Saturday, July 10, 2010

Books again..

After a longish break -- again back to books and writing. Picked up "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" and it became yet another book which I could not keep down once I started reading it. Fast paced, with a monologue styled writing, concepts of ideologies, identity, strong undercurrent of nostalgia in the first half, this book for me rates better than "Moth Smoke", which incidentally is another on my favs list.

Finished "The Middlemen" by Sankar. A moving read in terms of a realistic portrayal of unemployment in Calcutta during the 70's. The author, in the epilogue also gives the inspiration that went into writing this book, his inner emotional dilemma of depicting the bleak situation pessimistically as is versus his duty as a writer to bring the reality to the public.

Have now picked up Chowringhee by the same Author. Next on my reading list!

Tall Claims?

The Maharashtra FDA has taken a popular health drink maker to court over the advertisement for their health drink which claims that children who drink it grow taller by 2 inches than children who don't.
I have always been irritated by this advertisement and have often wondered why no rival company had created a ruckus over such an exaggerated advertisement and often wished someone would interfere to take these people to task for such baseless claims. If they indeed have "research reports" to back their claims I wonder what it would contain?!
Would they have had 2 identified groups of children one group who were regularly given the drink and the other one not, over a period of years? If yes, how did they neutralize any biases when selecting these groups? Did the children in the first group have tall parents compared to those in the second group, were they from any specific regions of the country, how was it known that they did not take any other health supplements etc etc...As much as I try I cannot conceptualize a bias-free study which could give this result...and hence my irritation at ads like these.....
It remains to be seen what the company's response in this case is.

Aside/Is it only me who feel that off late, all SRK ads are big disappointments? the bear one...the paste one...really really unoriginal and with no TOMR.

Loved the new NIIT ad though. Superb visuals.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Fav Ads

I have always been interested in ads. When I was doing my ISB, although I was more inclined towards Finance, the thought of taking up a role in branding / advertising was always there at the back of my mind and this was one reason why I wanted a dual major in Marketing. Just to keep the options open :) but I landed in Finance nevertheless and so now I keep my interest in this area by closely following the ad scene in the visual media.
So on one particularly lazy day when I didn’t want to go play badminton and didn’t want to read any of the 3 half read books lying on my couch and didn’t want to write also ( :-( ), I decided to list down some of my favourite ads from the last year. And here they are…in no particular order!
1. Coke classic: Simply classic, one of those ads where there is no story/message/brand utility..nothing. It’s just cool! :)
2. Surf excel (The ‘Rosy Miss’ ad): For an ad for a detergent, it famously proclaimed “dirt is good” whereas the competitors was doing the age old formula of “removes dirt/makes perfect white/as good as new/etc etc”.
3. Mentos Dadhoo ad: Superb idea / graphics and very effective in TOMR for the viewers.
4. Limca Sushma Reddy ad: Very vibrant, playful & backed by an excellent jingle.
5. Tata tea (kyun ki hum khilate hain): Important message comes across superbly to the target audience.
6. Hindustan times (“Its time to stop” series): It’s so rare to find an ad which is message oriented and with a sense of humour!
7. Hero Honda ZMR: The Hrithik ad, just for the execution of the ad; superb and stylish.
8. Airtel (Abhay Deol & Raima Sen): Very cute & romantic! Was intended to connect at an emotional level with the audience and it hits the right spot!
9. Wild Stone aqua deo ad: Just for Sheetal Malhar :) I mean is there any other ad which is this sexy without being vulgar?!
10. Nescafe ads: Has a very feel good factor to them. You actually feel like having a Nescafe after seeing them!
11. Airtel (Kid with toy phone calling dad): Very endearing one and the kid does a really nice job!
12. Bingo ad (the chilli flavour): Too good an acting by the girl…and what an idea!!
13. Max New York life insurance ad: This ad makes you sit up and think “this could happen to me”.
14. Volkswagen beetle ad: Captures the desirability quotient superbly.
15. Zoozoo ads: Well what more can be told of these? :)