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.
I have to admit it. I’ve been irritated several times when I see young people with wires growing out of their ears or when I see them perpetually glued to their mobile phones. Maybe I’m jealous that I never seem to get so many text messages. Maybe I wish I enjoyed music as much as they do. Whatever be the case, the audience will really relate to the new set of TVCs from Airtel that focus on their e-wallet. There are times when we stereotype and that may not always be good. And then there are times like these when the audience can actually put itself in the position of the actors. Taproot has created a family scenario that is very real. It has put together a set of fine actors and the direction is first-class. Every little nuance down to the mother anxiously tapping her finger on her coffee cup is very sensitively executed. The films show an irate father berating his “connected” son for not paying the electricity bill or transferring some money on time. The young man uses Airtel money and instantly pays the bill online and transfers the money as well. His remark ‘the bank might be closed, but the telephone is functioning” sums it all up. My only gripe was with the look they have given the young man. If he looked a little less moronic it wouldn’t have harmed the film at all.
There’s this really long commercial which shows a man hunting for an ATM which isn’t there, a flyover that seems to have vanished, an airport that has been swallowed up by the earth, a Metro station that has disappeared and such similar instances. Before you think you are watching some modern-day horror story, you realise that the man is having a nightmare. He wakes up and realises that all these wonderful things have come up only in the last 10 years and have become a big part and parcel of our lives. The ad is from the DAVP and the Ministry of I&B. The idea, of course, is to hammer home the point that all these wonderful things were provided only in the last 10 years by guess who? Why does my perverse mind think of all these things that were not provided for 55 years before that by guess who?
Make it an inside job
We all knew that green tea has antioxidants. And we all knew that antioxidants are good for health. But now, Lowe Lintas has positioned Tetley Green Tea in a refreshingly new way during its re-launch. The TV commercial shows situations where the actors feel the dust, grime and dirt and have a bath to get rid of all that. At the same time they are shown assaulting their digestive system with burgers and fries and other yummy oily, butter-filled dishes. And then you have Kareena Kapoor looking fresh after a bath saying that while we take care of the dirt from outside what about the dirt we consume? (McDonald’s cannot be happy seeing burgers being called “dirt”.) And for that we have Tetley’s Green Tea packed with all those health-giving antioxidants that will not only give us that “insidewallah snaan” (bath on the inside) but could also help keep the waistline in check. Wow, now I know why it’s called the cup that cheers. Now I’m waiting for a similar communication about red wine. I hear it’s packed with antioxidants as well.
Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Send your feedback to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in