Ads for 'Innovative' products from the future

In an attempt to be innovative, companies are constantly adding more of the same stuff in their products. New 'technology' and 'features' are designed to make our lives easier. While this might be true in many cases, have these two products from the future gone too far?

Product from 2016: Gillette Super7

Tagline:

Gillette: How blade are we?

Slogan: 

When your stubble is too stubborn for six slicers.

Copy:
The number seven is the number of balance. Not as many as eight, but far superior to six, Super7 has just the right number of blades for a super comfortable shave, should you still have any skin left on that face. This time (as usual) we promise a super close shave and you have no choice but to believe us as our brand ambassador, recently rehabbed pop star, Justin Bieber shows his clean-shaven mug.
[Note: Actual results may differ depending on whether or not you have real hair growing on your face]

Product from 2012: Facebook version 1 million

Tagline + Slogan:

Art: Facebook version 1 million 

Copy: 

Want to show the friends you don't have in real life how many friends you really have? Have you ever pondered existential questions like when you will die, how good you are in bed or which Bollywood star you are? Do you want all your communication with family and friends to be reduced to a 'Like' or 'hai hru doing'? Then Facebook is the thing for you! Secretly pry on your partner's hot friend's photographs and go a step further with the super poke 3D, which lets you poke people - in 3D! But that's not all. You can like stuff you could never imagine, as our brand ambassadors' status message proves. So what are you waiting for? It's time you got a life, it's time you got Facebook.

Mr. W.

One of the best ads I've seen in recent times:


On that note, have a great weekend.

(Link from Mr. Linkastic)

Love in the time of Facebook

I just happened to see a wonderful ad on Facebook. Sure to drive the maidens wild with delight while taking care of some very practical issues like legality and speed. Much props to those who came up with this idea.
Romance is in the air, I tell you.

Riddle me sick

Q: What's the best word to scare one's wife when one's down with fever and other flu-like symptoms?

A: Oink.

I know, don't tell me - I'm mean as an average. Sick as a mass murderer. Aaargh.

The similes are off colour today. Apologies. A little under the weather. And speaking of weather, check this out.

Aircel Innovation In Mumbai On Rains

View more presentations from guest1af563.

Hurrah for our government and their proactiveness. Ok back to the bed. Blogging shall soon resume. Don't go too far.

Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-i - The Fastest Indian

I love this ad - Bajaj continues to outdo itself. The music, the actors, the situation, the word play and the tension till the penultimate frame are almost perfect in every aspect.

Hero Honda better dhak dhak reconsider its dhakin' compaign.

Day 29 - IPL 2

What a day - The Hand that rocked the Lotus, rules the country again. Of course, the Left didn't do well, because you know that in our culture a 'Left Hand' means shit.

All the news channels are thrilled to bits that their exit polls were correct and this is a common headline across the board, 'UPA Win - Just as we had predicted.' CNN IBN is even showing that their new website has had 7.5 million hits so far. What joy for me.

I just hope that a united government is able to work towards the progress we desperately need now - no more communal tension, effective anti-terrorism measures, economic and infrastructural reforms. We've had enough of these problems - time to move on.

Moving to the IPL, one spot was booked in the semis. Mumbai effectively walked out of the semi-finals of IPL 2 when Sachin walked off the field having scored only 11 from 15 balls. Despite reaching a reasonable total, it was Sachin's reliable captaincy that ensured they would never make it past Dhoni and Hayden. If anyone should have the nickname 'The Wall', it really should be Hayden. Not only does he play with consistency and is difficult to get out, but he also looks massive - a veritable Great Wall of Chennai. And it is on this wall with an orange cap that Chennai have jumped to the other side of the tournament.

The only interest in the DC vs KKR match was to see if DC would continue to be in the hunt for the semis. KKR has become like the Third Front of this IPL now; they can only screw up the other teams' chances (as BJP claimed the Third Front did in these elections) to be in the top four, and that's exactly what one though when Andrew Symonds was run out.

KKR managed a very good total of 160 that was primarily a result of a 17-ball 43 by David Hussey. A solid start by Gilly didn't seem like it would be enough - at the end of the 19th over they still needed 21 to win. But a sensational final over, which Rohit Sharma faced most of, yielded 26 runs, and ensured that KKR continued its losing habit.

It wasn't without controversy though as Mortaza was no-balled in the early part of the over as one of the fielders wasn't within the circle. McCullum fought tooth and nail, but didn't manage to win the argument with the umpire. Poor McCullum I feel so bad for him, he showed so much determination today - being captain of KKR is very much like being CEO of Citi. Chief of a shiny, sinking ship.

Onto some blooperdom and today we feature a Ramiz Raja classic: "It's touch and go, and it's more go than touch." He really knows how to turn a phrase, with more phrase than turn. Also, check out a nice collection of these commentary classics from Cricinfo.

And is it just me or are the Zoozoos getting irritating? They were fine when they first appeared, but it's all too predictable now.

Day 14 - IPL 2

Ah what a day - one of my favourite teams winning and one of my least favourite teams losing.

Kolkata's Knight Riding ways continue. Duminy and Tendulkar doing well up front for Mumbai and they move up to 4th in the table. Predicted, happy result. Go Mumbai!

A more unexpected and happy result was RCB beating KXIP! Yuvraj makes up for his cricketing skills by being unbelievably obnoxious and he did it again when he asked Robin Uthappa to leave - he's an India team mate for God's sake! His 50 and hat-trick wasn't enough to guide his team home. What a fantastic last two overs by RCB - Kumble and Praveen Kumar, I almost expected them to go back to their losing ways after Van Der Merwe's 18th over. But Sangakarra and Jayawardene were kept in check with them going well below run a ball and that's where KXIP lost the game. Just proves that you don't need an expensive Kevin Pietersen to win matches.

The draw looks fantastic now with DD and DC leaving the other teams in the dust. Even RCB has six points. 5th in the table! Who'd have thunk? The second half is going to be really exciting.

On another note - the Vodafone international roaming ad uses words which are basically Kerala dishes - 1. Parota (Similar to Chapatis made from Maida) 2. Puttu Kadala (Rice cakes with chana) 3. Kappa meen (Fish and tapioca)

Check it out!

How to earn a 'Bournville'

That's one chocolate bar that went to straight to the butt!

Original ad here.

Ad-parodying notwithstanding, the anchor and his constant repetition of the brand name are extremely irritating. Obviously the idea here is to try to enhance brand recall for a new launch, but there are better ways to do that than chant 'Bournville' incessantly. The visual effects of the giant bird are smooth, but fail to make up for the ad's inconsistent sense of humor (see-sawing between bizarre and simple) and complete lack of depth. On every level, one is left feeling like there's something incomplete about it.

What is really disappointing is the fact that Cadbury has a legacy of great commercials. Bournville is a premium brand and we should have seen something that was a notch above their best, not some clueless moron hogging screen space.

Thumbstruck!

A message from DH for Mr Rajeev Reddy - MD and supermodel, Country Club.

Dear Mr Reddy,

I was thumbing through a magazine today when I came across - you guessed it - your thumb. As a rule (of thumb), I see it at least twice a day. And frankly, it's getting out of hand.

While the opposable thumb has many uses, this is by far the most puzzling application of any thumb in India we've ever seen. And while it may be debatable whether the lateral most digit of your hand is the most attractive aspect of your personality, there certainly isn't any doubt that you've overplayed your hand.

Having been an entrepreneur myself, I can understand how tempting it must be to have a finger in every pie. However, I am of the opinion that the right time for us to desist is when we sense the world showing us the finger.

In closing, let me re-iterate in a manner you may better understand. Your ads? Two thumbs down. Take my advice. Don't burn your fingers. It's time to take matters into your own hands. Figuratively speaking.

Believing in advertising

Wired writes:

Apple doesn't want you to believe what it says, even though the company claims it's not lying.

I know false advertising and all that, but isn't this going a little overboard? I mean, do you really believe an ad that says, "Twice as fast", and go measure the speed of the product to check if it really is exactly two times faster than whatever? Where do you draw the line, then? Just think what would happen in the following cases:

1. Unilever would be sued because Axe didn't cause hot girls to cling to unattractive, young men.
2. Coke would be sued for every warm bottle.
3. Perfetti would be sued for not lighting a bulb in your head.
4. Airtel would be sued for not breaking barriers.
5. Adidas would be sued because impossible really was something.
6. Dish TV would be sued because wishing didn't lead to dishing.

You get the picture...

Wake up!

Tata tea's ad had a URL for those who have not yet registered for voting.

Check out Jaagore.com in case you haven't registered yet and are interested. It's very simple and easy to understand. An ingenious bit of social marketing to differentiate a commodotized product. It works so well - marvelous!

Reliance BIG jerk TV

All right, so many of you were wondering what the teaser ad above was for. I'm sure many even thought that it was Reliance Big TV's teaser campagin. Wrong! It was actually Bharti trying to create a teaser for it's DTH service. Confused?

That's because Reliance Big TV's ad folks showed immense nimbleness and poor advertising ethics by using the same symbols that Bharti used in its teaser ads (the couch image, and the "See you at home" line). They then proceeded to add some stupid stuff around it like "with over 200 movie channels".

I can understand comparative advertising and even the odd slanderous line here and other, but trying to ride on someone else's ad budget and brand identity by hijacking a teaser campaign is analogous to stealing. I've never really seen the sense in teaser campaigns, and this is a good example of another risk that an overly extended teaser campaign lends itself to. If you choose to classify daylight robbery as a risk, that is.

Bharti would now, I imagine, need to revamp its tag line and identity so as to shake off the confusion that the loose-moralled folks at Big TV have created in the consumer's mind. A good place to get the money would be the compensation they receive after winning the law suit. Big TV - see you in court (with over 32 cinema halls).

CSR - What an idea

Until recently, there were two types of corporate social responsibility:

1. Help society, but be silent about it.
2. Help society and advertise it.

Now, the folks at Idea Cellular have come with a third and more cost effective way.

3. Imagine you are helping society and advertise it.

(image courtesy: ideacellular.com :) Copyright © Idea 2008 )

Further, look at the stuff posted on the Idea website:

1. The campaign highlights the power of Mobile telephony to address the socially relevant theme of education.
2. By integrating a social message into the new campaign, we are not only reinforcing the difference that can be made through the use of modern technology but also the power of a new idea.
   

The second quote is especially awful. Advertising a potentially impractical and unfeasible use of your product, while extolling its virtues is definitely not a social message. While the line between advertising a product and corporate social responsbility is not exactly thin, the folks at Lowe Lintas and Idea have managed to blur even that successfully.

Who says Indian companies don't innovate? What an awful idea. Blech.

Citibank - Delhi Metro ad

Brilliant! I'm proud to say that my brother was involved with this. I love the music, especially the fact that the chorus is based on the falling-chord-progression corporate tune of Citi. Way to go, bro!

Wilkinson Sword video

Hilarious!

Airtel and Nokia co-branding TV ad

Wow, these guys have outdone themselves. The new Airtel and Nokia TV commerical starts with a hand-on-heart, solemn prelude and ends with an anti-climactic SRK giving us a plastic smile and saying "Airtel and Nokia". Another atrocity on the senses. We know you guys want to use SRK's synergistic brand ambassadorship to advertise your new co-branding effort, but please stop raping our senses and come up with something that doesn't make us want to break our slow Nokia phones with bad Airtel network connectivity.

Maybe a Wish karo, Dish karo, barrier todo, people ko connect karo, aur i10 mein Youthistan chalo. Hmm, thoda zyada ho gaya. :)

Visa: Mind, body, heart and soul

Mind and Body, Heart and Soul.

I've got the power, I'm on a roll.

Long live!

I'll never stop, (Long live!), I'll never bend (?).

Mind and Body, Heart and Soul.

The true measure of the awfulness of an ad is when you can find it on Youtube. And that is true of Visa's singing-dancing-prancing India television commercial.

Honestly, the "mindbodyheartandsoul" ad gets played way too many times for my comfort. There are the three stooges (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy), and this confused looking boy with his parents who are, by some measure of trickery I'm sure, convinced into doing this terrible dance step while trying to watch a bunch of cricketers feigning to be members of the 2007 Indian team to the Cricket World Cup. This is an unusual and uncomfortable mix of Bollywood (not quite) and cricket (not at all). The disastrous performance of the Indian team in last year's World Cup should have created a negative association with this ad, but the ad makers don't seem to care. We are constantly peppered with the extremely irritating jingle, and I still cannot shake the image of the pot-bellied Shankar Mahadevan doing that mindless, full-bodied, heartless, soulless jig.

However, despite the irritating nature of the commercial, one real standout point for me is that from the first frame to the last, you know that this is a Visa ad. Unlike so many of these bizarre-funny candy ads where you laugh and have fun but don't know if the ad is about Mint-o, Mentos or Mental, this ad clearly leaves a lasting impression of the brand in your mind, whether or not it is a positive association is a matter of debate. Well, maybe it isn't.

Airtel: Barriers break when people talk

[Updated]
Impression: Absolutely fabulous ad.

Truth: What a cliched piece of emotionally exploitative tripe. Horrendous ad, even the pun of people 'talking' falls through seeing as how the kids don't talk! The theme is too international to hit home with the 'regular Indian people' rather than just 'regular people' as Chax says.

Surprisingly, the music does nothing to enhance the ad, it's the same old Airtel tune, without any improvisation in timing, instrumentation or dynamics. The predictable climaxing makes this bad ad experience complete. Worst Airtel ad ever, I'm sure.

Hero Honda Junk!

This is just awful:



Moral of the story: Hunks repel bulls?

Got a better caption? Leave a comment.