When Loknath Sharma becomes our Brand Ambassador

Grand Kerala Shopping Festival is going grand. Selling this festival is one Loknath Sharma and one Major Mahadevan. Do not scratch your heads if the names are not very familiar -- they are characters from a Malayalam film titled Kandahar.

Nothing new about this. Having sponsors, models or "brand ambassadors" selling products and services is common practice. But what makes this one interesting is the fact that it has cleverly undone a policy decision taken by the Kerala government a few months back.

[Old news in brief: The government of Kerala decides to make Amitabh Bachchan the brand ambassador for Kerala tourism; This move faced opposition from within and outside the party as Amitabh was the brand Ambassador for Gujarat;  (Mid-Day: CPI-M against making Big B as Kerala tourism brand ambassador, Statesman‍: Stiff opposition to Amitabh Bachchan as Kerala tourism ambassador) Succumbiong to these pressures the government backtracks on the decision.]

We also got to hear that Big B was not very happy with the whole episode. (Not made Tourism ambassador, Bachchan slams Kerala : Indian Express‌, 2010 March 25).

That was about nine months back. Now we see the same Amitabh Bachchan disguised as Loknath Sharma and selling another business initiative of the same government. All major newspapers carry colour advertisements on their front page every day, featuring images of Mohanlal and Amitabh Bachchan. Huge hoardings in all big cities of Kerala. The bigger ones have the Government of Kerala symbol of two elephants prominently on them. To make sure we don't mistake the face to be that of  Amitabh Bachchan, there is a small script below (smaller than the "Cigarette smoking is injurious to health" in the old cigarette ads) that says: "Major Mahadevan, Kandahar" and "Loknath Sharma, Kandahar". Intelligent.

Those who opposed the earlier move to make Amitabh our brand image appears to have been done in by this trick.


[Images: (i) Ad on the front page of The Hindu, December 25; (ii) A hoarding in Kozhikode city]

[A Malayalam version of this note was carried in Countermedia. The images were removed for some technical reasons.]

An ad that shows you don't need a 3D TV

That is supposed to be a video commercial for a 3D LED TV by Samsung. It shows the "possibilities" that a third dimension adds to our visual experience. Fair enough.

Now the only hitch is that I am able to see and feel all of that on a plain 2D LED screen of my laptop. So I ask -- do we really need a 3D TV?

[I have had the same question every time I saw an HD-TV ad on a normal TV!]

Frontpages and advertisements

One senior journalist in Kerala expressed his shock at seeing the front page of 'The Hindu' on December 4 morning. Apparently, the whole page was split down into two in the middle by a huge "hit on the face" Ad by Uninor GSM.

I can understand his shock. I guess this is the first time The Hindu is running such an ad on its front page.

However, what I found more disturbing (difficult to feel 'shocked' with anything that the media does these days) was Sri Lankan government's series of big front page advertisements that the same newspaper carried with its chief editor's name on it (even the photographs were credited to N. Ram) more than an year ago. Below are some of them.

The Hindu front page, 2008 October 17

The Hindu front page, 2008 October 29

Editorial page, same day

..and

The Hindu front page, 2009 July 6

Compared to all this, I find a "hit on the face" commercial quite harmless. It is not even paid news, as it demarcates itself clearly as an advertisement.

Even outside the Sri Lanka episode, I think it is dangerous to ascribe a holier than thou status to The Hindu. They claim that themselves, and we somewhere accept it too. Despite N. Ram's CPM credentials (or owing to it?), I have felt that they have very Tamil Brahmin sensibilities. The Sri Lanka episode could be read as a part of it.

(Btw it is fun to listen to some Iyers and Iyengars swearing by the 'real' English language that The Hindu uses:-))

In Delhi or Bombay, Times of India or Hindustan Times carry full-page ads on their front page quite often. I am no big fan of those newspapers either, but at least they do not come with the pretensions of being 'the serious newspaper'.

Thinking alike in the times of IPR

This post is probably coming too late. At least by six months. This is no opinion, but only an observation that I found very interesting.

Two ad campaigns that looked almost the same. Both titled 'Nature and Science'.

I noticed the Fiama Di Wills ads first. On hoardings in Delhi. It showed some plants growing in chemistry lab glasswares, and said Nature meets Science to give you gentle and effective care. (Fiama Di Wills is a soap/shampoo wing of ITC India. Deepika Padukone was one of their brand ambassadors).

Later I noticed another ad, in which there was a poorly animated robot and a grass-man as bodyguards to a school kid. I was wondering why the glassware gave way to a robot, but then I realized it was a Bournvita ad (Cadbury's).

It was interesting to see these two campaigns co-exist, in times when Intellectual Property has become obscenely imperative.

The Fiama shampoo bottles still carry a 'Nature & Science' logo. I guess the Bournvita bottles would be boasting of it as well.

Gillette: The worst an ad can get?

(I know an ad campaign can get much worse. The title is not to be taken very seriously).

* * *

We live in a time when we are fed ads disguising as news. We have got quite used to it over last four or five years, and many of us have even developed a skill to tell an ad from a news byte. Yet, we look at some of these ads and feel like throwing up.

This time it was Gillette.



On September 17, HT City carried a survey report that 91% of Delhi women were turned off by unshaven men, 82 percent of Delhi men are clean-shaven (I refuse to buy that), and across the metros most women found clean-shaven men more kissable.

It went on to add that 47% of the respondents thought clean shaven men are more likely to become millionaires (what if 53% thought otherwise), 47% thought mistakes are overlooked if they are made by clean-shaven men, and 50% think that your Visa application will be rejected if you have a stubbled look. The survey was conducted by -- no marks for guessing -- Gillette India.

The survey also gave details of how women liked their favourite stars -- Hritik Roshan, John Abraham, Abhiskek Bachchan and SRK among others -- whether clean-shaven, stubbled or full-bearded.

If you thought this was a subtle and tasteless campaign for selling blades, the worse was waiting to come.

Audio ads on Delhi FM stations said, "Bankers are more likely to reject your loan application if you have a stubble." Since there is no such thing as 'news' on most private FM channels, this had to be a "commercial". The rest of the ad was essentially "Buy Gillette Mach 3 and shave off that stubble" or something like that.

This series of ads seem to be taking us back in time in more ways than one.

This is not about being better than your competitor. Somewhere, these ads give me an impression that people don't know there is something called razors. One gets a deja vu of the 19th century "don't stay dirty, get Pears" kind of ads.

(Note that this one can not be compared to adversitements like that of Nokia Navigator phones, as it is not the case that a company is introducing shaving blades in the market for the first time.)

Two, these ads are plain racist.

Do the creators of this campaign really think it is hip to boast about cultural biases like mistakes being overlooked if you are clean-shaven and all that? If they really do, I think they need to take a lesson from another series of ads in town. "I am not fair but I am lovely -- I am not yesterday" -- say hoardings that carry an image of a beautiful dark model. "Is it true that women make bad drivers?" "Ask Sunita Williams", goes another ad on air. Advertising Mail Today newspaper, of India Today group.

Two days later, Delhi Times showed us clean shaven make-overs of Milind Soman and Kunal Kapoor. The news, of the launch of 'Gillette Mach 3 Turbo' in New Delhi, went like this:

"It was part of their macho appeal -- Milind Soman's rugged beard and wild, long locks, and Kunal Kapoor's urbane but sexy stubble. But the two hunks have recently shaved off their stubble and chosen to go for the smooth, clean look. What made them do it was Gillette Mach 3 Turbo."

The actors, however, had a different story to tell. They did not quite owe up to the 'stubbles are for losers' campaign. They refused to disown the stubbled/bearded looks that they were in for quite some time now.

"I've never had any problem playing with my looks. We're actors, and need to meet the demands of different characters. And with Gillette, the best thing is it doesn't scratch your skin. When I decided to go for a makeover, it's the only one I could think of," says Kunal.

Milind said, "I don't know if women like men clean-shaven or with a stubble, but one thing is for sure -- a guy has to be confident about his looks."

Thank god, it is not the end of the world. Even as Gillette is doing its bit to kill the confidence of the sexy stubbled men.

* * * *

[The Hoot carried this article, with a few modifications. I felt there was too much stress on "ads as news" in the way they presented it. It was initially titled as "Ads disguised as news" or something. Later they changed the title after my comment.]
[Image: from The Hoot]

I'm not yesterday: lovely ads

Lovely ads, on the roadsides of Delhi. Of Mail Today. I believe these ads are done by Capital advertising. (photos: sudeep)

Reservation Quota to be hiked to 95%

So goes an advertisement for Videocon Airconditioners. One of the most offensive ads I have seen in recent times. With a tagline "Stay cool No matter what". It wins the uncool ad award hands down.

The ad shows the front page of a newspaper "NOON NEWS" that carries this news:

Reservation Quota to be hiked to 95%

"The superior court today accepted the government's plea to increase reservation quota in educational institutes. High-profile institutes such as IISs and the IINs too, will now have to reserve almost 95% of their seats for candidates belonging to scheduled castes (SC) and backward class (BC) from the coming academic year.." (it goes on)

How is it that such a blatant mockery of people belonging to scheduled castes and backward classes passing off without a resistance? Or has everyone taken the tagline too seriously?


[Ad on the backside of Air Deccan magazine Simplifly May 2007 issue]

Nominees in Most uncool ad category are..

My entry is "veta ho to koi bhi english bol sakta hai" or some such crap, where a housemaid is shown singing an English song and a young guy opens his moth in disbelief. The maid says "main chalti hoon saab", and walks away. Guy's mouth is still open. The tagline follows. Boo...!!

What do the people who make (and enjoy) such ads think? they are some special species who are born with some magical power (their dad/mom/grand-dad/grand-mom got some power from aliens..) that makes them able to speak English? Many housemaids end up in that job after having to drop out of school or having to discontinue further studies. Many of them do speak good English too (if they don't speak English with you, that's because of your attitude that they are not supposed to be in your league and you want their class to remain under yours forever..) Boo boo..!!

Please post your entries in this category.