Addendum

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.

Mere purity won’t do

Remember when Bill Clinton was seeking election as the President of the US he half-jokingly pointed to Hillary and said that the electorate would get “two for the price of one” if they voted him in. You can’t blame me for recalling this when I saw the Eureka Forbes Aquaguard commercial starring Madhuri Dixit Nene and Shriram Nene, her doctor husband. There’s the evergreen Madhuri (now we know what she drinks, I wonder what she eats) swaying with a hula-hoop while she quizzes her kids (in the film) if purity of water is good enough, and they reply in the negative.

Meanwhile, some snazzy special effects show three-fourths of her body as water to bolster the well-known fact that some 70 per cent of the human body is water. So you have the real doctor saying that minerals are important too and then everyone endorses the new Aquaguard filter that uses some high-fangled technology to purify the water while retaining the essential minerals . So now Aquaguard, steered by Triton Communications, is taking the high ground that mere purity is just not enough. A sound positioning statement, given the water-purifying market is seeing some serious competition. Of course, it leaves poor fools like me who bought the earlier model of Aquaguard on the promise of just purity wondering how I should get my minerals now. But that’s another story.

This ad goes places

India has discovered the joys of travel. And it looks like Indians are happy to sit on their computers and smartphones and let large travel portals plan their travels to distant, exotic lands. Make My Trip.Com has launched a re-branding exercise which shows Indians’ rising travel aspirations and how it can fulfil them. In a society more keen to be known as well-travelled rather than even well-read, the positioning of the campaign, created by Publicis Communication, is spot on. The TVC shows different situations, such as a couple in Thailand, another couple introducing an elderly mom to snow and a mom who decides to join the family in the pool on their holiday. We’ve probably seen this pretty often before, sure, but the script is outstanding. After a long time I really enjoyed listening to the words. Good writing is rare and should be cherished. And combined with the gift of Naseeruddin Shah’s baritone and delivery, it assumes another dimension altogether. Joy Mohanty, take a bow!

Bold not old

Arrow has a new TVC for its apparel line. And it very carefully visually retains its US lineage. The focus is on the bold new professional played by a young Caucasian male who is meant to typify all that is new and young and refreshing and professional. So as the script says “Who says the boss has to arrive on four wheels?” or words to that effect, and you see this handsome young man rolling up on a Segway. You get the drift, right? Rewrite the rule book. Swim against the current. Wear Arrow. Or as the script says, “Out with the old. In with the bold”.

Vox Pop: In response to our question about Kalyan Jewellers ad and the furore it created, reader Ravi Shankar writes in and says he does not buy Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s defence that she did not see the final copy. He adds that he saw the ad himself and feels it touched a sensitive nerve.

Regular reader Ajit Wadhwani loves the IPL commercial where a child asks a petty shopkeeper for five sweets with the money he has. That will fetch him only one, so he opts for five of a cheaper variety and then charms the shopkeeper and the audience by offering him a sweet while saying “our team won.” The shopkeeper then gives the child the sweet he originally wanted. Ajit feels the acting of the child was really good. And I guess the film fosters the loyalty quotient for the local team that is so important for a league. In a creative way. Makes me rue the fact I missed it.

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Mail your comments to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in