In retrospect

Addendum is a fortnightly column that takes a sometimes hard, sometimes casual, sometimes irreverent, yet never malicious look at some of the new or recent advertisements and comments on them.

As we look forward with excitement to what the coming year holds for us, let’s take a quick peep into the major trends and best advertising (as per me, of course) in the year gone by.

Well, one thing stood out rather clearly. Television wasn’t the only dynamic medium available to advertisers. They now have the digital medium as well. And that meant that there wasn’t any need to try and say whatever needed to be said in 30 seconds. So you had some lovely long commercials that took their time and, as in the case of slow cooking, longer commercials came out well.

More important, advertising took the moral high ground as in the Gundappa and Kumbh Mela TVCs of Lifebuoy hand wash. Suddenly, what was good, was good for business and advertising made us all feel proud. Then there was the Google ad (in picture) which spoke about the pain of partition and, incidentally, what all Google could do for you. Long, but emotional and brilliantly made.

Then there was Tanishq with a TVC that ran for over 90 seconds and changed forever the way jewellery advertising was made and seen. The second marriage of a woman was celebrated, as was the vision of Tanishq, which dared to break the mould in a category where tradition seemed to have been sacrosanct. There was hope of communication actually leading change. And of course we had the three-minute-plus Tata Sky commercial that showed how its recording facility could even help someone work while an India-Pakistan cricket match was on. OK, it had no social overtones but the long format definitely made it memorable. Now that you know which will be the award-winning advertisements of 2013 you need not go to the Abby awards. And in any case, one never knows if these would even be entered for the Abbys.

Acquiring some sophistication

I must say PSU banks are getting their communications act together. Earlier one looked at SBI’s ads as the only ones that could match the creative offerings of the private sector. No more. Union Bank’s last set of advertising that figured, amongst others, Ajit Tendulkar (Sachin’s brother) was a very interesting approach. Now it is focusing on the needs of different members of a family. The first commercial deals with home loans and the fact that Union Bank sanctions loans within just five days. The film is watchable.

The second TVC addresses car loans in a very interesting manner. A young man is shown grabbing the mobile phone when a call comes from some “Mitali” and shutting his laptop when his young wife enters the bedroom, making her strongly suspect the worst. The next time around she grabs the phone and sternly speaks to Mitali only to discover that she is the Union Bank officer informing her the car loan had been sanctioned in time for her birthday. The young couple act very well, and good direction makes for repeat value. The communications for PSU banks is perking up. I am sure their performance matches it. What’s wrong in hoping, right?

Well-made

If you are clever you do not state the obvious. Therefore ordinary people like me say “nothing is impossible”. Clever people say “impossible is nothing” and get paid millions by multinational footwear companies. Therefore never say non-stop. Say Stop Not! Sounds corny? Think it’s wrong English? Phew! I guess you’ll never make those millions. Anyway, Perfetti has launched a TVC for its Stop Not Stixz (only fools spell them as “sticks” anyway). Nicely made, I must say.

The TVC shows a common enough tug-of-war for the remote control between a pair of kids watching WWE and the young father who wants to watch the news. No, no, he doesn’t look the “news genre” type. He wants to watch whatever people like him watch. So the smart kids pull out a packet of Stop Not Stixz, offer him one, and he’s hooked. The rest is simple enough to predict. He exchanges the remote control for the Stixz. It’s all in the execution, and the execution doesn’t let Perfetti down.

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Send your feedback to >cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in