Why are we applauding mediocre advertising?

Since the start of social media promotions, topical advertising has been the way to go. Everyone has taken this route, some can sustain it over a long period while other decide to abandon it abruptly. Topical themes are funny, entertaining, impactful and relevant but it dampens the big picture because literally everyone seems to be doing the same thing.
The law of diminishing marginal utility kicks in here are you're not impressed with the visuals you see, albeit each brand has worked equally hard on conceptualizing and creating their work.

What happened to outright crazy advertising?
Brands today have the freedom to bring to life any campaign they can dream. From the plethora of available resources, man power, creative inspirations and ability to amplify, the impact can be unimaginable. Yet, brands choose to follow a routine of bland ideas that create nothing more than lukewarm appeal and minimum recall.


 
Mercedes SLS ad vs Mercedes Cucumber Ad:
Remember when Mercedes Benz made an absolutely outrageous ad with the SLS gulwing doing a running 360 inside a tunnel. Almost every car enthusiast will remember this ad. Then you look at this image with slice of a cucumber which was connected to a spa and the 'S' in the S-class. This ad has to have a copy and multiple online articles to support the idea and justify what is really going on. 

No country for dark skinned kids.

Take a moment, think of as many TV ads as you can think of.
Think of brands, think of celebrities, think of the products.
Now think of the ads with children in it, ads where children are the central characters.

Indian ads only.

What do these children look like?
Well groomed, healthy with striking features, beautiful children and all of them fair skinned.

That Little Thing

The Jeep Compass TV ad.

Halfway there to being one of the best SUV ads, the 2017 Jeep Compass ad for India is a beautiful mix of copy, cinematography and music.
From the gripping narration, the stunning visuals and the goosebumps inducing soundtrack, this commercial ticks all the boxes to make a great ad for the product they are trying to sell, but they fell short in one aspect......That voice over.

The Thing About Brand Ambassadors

What is it about the best brand ambassadors? What makes an ideal brand ambassador?
Could anyone be a brand ambassador?

According to the rules, the best brand ambassador has to be a person who represents the same beliefs of the brand, someone who embodies the image, the values and everything the brand stands for. The person everyone sees as the direct consumer of the product who believes in the product. That's the original way to do it.
Let's classify this as class A.

However, in recent times brands have taken the cheat route and just pulled out a currently popular person to represent their label as brand ambassadors. With no common values and weak or inconsistent personal identities of their own, these are usually spoiled celebrities who walk in and assume everyone loves them.
Let's classify this as Class B.

Lastly comes the brand ambassador of a entirely different kind.
The one who is born from an idea and with a strong back story and unique identity.
Let's classify this as Class C.


The Brand Ambassadors we have now:

Virat Kholi & Alia Bhatt
Class B

I admit that Virat has his share of talent for the game he plays and is good at what he does.
Came up the ranks in the right way and has his rightful place. But then he adopted this bad guy poster boy image. Looks like he is angry at everyone all the time and wants you to believe that fairness creams and low range smartphones and clothing will take you places.

Are we proud to be the #Selfiesthan?

The selfie trend which gained traction since the rise of smartphones with front cameras; has now amassed a popularity like no other. With people from all backgrounds and languages aware of the word and the action associated with it, the word selfie has gone on to become a powerful selling point in marketing communication. With smartphone manufacturers packing feature after feature to bump up their front camera capabilities just to sell their phone as the number one selfie phone.

But here is the Selfie problem. Selfies kill.
Some may find it hard to believe how a small seemingly harmless action like this can cause such heavy damage but here is the raw truth of selfie deaths.
India is home to the most selfie deaths in the world. It does not end there, India is also home to 60% of the global selfie deaths.


There is something going terribly wrong here, India has a lowly 20% smartphone penetration for its massive population and sadly a good number of people end up killing themselves with selfie deaths for doing something as normal as taking a picture.

   

So what was Gionee thinking when they made their ads calling India the 'Selfiesthan'.
What's in a selfie that one needs to be so proud of doing it?
What greatness is achieved by snapping a badly framed picture of your face with just 20% of the background behind you visible?
What's so special about Indians taking a selfies as compared to any other nationality doing it?

The Micromax Ad that destroyed the brand.

Since the launch of the brand, Micromax enjoyed a few good years as the leading low budget - big on features smart phone brand. They made a big impact in the market and had an customer base of college students, low income corporate employees and people with plain shitty taste in quality. 

Success went to their heads so fast that Micromax started to rip off iPhone advertising. Cheeky!
Pumping tons of cash in advertising did push the brand to look better in the market and get more mouths talking about their products but at the end of the day the devices were china made pieces of shit. With no reliability and deteriorating quality from the moment you took it out of the box, we pity the idiots who went on to buy another Micromax in their lives.

There is a limit to how far you can push your brand using white people but with the number of Indian brands who use western (white skin only) persons to give their brand an international image, Micromax went a step ahead and roped in Hugh Jackman too. This was pretty big and a first for an Indian brand to do something of this scale. Poor Jackman wouldn't have a clue about brand perception as all they must have shown him were sales numbers.

Micromax shot itself in the face with this ad and paved the way for its own doom. Motorola introduced its budget phones of much higher quality, features and reliability and Micromax to this day has no answer. The smartphone market is a competitive place and Micromax had its glory days, its 2017 and they are just struggling to hang on now.

How to be cheap and get things done.

Vogue eyewear, international brand, big time celeb ambassadors but with a logo that was designed by an intern and a advertising financial budget tighter than that of your spending cash for your Euro trip.

What's going on here?

We see Padukone sitting, posing with a plate of fruits, hanging out with a Camel that doesn't give a shit and munches away.

Padukone is doing all that she learned in acting school throwing oomph left right and center. Working her clutch purse, her binoculars, her fake laughs (She's sitting alone on a boat, why is she laughing alone!)

Parle Mexitos - Probably the best ad of the year.

In a market dominated by a brand that has successfully sold 3 chips in a packet full of air, it takes bold determination to try and grab a market share of your own. Customers have done their part and have been welcoming to new brands and with time the mighty Lay's has lost it's hold over the customer. New brands offer the same variety of flavours, the same price and the same quality. New brands now enjoy prominent display at shops and are also the first choice of brand for many buyers.

6 Times the Airtel 4G girl ruined our favourite memories.

1. Lifetime mobile bills free biatch! You want!

2. Life is goes by like the speed  of 4G.

3. Fastest Indian mobile internet network. 

4. I'ma let you finish, but I just want to say Airtel has the fastest 4G. 

5. I just want to know what you use your smartphone for! Let me in!

Worst squad ever!!! 

Parle just made the most insensitive TVC of all time

In every creative discussion there comes a point where you have to stop with your silly ideas and come to a point to create something that best suits your target audience. There is an audience for every genre out there but when something is going to be shown on TV, it should be suited for all ages and cultures.

From Playlists to Foreplay.

What started of as a casual youthful love story that escalated quickly into a somewhat condom commercial that could not afford Sunny Leon.

We start with the two meeting first on a very lonely subway, which has no ads on the walls.
They get on the same train and sit opposite each other. Now we all know that women never leave their phones away from them, they are constantly texting or fidgeting on something with their phones. They never look up, or out of the window or talk to anyone beside them. The good people at Gaana felt that was not true about young girls and portrayed out leading lady here without a phone or earphones for music. (Let's assume she's one of those pious praying women you see when you travel)

Truth is, she isn't. She gets on with her serious eye flirting game and before you know it manages to make the boy create new playlists everyday. Poor guy.