After 66 years, three wars, countless “incidents” and an ongoing dispute at the LoC, there still exists an amazingly strong emotional connect between the people of India and Pakistan. I marvel at it. I can understand people of Punjab and Sind on either side of the border having shared memories. Even that would be restricted, I would imagine, to a fairly advanced age group. But if someone told me they wanted to create a communications message that highlighted the applications and functionality of one of the most modern concepts in the world, a search engine, and they wanted to bring out these aspects through a story based on cross-border emotions, I would have seriously debated the relevance to an audience that cuts across age, gender and socio-economic classes.

If then that agency told me it wanted to go ahead with this communication and it would be in the form of a TVC that ran for over three minutes, I would have snorted with disbelief. But that’s exactly what O&M went ahead and did for Google. And the result? Well, if you haven’t seen it, well, just Google anything like “Indo-Pak Google film” and sit back for the next seven minutes or so with some tissues in hand. Why seven minutes? Well, you will never be able to see it just once. That’s why.

The film tells a story of two men separated by Partition and joined at the hip by memories and a relationship that age and time has not been able to wear down. And as the old Indian narrates snippets of his youth to his young granddaughter, the girl uses various Google aids to locate the old Pakistani friend through his young grandson in Lahore. Then the young man uses Google to get various bits of useful information and accompanies the old Pakistani to a tearful reunion on the Indian’s birthday. Sounds like a miniature version of an old Hindi movie? A tested tear-jerker? Well, that’s exactly what it might be but boy does it work!

For those who need to be told how to “google” for information it is wonderful. It throws in a dozen useful things that could be accessed through the search engine. And for those who love a sentimental story told - well, ah! It’s rather refreshing. The narrative, the music, the direction, the acting is all spot on. The underplayed emotion on the old Pakistani’s face, the controlled yet very evocative acting by the elderly Indian, all fall together to make a memorable film. The added takeaway? Who says the TVC needs to be shackled by the tyranny of the 30-second format? The internet just broke those shackles and unveiled a nice long narrative that does a brilliant job.

I had seen it several times before, but I have to tell you that when Piyush Pandey, speaking at the South Asia Conclave at Lahore late last week ended his presentation by saying “I’ve seen this a hundred times. And I’ve cried a hundred times”, and played this to a large audience in Pakistan it was magic. I wager there was not a single dry eye in that gathering. For just a few moments the power of brilliant communication had united every one of us there. For a few moments I was the young idealist once again. And the line that someone drew dividing us had disappeared.

In all honesty

With election fever in the air, the one thing you really miss is honesty. The entire political debate is surcharged with the poor citizen longing for just one little ingredient that seems to have evaporated from public discourse … honesty. And that’s what Britannia has brought back onto centre-stage with its new TVC for Nutrichoice crackers. This film made by Lowe Lintas and Partners takes you through images of sheaves of wheat nodding gently beneath clear blue skies. Plump kernels are ground to clean powder and kneaded into supple dough and baked into biscuits. All along a nice voice sings an ode to honesty while supers show up promising no trans fats, or artificial colours or cholesterol. Just 100 per cent honesty. A rather different tack to take for a biscuit advertisement. But something that we all crave – a little honesty. I’ll bite into a Nutri Choice. Honestly!

Made for sharing

Vodafone’s new TVC created by O&M is the story of today’s netizens. Connected to the Net by a digital umbilical chord they bare their souls every day to a group of ‘friends’ who could be in their hundreds. What they eat, how they feel, what they are doing, where they are going and every little detail of their busy lives is promptly posted for their world of friends to see and “like” or comment on. The TVC takes us through a phase in the life of one such young lady. And I particularly like the song that tells the tale. Vodafone, of course, wants to join this discourse by providing the network that can ensure the 24X7 connectivity this audience desperately needs to stay connected at all times. A nice approach that should resonate with its audience rather well.

A little knowledge

There’s this group of three at a restaurant and the waiter promises to bring their order in just “two minutes”. One of the customers exhorts the waiter to take as much time as is needed, but to ensure the meal is cooked well. And that is the cue of the protagonist of the Birla Sunlife Mutual Funds to cut in and tell you that while you realise the need to wait patiently for a good meal to be cooked well, we seem to expect results almost overnight when it comes to our mutual fund investments. The script then directs you to an investor education site that would hopefully enlighten you about your investments. In today’s slightly vitiated atmosphere, any attempt at investor protection and education needs to be encouraged. As their tag line goes, ‘Jaanoge tabhi to maanoge’ . You need to know, before you accept.

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. 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

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