Advertisements!!!

              Advertisement, as Wikipedia says, is a way used to encourage or persuade an audience to continue or take a certain new action. It is basically used to promote or create awareness of a particular product. Every company invests a chunk of money to “advertise” its products!

                It is quoted: “Selling a product without Advertisement is like winking at a hot girl in pitch darkness. You know you did your job, but she didn’t notice!”

                Advertising is done using various media like papers, magazines, in a pictorial way. But the most eye-catching and the most common means is television, in an interactive audio-visual way. 

                Anyone who watches a lot of television is subjected to a lot of advertisements. A half an hour of serial slot is actually twenty minute serial and ten minute advertisement. Even in case of movies, a three hour movie is stretched to four or, in certain cases, to four and a half hours, with inclusion of advertisements.

It is because of these advertisements that we get to see; a ‘300 crore-worth’ superstar enticing us for a 1 rupee ‘oil champi’, a legend making his comeback for ceiling ‘fans’, a dancing diva judging an ‘expert’ of dish wash detergents and many such bizarre ones.

No doubt, advertisements are necessary. But how many are effectively noticed?

The main aim is that the advertisement has to catch attention. So, the funda that perhaps works is that either make a superlatively brilliant concept with perfect execution OR come up with an absolutely absurd idea with perfect execution. In both cases, the audience notices, buzz is created and product is promoted. Seriously, think about it! The only ads that we actually recollect are the brilliantly created ones or the absolutely ridiculous ones! Mediocre ones go totally unnoticed.

An illustration of a brilliant ad is “Imperial Blue”. Though they advertise something not completely in sync with the product, I find the ad highly amusing. The tagline-“Men will be men” bundled up with the superb cast, make the ads fun to watch! Another example is “Hutch” whose pug caught a plethora of attentions. Even after Hutch became “Vodafone”, the streak reached a new high. Zoozoos became a rage! The “Umeedon wali dhoop, sunshine wali aasha” coke ad is also excellent! So is the “Har ek friend zaruri hota hain” Airtel ad!

A case of a ridiculous ad is one from “Orbit chewing gums”.  Continuous consumption of these can make your teeth supply light at an intensity of a tube light. Yes, it was absurd, but you remember it, don’t you? Another example is “Bingo Mad Angles” chips where no one could decide the perfect angle wherein the chips tasted better than the other perspective angles. So it was left to “Har angle se Ummm…”! The other representations of this category are “Axe deodorants”, “Fair and Handsome cream” and “Wild stone talc for men-Aapko mardaangi ka vaasta”! ROFL!

Advertising is used to dig into your competitors and continuously prove your quality to the audience. So if a “Bournvita” has vitamin-D to absorb calcium, then a “Boost” has additional 14 nutrients with vitamin-D! If a “Complan” claims to increase your height at twice the rate, then a “Horlicks” states that it can make you taller, stronger and sharper! And this mockery extends to every line of product- detergents, electrical appliances, soaps, shampoos etc! If A gives spotless whiteness, then B gives whiteness with fragrance. If M provides excellent service, then N provides service and also reduces electricity bills! If X eliminates 6 signs of ageing, Y removes 7, and then Z gets rid of 9! Who actually goes to check the names of these “signs”? They invent a similar one, give it an appalling name and make it appear serious! Job done!

Advertisements become a huge hit when a celebrity is involved! One gets mutually associated to the other’s identity! Such ads usually cash into the celebrity’s stardom and fan-following! There are many examples. Pepsi made cricketers like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh battle with footballers like Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres for a bottle of Pepsi! Footballer Thierry Henry, Tennis-great Roger Federer, Cricketer Rahul Dravid and Golf-champion Tiger Woods reveal the secret success formula that connects all of them-Gillette blades and shaving cream!

Now, such is the promotional world of advertising. Now if attention converts to purchases and what succeeds and what fails is totally secondary and under market statistics! I and you cannot comment or generalize! A huge set of conditions apply.

A friend of mine, who happens to be working in an advertising company, once, told me: “Advertising is one simple thing. The two-minute thing you see on TV and comment, it takes months to create and months to debate and months to conceive and months to broadcast.” So, seriously, let us laud the efforts of all such people! Because a majority of their work have proven to work! So, enjoy these while waiting in anticipation for your favourite serial and movie!