Hippo Round Snack - Bland cooking !

Ok, your market research says that Indians love snacks which are round in shape..fine ! Your research also found that Indians are very sentimental about mothers and their cooking..great ! Your common sense ( maybe research) told that at any given point in time lot of people in India are away from their homes...lovely ! Now you wanted to connect all these dots in a TVC and expect it to blow people out of their feet...WRONG !

What is a bloody hippo doing in this supposedly sentimental ad ? It could be your brand, and you may want to gloriously project it to people, but there are many other ways to do that, than by directly making a violet coloured look-alike act in your TVC ! That's plain stupid & mind numbingly straightforward ! The hippo looks totally out-of-place even though while being used as the main glue holding the whole film together ! The market research is great but execution of valuable information on hand is poor. Wasted chance !

Great ingredients but bland cooking !

Rating 2.5/5

Asian Paints - Sleep Inducer !

A downright boring ad from Asian Paints. You will start yawning in 15 seconds flat and go to sleep before the ad ends. The music & the voiceover will only make the sleep more peaceful. And they want people to remember this product and go buy it ! Wishful thinking !!

Very straightforward ad with no innovation whatsoever. An introverted jealous neighbour finally gets his object of desire in his re-incarnation as a bird, by flying down to the next house. Did any of the above words invoke a sense of interest in you ??

Boring theme, boring characters, boring music..boring.....yawnnnn

Rating 1/5

Bingo Chips International Cream & Onion: Jolly Good

ITC's Bingo chips ads are always in-your-face types, usually based on humour. They have produced many memorable ads over the past  few months in India, but I would say that these regional ads for International cream & Onion are one of their finest. I bet these ads would have got more fans to Bingo in targeted regions than any of their previous ads have managed. In fact they would have greatly succeeded in penetrating the rural / upcountry regions.

Concept is just great. I would say that it hits on the aspirational egos of the masses. Localisation is amazing. Humour is very good and gels neatly with the advert. I really liked the last bit (old lady) which firmly places the ad on the minds of the viewers. Music is just right. Totally, a very good TV commercial !

Rating: 3.5/5

Docomo estick - Mass irritant !

One of the most irritating TVC's ever made in India in the recent past. You just wont be able to stand its background noise of the old moped, which only runs for a few seconds but which would actually feel like an eternity.  Sure shot blood pressure enhancer. You would be a zen master if you can bear this advert for more than once.

Also, you cannot make a TVC which is more straightforward either. Slower bike / faster bike : you decide what you want ! Oh c'mon....

Docomo can definitely come out with better commercials than this mass irritant - all the more important while introducing newer products to the Indian market.

Rating: 1/5

Airtel MNP - Copy Cat

There is nothing to write about this advert, except for the awfully funny looking Saif with a moustache.

A direct,thoughtless copy of Idea TVC's starring Abhishek Bachan. I just couldn't believe a brand like Airtel feels the heat and 'reacts' immediately like a headless chicken to the onslaught from a smaller brand like Idea. Airtel would have done better by coming up with some indigenous thinking. No marks for direct copies !

Rating 1/5

Cadbury Perk Glucose - Brain Haemorrhage !

One of the silliest and dumbest adverts in recent times. The theme is so elementary that it looks straight out of a 6th grade kid's handycam having a first try at TVC.

A sinister looking mom, a 'bechara' son, a crazy looking gardener and a cliched theme - all adds up to an advert which has dumbness written over every frame. I bet you just cannot stand this TVC playing on your tube..you will scramble to get hold of the remote, else suffer a brain haemorrhage !

Its better if agencies stop producing such stupid adverts...if not for the sake of the product, atleast for the sake of viewers !

Rating: 1/5

TVS Wego Body Balance - Dumb !

So how do you talk to young unmarried couples and convince them to buy your product ? Be audacious (never mind if its dumb), be funny, show beautiful people, show some oomph, play some odd music in the background etc etc. TVS Wego body balance advert has all this & more...the grandparents of young couples !

But where is the differentiation of the product clearly shown ? Anybody can argue that the same acrobatics might be possible on other scooters also. Why should I buy a TVS Wego to get this body balance ? The advert should have clearly addressed this question !

The old couple just dont have any place in a TVC like this. And the last scene where the grandma gets touchy feely with the scooter is the height of dumbness.

Rating : 2/5

Tata Nano - A classic !

Tata Motors finally getting their act together for "really" selling their product to the intended audience. The "world's cheapest" image can only catapult a product to a certain distance and after that you do need to market it well to sustain the interest levels of the customers. The random fires further added to the misery and the product was facing its "moment of truth" in the Indian market when the monthly sales touched 3 digits during the last quarter of 2010.

Everything is right about this commercial - the small town setting, a school kid representing the aspirations of a middle-class family, the curious/jealous looks of neighbours, the act of using onlookers to quickly explain the "spaciousness" & "ruggedness" of the small car,  the slow "indian" music etc. Also, the most important question of WHY a middle-class family with school kids should buy this product is being shown in a couple of frames when the car passes an autorickshaw overloaded with school kids, before zipping past a two wheeler.

The real emotional high point is the act of the school girl hugging the car & applying kajal from her eyes on  it in a traditional "Indian" way to drive away any bad luck wished by the onlookers.You cannot get more location specific than this !

A perfect advertisement !

Rating : 5/5