I have grown up in an era where sex was a word you rarely uttered in good company. Then came the first real ads for condoms and we were thrilled to see Lintas make the Kamasutra advertisement. Pooja Bedi arrived with this steamy commercial and suddenly taboos were breaking down and we were beginning to accept that sex could be pulled out from under the blankets.

This cricket season is being sexed up with a full-fledged digital campaign from Durex. Apart from the TVC that is running on several channels and is really exactly what you would expect from a condom commercial and therefore quite uneventful except for a lip lock in the last frame, the digital campaign is something worth looking at. Created by iContract, it re-defines the cricketing terms we all know and understand. So you have a little film on their Facebook and Twitter pages where they show you what they mean by Full Length.

It’s pretty risqué and definitely surprised me. And then they have new meanings for terms like ‘leg glance’ (you can get that one easily), ‘bouncers’ (what you must always keep your eyes on till the end), ‘sledging’ (when you let your talk do the batting) and ‘bottom hand’, to name a few. You must have got the drift by now. It’s creative in a “now why didn’t I think of that” way, it’s quirky, it’s very functional with a tie-up that guarantees very quick deliveries (I couldn’t resist that cricketing pun) of the entire Durex range of products before the mood thaws, and funny in an adult way. Well, next time you listen to cricket commentary, I won’t blame you if your mind really wanders.

Small doses

Marketing mutual funds was never easy. And with the market either testing new lows or yo-yoing like crazy, it’s even tougher. And that’s why everyone is pushing the SIP route. So you have Kotak Mutual Fund and Everest Brand Solutions creating a two-ad campaign, Jo samjhega voh hi payega . Essentially it’s a situational play on the banter between a doctor and simple-minded patient in one TVC where the excitable middle-aged man is taught by the pretty doctor that little doses of investment can go a long way. She explains how a monthly SIP of just ₹2,500 in 30 years could make an investor a crorepati.

Another film has the same message conveyed by an Economics professor to his colleagues, in a rather matter-of fact tone in a reading room. I like the fact that this message is being explained by professionals, but not finance professionals. It makes it that much more credible. The casting, acting, and script all add to the nice tone of the message. I’ll give it a thumbs up.

First rides

Maruti Suzuki and Dentsu Creative Impact are celebrating the milestone of 30 lakh Altos sold. A record in India.

And so they have positioned the Alto as the first ride of 30 lakh families and created a TVC where little kids across India are shown enjoying their real first ride, a piggy-back ride on the willing backs of their parents or even grandparents. A simple film, with a gentle song in the background, shot in great locales. The film ends in copybook style with the shot of the Alto cars and line spelling out the milestone that has been crossed.

The film is “competent”. After all, this is the second avatar of the entry-level car that changed the way Indians drove. And for those young readers who were fortunate enough to grow up in an era of liberalisation in our economy, may I just add that when the Maruti 800 (the first avatar) was launched, it was seen as almost a luxury car in a country that had a pathetic automobile sector where monopolistic companies took the poor customer for a ride. A rather bad one, I might say.

So here’s wishing Maruti Suzuki and the little Alto many more milestones to celebrate.

Addendum is a weekly 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.

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