The Best Ad Campaigns in India

A chronology study of advertisement campaigns is a very interesting thing. Be it Coke Or United Colours of Benetonn. However, this blog post is to commemorate, what i would call the beacons of socially relevant advertising in India.

My earliest memories of ad campaigns are that of Lalitaji in Surf campaign, Phillips, Bajaj, Maaza Mango Taaza Mango and Jalal Agha in Pan Parag's "Aur mere Liye". However, the ad industry in India took a major step ahead with the Pepsi commercials starting with Remo and Juhi in "yehi hai right choice Baby". There on the ad camapigns have never been the same again. Today cricketers and film stars make as much money from ad camapigns as they make from their main stream jobs. Ad world today is a glitzy, glamorous multi billion dollar industry in India.

In a recent weekend trip to Nainital and beyond, i met a very senior banker with whom i struck a conversation on businesses, monies and investments. Off hand, he asked me, which was my favourite campaign. It has taken 2/3 months rumination to figure out my favourite campaigns. I find socially relevant advertisements to have the highest connect. in this context, the Abhishek Bachchan starrer Idea ads are one of my new favourites. They are rooted in real issues of the country and its masses and Telephony/Connectivity as a means to answer these issues. Thats the brilliant idea. Thats Idea (the brand)! What makes it endearing is its feel of the social issues and obviously, Abhishek brings these images up very well!

However, Idea is still not my favourite ad campaign. You Guessed it right.. my bests are Amul and the Common Man, by R K Laxman.

Amul's ads focus on the most happening topic every week and is able to blend their "utterly butterly delicious" tagline into the scene. My generation has grown up on those ads. Even today, i get mailers from my friends with Amul ads, the latest being "Satyam Sharam Sacandalam". The ease at which these ads communicate is a brilliant. Lucid in delivery, choice of topics, candid presentation and the brand message woven through them. It is a stroke of genius. A sign of times, and a timeless brand. Yummy!

R K Laxman has been there for 50 years now. That man deserves a bharat ratna for his contribution to the neo socio-economic and political sign posts. The Common man and his travails. A difficult topic, an endearing image. (Though i believe that L K Advani is very close to our Common man in terms of looks!). Laxman's cartooning is timeless, his style is simple, his message powerful and yet not malicious. Captain Gopinath, the founder of the Air Deccan, with his vision to let the common man fly did well to choose, the Common man as his mascot. Sadly however, Gopi lost his way some where, and there is little that is "common man-ish" left after his merger with Vijay Mallya's bikini and two piece culture laden Kingfisher. However, the common man lives on. The sign of our times, the beacon of our generation. I hope Laxman plans to immortalize his timeless creation by passing on his art to a torch bearer!

What an Idea, Sirjee!

The silver lining of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks has been the citizens movement that has taken over. Never has been the political class under so much scrutiny and pressure from the citizenry. Elsewhere, in a strife torn state, Jammu and Kashmir, inspite of all the "boycott the polls" directives from the vested interests, people turn up at over 60% in the polling booths. If anything, this to me is the spirit of democracy in flesh and blood. This is Democracy and the belief in it redeemed. Our politicians are still not the best in standard but you can see political parties edging towards a "developmental agenda" slowly but very surely. The Delhi polls in which the incumbents took the development agenda beat the cahllengers who were honking the anti incumbency. It is a very strong message out there.
In times such as these, a very apt ad campaign is what caught my eyes. "Idea" might not be the best and biggest in telecom circles, but their ad campaign is special. It is special in terms of describing what connectivity and telecommunication can bring to the ordinary folks. Starting from a touchy subject of casteism and riots to empowering education and now empowering democracy. Hats off to the campaign for being able to say things so lucidly. And more importantly create a vision and a dream, which doesnot look to be very far fetched.
In a country which has been so instrumental in taking IT to the world, can we look at Online elections/voting? Can we look at scorecards for every constituency tracking progress versus what had been promised? Can we look at Internet/ telecommunications as a means to build consensus on issues regarding an area, state or the country as a whole?
There are multitude possibilities which can start with democratizing information and accessibility, all empowered by an online medium (IT/ Telecom). When will the time for this come?
But so far, this is to Idea: What an idea, sirjee!