consumers loved their product. Consumers were encouraged to write in, send photos of them, and tell the company how much they loved Snapple. The agency, Kirshenbaum Bond in New York, answered these letters via TV, magazine and outdoor advertising. One campaign became known as the “love letters” campaign and drew acres of free PR in the national media. It launched Snapple into competition with leading brands such as Coca-Cola. The ads always featured real employees and consumers…..

Now the BIG IDEA need not be an out of the world IDEA… it could be simple and existing.. it could be the daily seen dogs and boys.. it is how the ad man gets to connect them to the brand and its problems in the market place…

There are many examples where such big ideas have been discarded by brand managers and advertising agencies some times without realising that in many ways they are actually tearing out the heart of the advertising communication and some times for availability of better choices and some times due to extraneous factors like fashion and generation changes,,,Some Big ideas start great and get funny later making the viewer feel like why don’t they stop it..? Surf “Daag Ache Hai” and its recent ads are an example…,,

Some Big Idea’s made strong come back after testing other waters, like the Mint with a hole and the Onida Devil.. but gone forever are the Liril Girl, Wah Ustad! Wah Taj !, and the definitely male ……The list is long but I am sure the enlightened reader is aware.. The fact is that our agencies are brilliant in that they come up with wonderful ideas that are big, but they don’t sustain them… the sad fact is that agencies and brand owners fall into boredom with their Big Ideas even before the Target audience does…

Any rejoinders?

Dead End :-
It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.
-DavidOgilvy

Volkswagen Beetle - launch of a legend !

The Volkswagen Beetle is a legend and the ad world have always stood in reverence to the wonderful advertising that Doyle, Dane and Bernbach (DDB) created over so many years for the beetle.. Stormy pitches and messy client agency relationships should learn a lesson or two from the long lasting relation here between the client and his agency… decades now and it still is strong… When others were busy in lionizing size, power, and stature, 1960s Volkswagen Beetle advertising was the tranquil voice for a host of unusual values and selling points. Plus, it made one smile.

How can one see and read the “Think small” ad, after so many years and still not start instantly admiring the great man by the name Bernbach?
How can one after reading the “Live below Your Means” ad, stop wondering why writers aren't like him, simple and yet shooting ideas in the form of words?
How can one not be an ardent fan of advertising after seeing the “No point in showing you the 1962 Volkswagen, it still looks the same." ad…?

Now the iconic beetle is here, In India ….As far as I remember it is the third most awaited car after the First Maruthi and Tata Nano.. and why not ? A Beetle is a Beetle and not any other car could be as successful as the beetle ever was…. The original Bug was the first people’s car and over the years, its popularity has grown heaps and bundles… The new iteration of the Beetle was launched in 1998, drawing inspiration from the original Beetle. Unlike the rear-engined original Beetle, the new Beetle is a front-engined, front wheel drive car.

It is a good looking car. Cute and stylish, it has turned and still turns heads on the street like very few others can. Its price and its place in the C segment is a bit amusing for me but yeah, when a Beetle does it there may be a reason… Its engine, airbags, ABS, electronic stability programme are all wonderful (!!!) but not part of our review here…

Having said so much and having expected the arrival of the Beetle for long, I should say about this ad that you see here made by DDB Mudra ( that is the combine of the One and only DDB and Mudra the Indian partner) for the launch ...

It is nothing but just plain … No great out of the box stuff.. no great creative stand outs, no great punches on clichés and also ran formulae’s.. just simple ads whose sadly ideas sadly are not original..… “Beetle is here- admire it” stuff, which in any case people are doing, with or without the ads… “Recreate a legend” is the brief that was given to the agency, and it simply hasn’t been able to create an inch more of it than the Beetle already had….

I don’t want to accuse of a rip-off and neither do I want to draw similarity to some ads of the past (particularly a print ad by BMW some years ago which showed a valet enjoying the parking business because he gets BMW’s occasionally).. For those who saw the show room ad from Volkswagen and now this ,I am sure the first one looked definitely better in spite of a choking vaccum of an original idea there too.. at least there was a parade of brands there and people got to hear the names..

This print ad looks like a 2009 copy of the "Think small" ad , except that it stand much below in the WOW factor !! The TVC’s where Kid washes car, kid pays owner. Valet parks car, valet pays owner is the theme, is just bland, if my readers can feel what bland really means, that is !

This is from the net …..Lutz Kothe, chief general manager - Marketing and PR, Volkswagen India said, “I have been here since June and at every party that I would go to, everybody would ask ‘When are you launching the Beetle in India?”

Well!!! He has been here from June and what did he learn?
Was this what all and how Beetle and its ad agency in India could have had said?

Is not this the case of an agency taking a client for granted? VW we know is with DDB world wide as a global arrangement, but it need not be for ever and not every where…!!!

Hope the agency is listening !!!

****************************************************
NB:-See more of VW Beetle ads here...

For those who want to read the legend of Beetle read this book by the title..
Small Wonder: The Amazing Story of the Volkswagen Beetle by Walter Henry Nielson...

And some less serious stuff about the beetle here....

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The who is who behind Beetle ads in India..

Credit Details (TVC)

Title: Valet

Agency: DDB Mudra

National creative director: Rajeev Raja

Copywriter and chief creative officer: Bobby Pawar

Art Director: Timsy Gupta

Director: Ramamurthy S

Production House: Nirvana Films

Post production: Prime Focus

Music: Clint Fernandes

Credit Details (Print)

Art Director: Timsy Gupta

Copywriter: Anshumani Khanna, Bobby Pawar

Expect the unexpected- Part I (the best of Adformula series)

If you can't write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don't have a clear idea. ~David Belasco

The client sold chocolates and candies...and was good in that...We ( My second agency which took me to Europe) handled the creatives and the going was smooth..they werent a trouble making client ..No IKE 's.. no shocking surprises... no tantrums.. a dream client....

They came up with a new type of candy which would cause a "revolution" as per their brand manager ..It was as normal as any other candy form out side and when one starts eating but as you go in.. voilaaaaaaaaa it rocks..it turns sour...funny...shocking.. and then slowly you start liking it...that unconventional taste of this new candy starts slowly tickling you, and by the time you finish it you fall in love with it......oooppppssss..... you even feel that all those sweet candies which you had been having all these years were bland and insipid.The agency went celebrating...the product as described by the client ( for every crow and for even a crow, its baby would be the most charming, the most attractive thing in the world).. and before we guys could troop to the nearest bar for the success that was going to be ours ( the ad guys are bad guys---we celebrate the success that may come, will come , most likely come, shall come ,is coming, come, ohhhhh it didnt come...anything is a reason to celebrate..), the client gave the One liner that was what was going to be the brief....

'Expect the unexpected'...It said simply...

The brains cluttered together, confused, confessed and confined, astray and astute, wild and vivid, varied and voracious, vocal and vociferous....everyone thought thought and thought..but nothing evolved except crap and holy crap......Finally the one evolved, did so from a junior client service guy who had just joined, who had an Egyptian father and a Danish mother ( he looked like Menses 2 the Pharoah of Egypt..and we called him MUMMY...) it was some story which some one somewhere had told him which had this climax.....

It was simply stunning....

To be continued...
***********************************************************

As originally published on July 31, 2006 and republished under best of Adformula series...!

The Fun Gun !!!

The irate diner raised his hand to catch the attention of a passing waiter.

"Excuse me," said the man, "but how long have you been working here?"

"About a year," replied the waiter.

"In that case," continued the diner, "it couldn't have been you that took my order."

Guys in client servicing often get to hear such cruel jokes and punches and their creative partners play chess and carroms in the pretext of ideation and humbug !!!!

Week ends but are for fun... Enjoy folks !!!!

The Fun Gun!!!

Q: What's the speed limit of sex?
A: Sixty-eight -- at 69, you have to turn around.

How I hope all questions that clients ask in Advertising could be answered with such ease and fun....

Week end wishes people... !!!!

Times Of India- riding the Mumbai wave

Advertising has this unique power of swaying the reader if said the things which needs to be said in a proper fashion. The power of well written body copies is something which now by and large has become a thing of the past.... the assumptions being that the TG( reader/viewer) do not have the time to sit and read all the long verbosity, pictures speak better and more effective than words and that the age of the printed word is gone..... Times of India seems to be walking against this wave of belief when these ads appeared to praise the hero's of India' latest terror attack.. the emotional Indian and the same emotions may make us sit and read the whole of the ad which we may not do had it been a product or service ad.... the emotional speeh akin to Marc Anthony makes people ponder and that is what ads are supposed to do ..primarily...!!!

The Fun Gun !

Now for all the bulbs that burn, many ad agencies are still roving in darkness...
It is week end again... have a blast people... see u on Monday !!!!