First things first, what is that we still crave for the moment we are shaken awake from our glossy dreams, well you got it, a cup of steaming tea and that assorted collection of yellow pages spewing out the previous days happening, also known as newspaper. Still trying to shake off the wonders of our sleep, it is the good old Samaritan, our daily newspaper well accompanied by the aromatic tea that jostles and brings us to face the reality of our day-to-day lives. Once into it, we are transported to different locales and emotional milieu, in one moment sharing the sorrows of people in far flung Spain who have just been ravaged by another terrorist attack to another moment where we are rejoicing in high spirits with our esteemed page 3 celebrities to getting annoyed by the missed opportunities in the field of sports to the plethora of other things that are happening around us. In a span of few minutes we have lived several lives each with its own hues, emotions and vignettes of lives around us.
Every now and then I am sure we have all come across happenings around us or some situations with which we share some emotional connect, even when they are not related to us directly. Be it the sad and repugnant brutal rape and murder of the BPO employee in Bangalore or the joy of the families of young cricketers who have just made it to the Indian team, we share a bondage in some ways or other with each one of them. It is with this context that I am going to write the review.
Name says it all Love it or hate it, but we certainly can not ignore it, that’s the sway of the leading English daily of India i.e. The Times of India. I mean personally speaking I have always been an avid reader of The Hindu, but when it comes to movies, gossip and page 3 exhibitionism I need my daily dose of TOI. I am sure in the same way for other people the requirements might be different vis-à-vis the TOI. A newspaper with a history and heritage of sorts running for over more then 100 years, it has certainly come a long way. So when we talk about the ads for TOI, the latter enjoys mass recall and does not need any introduction per se. It has a pan Indian image and a proven track record to vouch for itself. The moment the ad maker is asked to make ads for such a brand, it is both a cakewalk and a challenge at the same time. For one he does not have to introduce the brand to anyone but at the same time he needs to make an ad that relates to the image of the brand that each one of us have. And for a brand like this it is very tough to have a single image for each of us relate to it in different ways, and the challenge then lies in speaking in imagery which cuts across these barriers so to speak of.
Storyboard of this ad is simple, subtle yet very striking, something which is a story of each of us and that precisely the reason why we seem to connect to it so well. The ad opens on a typical Indian town, with a boy running across the bridge holding a newspaper in his hand, as he runs through the town shouting ‘apna pakia select ho gaya, dekho apna pakia select ho gaya’ he is joined in by another group of boys in a boisterous celebratory dance. Pakia’s father is shown the newspaper with the headline ‘Prakash Mirajkar selected’, the overjoyed father joins the dance procession, as the mother reads the paper and excitedly she takes it to pakia’s grandfather, who reads the headlines with great difficulty with his broken glasses. The lines strikes a chord as he rises and goes into a store room, after rummaging through old albums in his worn out trunk, he finds an old shriveled copy of the TOI with the headline ‘Mirajkar dropped from Indian hockey camp’. He then places both the papers together and compares the two headlines, overcomes with joy he breaks into an impromptu jig with the super of the ad The Times of India- a day in the life of India.
The ad is a definite departure from the previous ads for TOI, which have had a humorous tone to connect with the masses. The latest ad have tried to take the emotional route , with its storyline drawing an interesting parallel between modernity and traditional India. The newspaper has enjoyed a relationship with the masses over generations and the latest ads have tried to capture the spirit and essences of India through the emotional connect that the former shares with its readers. The ad has been shot in Pushkar, Rajasthan to give it a distinct pan Indian feel and of a typical Indian small town. The music and symbolism used in the ads are very subtle. The background music when the ad begins is loud and boisterous depicting modern India while when the old man is having a private moment the music is slow and subtle. Symbolism such as the inward movement of the feet when he first reads the newspaper to his later breaking into a jig depicts his breaking free of the burden of shame of being dropped from the Indian team with which he has lived all these years.
The choice of hockey is apt, as it wanted to talk of a generation when hockey was more popular to today’s times when cricket is ruling the roost. The brand message comes right at the end despite the use of the newspaper right through the ad, such an ad always ensures a high degree of visibility and brand recall as the brand has been subtly woven into the storyline and one does not get the feeling that someone is blatantly trying to push the brand down your throat so to speak of. Very subtly the message has been delivered, one, which talks about the TOI being a partner in our lives, in both moments of pain and of joys. It also talks quite brilliantly about the heritage of the paper as it weaves a storyline of three generations. One remembers the timeless ad jingles of yesteryears ‘ kal bhi aaj bhi kal bhi’ of VIP or the ‘ buland bharat ki buland tasveer’ of Bajaj which spawned across the boundaries of time and space, giving them a pan Indian feel and recall.
It does strike me sometimes the way all the leading brands have suddenly woken up to the potential of emotional content and storyline for their ads. Be it Airtel, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, HDFC Mutual Funds or TOI for that matter, the recall and clutter breaking capabilities of striking an emotional chord with the audiences seems to be the mantra of the day. Indians have always been an emotional and sentimental breed of people for whom matters of the heart rule over the matters of the mind and these ads are trying to tap into that trait of each of us.
Questions Did the previous ads of TOI with their humor tinge make more impact on you then the latest ads? If yes why so and if not then why not?
Apart from the TOI, which other ads come to mind when we talk of emotional, connect to the masses and a distinctly Indian feel to it?
Which ad should be the next one on my hit list?