Advertisements and viewers always have a very volatile relationship. Every other day there is a new advertisement of some or the other product. A select few of them are original ideas that really are very good works of advertising. Some of them are the regular ads that ramble about the routine ’’We are the best’’ rouge. No matter whether the advertisement is an original idea or a routine damn-bore, it is repeated over and over and over again in the several commercial breaks that you have in between your favourite programmes. Sometimes, you see the same ad more than once in the same slot for commercials!
You liked it when you saw it once, twice or even thrice. But after that, argh! It’s frustrating to have to see it. So no matter how original the concept is, I can never lie to you about having liked an advertisement. I can say I found this advertisement interesting, or original or better than the others. But never say I liked it; I liked the programme in which that ad interrupted.
For a fellow like me, who treats ads as fillers it is difficult to write a whole review on an advertisement. I did that for Airtel and since I think I did a good job of it, I think I’ll speak a little on this commercial as well.
The Review At Last
Today, you have a plathora of toothpaste and oral-hygene ads. You have Pepsodent and Colgate and Anchor White and the load of them rambling about how perfect your teeth will be when you scrub them with their paste and how wonderful your breath will be and how impressive you’ll look (if you ask me, very white teeth are the most jarring accessory a person can have on his body).
For tooth-gel creams, for Close-up, that is, it’s always been the ’’you’ll impress the girl out there’’ rouge all the time. Well it’s not always been girl, but it’s always been ’’impress everyone’’ rouge. This time, the ad does nothing more than that. However, it does it in a manner nobody seems to have done it before; judging by the fact that it actually became very popular.
A Word on The Concept
The concept of this ad screams of routine, of monotony, of utter mundanity. There is nothing special to the Close-up ad at least as far as the idea of the ad goes. Because there you have him: a geek who is obviously not exactly the smartes bloke on the street who’s brushed with close up walking down the street, puffing air out of his mouth that smells so good that everyone around is impressed; the humk stinks from his mouth even at a distance and poor fellow looses the girl.
Haven’t the advertising guys had enough with this concept? I for one would vote for some other very original idea. A lot of commpanies end up with marvelous concepts (which are later on copied and copoied and copied and copied?) and nine out of ten times, the ad and the product in turn becomes really popular.
The advertisement is not anything original as far as the idea of it is concerned in terms of what result is shown to the viewers of using the toothpaste.
If you allow me to quote another member, it’s like girl_you_can_trust said in her review: It should be aimed at the MTV watching geekburgers. She is completely right in saying so because it is what she said it is.
I beg you to realize that I have explicitly quoted a member. Please do not reprimand me for copying. If the member dissaproves of it, I am sure she will inform me; upon which I shall change/delete the concerned matter immideately. I repeat, I have quoted the member and not copied her review.
The Theatrics of It
The ad, as I told you and as others told you as well, does not have anything new to offer to us viewers in terms of the idea. Then it comes to this question: how does one account for the popularity of the advertisement if the concept of the advertisement isn’t particularly out of the ordinary?
The answer lies in the way it has been put up or the theatrics of it.
For one, the background singing of the ad is something which we certainly haven’t heard too often. It has a pleasant tune and the singer’s diction and the tune itself and a few other factors put together, the tune itself creates a very good comic effect which would make someone giggle out involuntarily on hearing just the tune without the picture.
I must give it to the models in the ad that their facial expressions and other aspects of acting were superbly compatible with the music of the ad. It would have been called ludicrous overacting in another place. But as the ad has been put the way it has been, the actors must be applauded for their very appropriate acting.
The set used for the advertisement also creates the same effect as the music. It has a slightly old-European-town appearance that you’d associate with the lazy café-lined streets of Rome or Paris (lazy being directed to the particular streets and nobody else). This fact makes the set, in this particular case, very appropriate and creates, as I term it, a comic effect adding to the humour content of the advertisement.
For the theatrics of it, the advertisement has claimed an impressive seven out of ten. And I am a very ruthless critic of theatrics.
So all in all?
All things put together, this advertisement is a good example of improvisation in the advertising sector. There used to be a small period of time during which I had concluded that real brains have quit the advertising sector. But now I have to revise my conclusions, which I always avoid unless obviously essential.
All I can say is that I had a better frustration-threshold to this advertisement: it took me several renditions of it before it got on my nerves. And that means, it?s a good job!