Indian Premier League (IPL) 2009

The wait is almost over. Just two days to go before IPL 2009 kicks off in Cape Town, South Africa on 18th April. It’s sad that the IPL schedule clashed with general election in India and has to move out of India. But, I am happy that at least it is happening. I could not have afforded to be deprived of such exciting month long Cricket Carnival. The bollywood glamor will be on display in full strength as stars like Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty are franchise owners. I bet the fusion of Cricket and Bollywood will run the Election out for sure.

The promotions by the franchises have not been too aggressive this time, probably due to recession and IPL being organized out of India. Shahrukh’s Kolkata Knight Riders, as expected, is the only team which appears not to have been affected. Here are some campaigns released this year.

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)  Loading ...

Tags: Cricket, India, Indian Premier League, IPL

Silvikrin Shampoo : Veil

“A tribute to Arabian beauty.”

Agency: Leo Burnett, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Executive Creative Director: Said Francis
Art Director: Thierry Chehab
Copywriter: Mohammed Bahmishan
Illustrator: Fadi Kharma
Photographer: Steve Kozman

Via [Ad Blog Arabia]

(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)  Loading ...

Tags: Health and Beauty, Leo Burnett, Saudi Arabia, Shampoo, Silvikrin

Vodafone : Result

Agency: O&M, India

It is always the simple that produces the marvelous. ~Amelia Barr

On the way to my work station today, I saw the above quote at the reception. The first thing I remembered after reading is this Vodafone campaign. It’s such a ridiculously simple idea yet so sweet and lovable.

A chilled, laid back guy checking the result on board with no hope at all of passing. Starting with a series of names who failed, he gets the pleasant shock of his life to see himself passing the exam. But the poor fellow has nobody around to hug or to hear his scream of joy. Not to worry, Vodafone is there to help. All local calls @ 60 p/min. Tell the whole world.

It’s easy to reach the top, but it’s difficult to be there. Vodafone has been thoroughly consistent in it’s standard for many years now and has always been innovating. They don’t have the pug anymore but they are definitely not out of ideas. And what I love the most about Vodafone campaigns is that most of the time they just don’t say a single word and still manage to make the connect with the service they are trying to sell. Brilliant stuff.

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)  Loading ...

Tags: India, O&M, telecom, Vodafone

Pepsi : Janta hai mera baap kaun hai?

Agency: JWT, India

What’s happening to the Pepsi ad these days? Where is the innocence and soul in them? Where has the sweet jingle vanished? The curve started to go down with the Youngistan campaigns. Packing the 60s with Bollywood or Cricket stars doesn’t automatically make a good ad.

This commercial is supposed to be based on some kind of connection between Pyaas for success and Pepsi. It definitely doesn’t make any connection with me though.

Till they come up with good ones, refresh your memory with couple of old ones.

Yeh Hi Hai Right Choice Baby

Yeh Dil Maange More

(2 votes, average: 1.5 out of 5)  Loading ...

Tags: Beverage, Cola, Dhoni, India, Ishant, JWT, Pepsi, Sehwag, Sreesanth

Indian Premier League : Beyond Boundary

The commercial starts with a voice over stating that while the God gave us the land, we divided and created the boundaries. Otherwise ‘Pandey jee‘, a barber from India would have been doing ‘champi’ in Tokyo; ‘Dona‘, a teacher from the Caribbean would have been teaching Sanskrit in Banaras; ‘Vada Pav’ could have been the national cuisine in the England; Local trains could have run from Melbourne to Mumbai.

Sounds impossible ? It was earlier but not any more. Savitri is going to fast for Symmonds, Razia will keep ‘Mannat’ for Sehwag, sister Anne will pray for Dhoni and the whole Punjab will be praying for Sangakara. This will only happen in DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) on channel Max.

There are two things which rule India; Cricket and Bollywood. No recession, no calamity, no war and nothing whatsoever can change this. Imagine the impact of a product which is a fusion of both of these. The first season of IPL last year was huge and it was like a festival. So used to were people watching the matches that it took sometime to adjust to an evening without a 20-20 match. And I was happily surprised how easily people accepted the format of IPL. The ultimate testimony to the success of IPL was that people cheered when Sachin got out by a foreign player. That was unimaginable but it happened.

The IPL season 2 is expected to be bigger and better. In these bad times too players like Flintoff and Pietersen were bid for $1.55 million for just six weeks of play. This is a typical bollywood style masala advertisement which promotes beautifully the very concept of IPL. Come soon April, I can’t wait.

(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)  Loading ...

Tags: Bollywood, Cricket, DLF, India, IPL, SetMax, Sports