Happy Onam!!

Onam -the harvest festival of Kerala is here and so is all the fun and nostalgia...
Life is going to take over and away for a week from the regular stuff and that includes advertising and blogging...
Enjoy this piece of traditional Kerala chendamelam and then you will know what I mean FUN in this part of the world...
Let me immerse in it in real and come back recharged....


Happy Onam !!!

The Fun gun !!!

A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer.
His friend says: “Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man.”
The man then replies: “Yeah, well we were married 35 years.”

Well to me that sounds like rickety relationship between clients and agencies in advertising

.... Blast this week end folks !!!!

Chevy traverse... switching sides ?

The sensitive music, the topless guy ironing (with a pink iron), making a 6 month anniversary reservation…”it’s useful, it’s beautiful, it’s everything you ever wished for and then some” gones the music and the shot is cut to the guy cleaning a toilet.
Ladies, is this really the perfect male?
It is the question that bloggers and critics have flooded the American air space with during the last two weeks...
male chauvinsim -said the women who found the ad cute and why not.. the guy ( hot one, that too) doing all the ironing and cleaning is a clear welcome proposition for them albeit in real it may be a bit too hard to ask for..
The men (predictably)found it hard ,creepy and too GAYISH to be true and got offended by women who said it is cute... Reverse gender stereotyping - the analyst will call it but for the common man its like two ends that simply wouldnt connect......
Chevy went on air during olympics and have for sure got a lot of eye balls to see it again and again thanks also to the discussion ...In fact this is an ad which is much ado about nothing and yet being seen like it is something great.....
Will people buy a chevy traverse after the ad? Or atleast get induced..?
Is their information about the product any better after so much of repeated exposure to the
advertising? who knows and who cares??? As of now the pink guys and the ad is hot and Chevy is having a laugh.....

Last heard some where in the net :-
Don't know who the actor is -- but the commercial is VERY effective. A hunky guy who does laundry and cleans the bathroom! Every woman's fantasy. Makes me want to buy the car even though I know the guy doesn't come with it. Sigh.
offensive or not , when the auto guys every where seem to be bothered and want to sell their stuff of fuel and its efficiency, this is a shock that Chevy gave America and they shall remember it... so will be the guy but was that the objective...???

Is the Ad industry Insured?

This ad had made me sulk for more than one reason...

It was different I agree.....it was a clutter breaker I do admit but was it right to declare and demand that you live as islands...... In its desire to promote its products, here the brand seems to have forgotten the fact that man is a social animal and would at some point if time, however arrogant you are and however much you are INSURED, will have to depend on others... physically or /and emotionally....

HDFC can sell insurance but not arrogance.. Respecting yourself is a great thing but when it goes overboard a halo appears and a self declared holiness shows up.... In the translated versions it sounds and looks even more horrible.... the song and the whole idea, needless to say this now... long after the ad has come and gone (?) but a news item that I have been seeing for some days caught back my attention to the insurance industry and the whole marketing communication confusion that the guys in there seems to be having...

Since the days when LIC was the only player and we had been tortured with Mr Sharma ka dehanth ho gaya.. Mrs sharma bechari akeli... typo ads that made the viewer horrified and reminded him the prospects of an impending death, Indian insurance ad scene has come a long way but to what extent... emotional content is not a bad idea but it should make a soft dent and not a hard cut... slowly but surely it should trickle down the blood stream of the viewer.... like this,,,,,,,,

or even out right emotional like this......

The Thai guys seem to score above others when it comes to communicate insurance by sheer usage of commonsense...

This is not forgetting the good SBI life commercials that made us awe like is it the same SBI? and the ICICI pru ones that finally took the positioning from terror elements to something positive like the SINDHOOR...

This is not forgetting the attempts that appear here and there as good ads and communication but keeping in mind that the industry is still juvenille( growing at 14 % for sure as says the latest figures), the number of players are more and the opening up has happened only recently and hence the clutter is immense and the share of voice and noice is all confusing, the different one will get noted...

Either some sort of consolidation as in the airlines space has to happen or not waiting for that some conscious attempts to be and look different has to happen... Vijender singh the new dude and apple of may an eyes after the Beijing face saver and the alliance with Bajaj Allainz seems to be something of that sort, but the pessimist I am, the charm is to be seen after a while... going by the fact that India is a cricket crazy mob and we even hate any other form of sport it may be a miracle if this handsome hunk of a boxer can actually sell the "power on your side " for a long term...

And the Marketing rules have changed- not only here, and for this industry but in every cluttered market...the more we segment, the more we fragment the consumer landscape and produce more variations of a particular product ....the more we do that the more we end up creating brands and sub-brands and it isnt going to make things better....

Today no one can differentiate their brand by creating one piffy slogan or a single advertisment or by showing in a smiling celebrity.

But is some one listening?

A good one to end the tirade with....

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some related stuff...
the game of probability
vienna insurance group
the thai stuff