Lux Cozi

“Apna luck pehen ke chalo”

The tag line seems to be straight out of the mouth of the teleshopping firang dubbed in Hindi and as if the product is some weird locket or something. If that was the case, it was still accepted, but the sadness is this is an advertisement of a vest, this is how they want to position the brand. Positioning, oh I am not sure these guys know what it is, and if they do, I am sure they think the target audience is bunch of stupid, illiterate people. They might be right, India worship celebrities and believe whatever they say, but this is height of lameness even if it increased their sales.

Master Card

Agency: McCann Erickson

If I ask you the reason why you are working hard? What is your most valued materialistic possession? You most definitely will have one answer, money.

Now imagine if somebody asks you to spend that hard earned, the most valued thing you have , even though you’ve earned it to spend it, but still you will feel bad about letting it go. Even with no real product to lure you, Mastercard devised a method to make you not feel bad, but feel great about spending your money. Now this I say is the power of advertising. 

They ask you to spend money, not in lieu of any luxury, any fancy product or anything that you want to own. They so subtly tell you that money is the route of getting those priceless moments.

“Watching your parents becoming kids again” or “fighting over the bill on a reunion of friends” are some very very rare things you might place above money. They establish an emotional connect which really worked for them. The big idea is superb “there are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there is master card”. Genius.

Lead India

Cannes: JWT India won a Grand Prix (the highest prize) in the Direct Lions category at Cannes 2008 for its ‘Lead India’ campaign for The Times of India, published by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd.

We have numerous ads and articles asking us to think about the country, to do something for the country etc. but this ad stands apart and I will tell you why.

It captures the root of the problem and provides the most obvious answer which we choose to ignore. There is a silly sense of reluctance towards a work which is out of your work diary, we wait for somebody to clean up the mess for us because either we think we are over-qualified for that or the basic common sense is resting in peace amidst all the chaos of working like a slave to live like a king mindset.

The child is chosen as a protagonist as he neither has a  sense of pride nor has lost the common sense of trying to remove a log while so many other people honk and crib.

Bajaj Avenger

  

Creative Agency (Name, City, Country): Lowe , Mumbai, India

This is such a refreshing break where there is a dearth of original, creative and classy advertising age, for a change, a solid big idea backed by perfect execution. No stunt or style or girls drooling over the bike, no madness, no special effects, nothing larger than life. This ad reminds us that nothing inspires like an original narration. In this clutter of ads with celebrity endorsement, this ad comes as a refreshing change.

The power of this ad lies in the exception of not mentioning the technical aspects of the bike but has taken a step forward and talks about the whole experience of riding it. While most of the other ads tries to force them on you by boasting about the style, features and the whole “how good you’ll look while you ride our bike” positioning. It is about you and the bike and the whole feeling of riding it. Cool, hot, stylish, and macho or whatever lesser mortal adjectives you want to be associated with, all looks tiny when you have the option to “Feel like God”.