You see this white-gloved pair of hands at a counter. Just hands, nothing else. It intrigues you. Some magic act is about to unfold. The hands show the new Spice Pinnacle series smartphone and you are shown a dazzling array of features the phone is credited with. You are suitably impressed. Then you see this guy come and quite literally bend over and offer his jaw to be socked. A voice asks him to name the phone he just saw and heard so much about. Almost predictably he mouths the name of a market leader. Wrong, says the voice and once again all you see are the gloved hands. He mouths the name of the second brand you would almost expect him to say. Wrong again and this time the gloved hand impatiently and imperiously slaps him and the voice over tells you it is the Spice Pinnacle series smartphone. I must say, this is one TVC where the idea is very nice but the execution could have made it go horribly wrong. Instead, I was delighted at the pluck and pizzazz of this new brand. It showed exactly what a young Indian brand could be all about. Impatient and intolerant, but only when faced with dummies. O&M has a winner on its hands.
Slick & topical
I am writing this against a backdrop where a few days ago the bellwether Bombay Sensex went into a free fall. The rupee depreciated alarmingly. Debt funds were bleeding and once again the markets and all they stood for seemed to be in tatters. And then I saw this ad film. It starts like some James Bond movie showing you the Motilal Oswal Man all dressed up in trench coat and hat. He enters a very fancy building branded with the company name (I didn’t know Motilal Oswal had such an impressive building) and is told that investors were leaving the market and his mission was to get them back. Quite frankly, juxtaposing the real scenario and this reel story, it could have been ‘Mission Impossible 4’ and quite believable. Anyway our Oswal man goes about finding the lost tribe of investors who relied on tips, scattered their investments, aimed for quick returns and all ended up with a familiar story – that of shattered dreams and burnt fingers. Our man gives each of them relevant advice and it all boils down to one mantra: “Buy right, sit tight”. And then like any good potboiler, the Oswal man returns and so do all the investors.
Cartwheel Communications have made a pretty slick film and while it might have looked a little trite otherwise, the timing is quite amazing. You can’t help feeling that the Finance Minister should be sitting in his chamber and calling for the Motilal Oswal man and telling him to bring investor confidence back. Quite honestly, with things the way they are, no one else other that a fictitious character would even try. Mr. Finance Minister, want to give the Oswal man a try? I could try and get you his number.
Boy or man?
So there’s a young mother trying to make the young man look very “propah” with a bow tie, waist coat and all. The young man then hops on to his Yamaha FZ-S and almost instantly his spectacles crack, his bow tie gets undone and the buttons on his waist coat pop. The voice-over tells you that a woman spends a lifetime making a man out of a boy and the Yamaha takes a minute to make a boy out of a man. I am very confused. So who do we want to grow up to be? I assume the young boy wants to be a macho man when he sits astride his mean machine and feel the wind in his hair. So why are we now going in reverse gear from man to boy? Anyway, it takes all kinds to make the world and I guess it takes all kind of TVCs to make up this mad world of advertising. Let’s just say if someone can clarify what I am confused about, please write in.
Good shot
The way a product appropriates a mnemonic is always fascinating. The association that follows is almost automatic and there is a certain ownership that can be gained to the idea. Cadbury Shots had this idea where it showed its little round ‘Shots’ exploding like some excited thought blurb and it called them “laddoos”. At that time I wondered at the name. Yet seeing the second film in that series where they have four young girls each having some mini-explosion of thoughts on hearing key words from an elder with regard to a choice of college for their higher studies, I found the idea not just appealing but even entertaining. And when a TVC entertains, it really hits the spot. Abhijit Awasthi and the team at O&M hit the target again!
Independence Day
I know I am at my carping worst when it comes to most Government advertising. But I really can’t help it. They bring out the worst in me. So this time let me say the film they released on Independence Day was surprisingly acceptable. Given that I am sucker for the national tricolour, I like the way the Bharat Nirman team made this TVC. The situations were apt, the tune was catchy and sentiment very laudable. OK, OK, they dragged a situation or two a little more that they should have but let’s not spoil the “goody” mood. We need communication that makes us proud to be Indians! And God knows that’s difficult these days.
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. >addendum.brandline@gmail.com
Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant.