adsense or adNONsense?

There's this supplement which comes every week with The Economic Times, called Brand Equity. From the reader's point of view, it's a rather entertaining supplement. One of the several goodies it carries within its pages, is list of ads which are good, and a list which are ... er ... not good. Thanks to the DLF IPL, ads have become even more pedestrian, and has given me this oppurtunity to pen down my thoughts, or should I say key in my thoughts, regarding ads into the pages of my blog.If you are, by the wildest stretch of imagination, a regular reader of my blog, then you may have come across a post, a week or so back, where I had embedded a video. If you haven't, then click here.

Now yesterday, while watching the KKR vs CSK IPL match, I saw an ad whcih irritates me every time I watch it. This one's of Lifebuoy, which showcases their latest hype 'Healthy hoga Hindustan'.

It first shows a school teacher expressing concern over the absence of one of his students. Then this narrator says in a rather pseudo-intellectual manner, that the main reason of children's absence from school, is their health. Now he goes on to say that the jobless guys at Lifebuoy, actually planned an experiment, taking 1000 families, put them into two buildings, building A, and building B. Everything remained the same in the two bulidings, except for one 'aadat'. 

Then 'Ek saal baad ... ' the children in building A recorded a 40% greater school attendance than their counterparts in Buliding B. The reason? 'Sirf ek saboon badla ' ... and then it's jai ho Lifebuoy. At the end the bold assertion, that if it is possible for building A kids to stay healthy, then why not Hindustan, gives reason for an even bigger spoof.

An innocent question. Would 1000 families actually risk their children to promote Lifebuoy? Would the 500 in Buliding B, actually give in to their kids being 40% less present than their counterparts in A? Isn't that ad non sense?

A very similar propaganda was initiated by Horlicks, where they claimed that an experiment (naturally fictitious) conducted by taking a survey over a huge number of kids, proved that kids who drank Horlicks became twice as taller, stronger, and sharper. What's hilarious is the on-screen proof that Horlicks kids became twice as sharper: twice as many hands shot up into the air, when a teacher posed supposedly the same question to two groups. Now what can be funnier? No wonder this ad got a kick in the face by the British legal restraints, when they tried showing it in England.

There's yet another category of ad nonsense ... the brainless ones. The finest example being that of Rupa Frontline, where they show a guy who walks up to the front of a queue, instead of the rear, and then a security person asks him why he does it, to which this guy replies that he's wearing a Frontline vest. C'mon man, this is the 21st century!!! Wake up!!! That's no way how you promote your brand in this era!!!

Yet another brainless ad is that of Fanta. The cinematics, and effects are pretty cool, but the ad just doesn't make any darn sense ... or at least, I don't get it at all. 'Fanta ka signal loud Bunking is allowed ', all it seems to me is they are promoting the shape of the bottle which facilitates superior whistling capabilities, more than the contents of the bottle. Weird? Sure. Brainless? Surer!

Now quality ads ...  the ADSENSE sort of ads come from these telecom companies ... Vodafone, and Airtel being the spearheads. Vodafone uses symbolism, and a sense of adorable ness to keep their ads up front and rocking. Be it the cute little doggie and the recent white cartoons, they sure know how to keep it simple, sweet, and nice. Airtel ads, though not as good, still come as a breath of fresh air ... be it the 'pyaar mein koi cutbacks ho nahi chaiye', or the 'atoot bandhan atoot network' or even the Airtel digital TV with universal remote. These do leave a mark on us. Even the recent ads of Sprite are quite nice ... 'sidhi baat, no bakwaas'. I pity that poor guy with the goatee who has to be on the wrong side of the ad everytime, and get blasted by SRK... But nonetheless, the ad is quite enjoyable, and invokes ripples of laughter every time it is shown.

So much about ads. I'll have to end here now, got some work to do. ISC results come out tomorrow, and I'll have to spend the remaining day awaiting the imminent shadow of doom. Till then ...