Every time I go for switching on my television, I pray from GOD that this time at least I don’t get to watch some of the brutal boring ads that can make any person a permanent member of a mental hospital. These ads follow the golden rule “When you can’t be extra-ordinary, just try to be different”. Yes this is the bitter truth, although we don’t like the ads but the ultimate purpose of the manufacturer is getting fulfilled by these ads, since we remember the product due to its bad(read: very bad) advertising. But the other aspect of these bad ads is, “You have to keep the remote control in your hand and be prepared to change the channel as soon as any of these appear on the screen” because you don’t want to get shot by any of these what I would call them “DEVILS”.
1. Rajnigandha:
The ad shows an Indian business tycoon going for a business deal with “East India Company” and later buying the “East India Company” saying in most artificial way “Inhone hum par 100 saalon tak raaz kiya tha, ab hamari baari hai” and having the brand Rajnigandha in his hand and some chewing under his mouth. The ad later says “Munh mein Rajnigandha, kadamon mein duniya”. What I say “Arrey bhaiya Rajnigandha khane se hi agar sab kuch ho jata to log mehnat nahin karte”.
2. Tata Indicom:
“Chal chala chal . chal chala chal”, is the DEVIL I fear most, always keep the remote control in my hand just because of this ad. Truly speaking I haven’t watched the full ad till now, but somehow I get the feeling that I will have to go to a physician after watching the full ad at once. The only feeling one can get after watching the ad is “how can one think of wasting so much money” and “how can superstars like Ajay and Kajol think of endorsing a brand thru such a pathetic ad. Tata indicom would have paid a lot to Ajay and Kajol for this ad, Hutch didn’t pay the same amount to its little doggy, still hutch ads are far better than this one.
3. Boroplus(Amitabh Bachchan):
Well we are talking about ads, so BIG B has to be there; he has the biggest shop among all the stars(brand endorsers). This is the “Kanya ko bulaiye…” ad in which BIG B acts as a Punditji in a shadi. Most irritating dialogue of this ad is “Doodho nahao, Pooto phalo, Phate honth to boloplus le lo”, which at all makes no sense.
4. MTR Upma:
MTR is quite famous in Bangalore, MTR Upma might be good(haven’t tried it) but the ad is not a good one. 3 bachelors cooking in home and one of them shouts Upmaaa … and his mother jumps from a plane into his house and the boy says “MTR Upma ki wajah se humko maa mil gayee”. Who on this damn planet can think of such an illogical reason behind getting “Maa” that too directly from an aeroplane
5. Boroplus(Kareena Kapoor):
Kareena sings and dances in a marriage party saying the groom has cracks in his lips and he should apply boroplus to that. Have any one of you seen a marriage like this, lemme tell you NO. I guess had Boroplus spent their money at right place instead of giving it to Kareena Kapoor, they could have come up with a good ad.
6. LUX(SRK):
I put a lot of stress on my mind to find the reason behind putting SRK in bathtub for this ad and finally I got the crux that SRK is hit in everything be it a masala movie like “Main hoon na”. The only reason they put four lovely ladies with SRK is SRK would not look good saying “meri komal sundar twacha ka raaz, Lux”. Again everything looks senseless behind this ad.
7. Pepsi(SRK- Sapera):
Oye bubly is okay, but what is the significance of associating the Sapera and Pepsi. This ad again proved that putting SRK in the ad does not make sure that the ad is going to be a hit, there has to be the right advertising brain behind this. Pepsi ads have always been good but this ad has broken the streak.
8. Rin(BIG B):
This is not the “Yeh naya rang kaun sa hai” ad; this is the latest one in the series where BIG B is a school principal and plays “matmaila, matmaila” with children. You all will agree that all the ads of this series have not been good, but this one is really pathetic.
9. Reliance:
Another one bites the dust; Reliance has decided not to make any good ad for its campaign. The ad shows a person trying to lift his phone as he is trying to lift a 150 KG weight at Olympics. The expressions on his face say that he has done the biggest mistake of his life by buying this mobile phone. And then comes the punch line “banao apna mobile morebile”.
10. JK Lakshmi cement:
A man weighing 25 KG is carrying a 50 KG bag of this cement and his 15 KG wife on his bicycle and he gets a head-on collision with a truck, the truck driver is left with only the steering in his hand. This is how the strength of the cement has been shown. Oh god, Its really tough to write about something very bad.
I missed out on one ad which is again a pathetic ad and its from the most versatile shop of BIG B. Its the Dabur Chyawanprash ad, ’Bhai sahab, kya aap roj ek chammach dabur chyawanprash khate hai’.
As you would look there is need of every kind of people in society, even thieves and robbers are also required(in an appropriate proportion) for the right balance of society, similarly these DEVILS are also required so that we can understand and appreciate good things.
Let’s hope that we get to see less of these devils in the coming year and in the last wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year, have a BLAST…….
Keep writing and keep reading….
PS: Thanks to Mayank for creating such an interesting topic.