Agency: Leo Burnett, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Executive Creative Director: Said Francis Art Director: Thierry Chehab Copywriter: Mohammed Bahmishan Illustrator: Fadi Kharma Photographer: Steve Kozman
March 13, 2009 – 12:52 pm by Bibhuti | No Comments »
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.
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.
February 8, 2009 – 1:33 pm by Bibhuti | No Comments »
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.