Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Advertisements- warts and all.....

 It was another monotonous day at home....now that my college is over,I practically have nothing much to do..So I usually end up hacking around whole day...as usual I snuggled on my sofa and switched the television on..fortunately I found a  repeat telecast of my favourite tv show that I had missed the previous day..But thanks to the ad-world, one cannot watch a show continuously for more than five minutes..sometimes when your favourite show is at the most crucial point, these ads, like uninvited guests, blatantly interrupt your peace of "tv-viewing"...although there is not much you can do about it,apart from being involuntarily pestered!!
            Nyway, talking about advertisements, I came across a tv commercial, the most ludicrous one I have ever seen..it was of a shampoo brand that claimed to make your hair  soooooooooooooooooo strong, that if one uses it, the next to impossible task of pulling a truck with one's hair will seem to be a cakewalk...!! It flabbergasted me! It is seriously beyond my comprehension that why do they have to validate their point with such unbelievable and close to insane ideas!!
 Ads are supposed to be creative and are supposed to intrigue us..but such ads are irritating..most of them are of insane relevance... these days when shops selling soft drinks are in every nook and corner of the city then why would someone jump off large buildings,cars,stalls and deliberately do weird stunts just to get a bottle of soft drinks???? my reckoning- no one would! firstly it is baseless,secondly is it worth it?????
  could anybody explain me in what way does chewing a grain or two of a certain brand of carcinogenic products(tobacco) instill confidence in us??or how does it make us successful!! the least it would do is make us an addict! but the becoming successfull part of it is seriously irksome!!!
       The ads  of toilet cleaner, so very frequently shown, wherein they show such repulsive sights of dirty toilets!! gross!!!! if that actually helped in making such filthy toilet look like a new one, then next time try public toilets!!!!! making them clean would be the biggest achievement , let alone making them look new! humbugs!
  until very recently, another ridiculous ad was aired very frequently..It was of a toothpaste brand..a boy wakes up and starts brushing,just then...out of nowhere... a gang of tv reporters bang his door open and start questioning him!! my 1st query- do they leave the doors of their houses open?????  my 2nd query- Is there really dearth of news for the tv reporters,that they have to end up entering someone else's wash room for collecting such weird info?????? baseless!!! illogcal!!
  And to top it all ------>>> THE "BODY SPRAY" EFFECT! fake, absurd, irrelevant,silly,disgusting and annoying! I mean where do they get such half-baked ideas that just spraying such deodorants would turn one into a magnet..so much so that angels will drop down from heaven and cling onto them???????? terribly horrendous!! It night have a pleasant fragrance, but the way it is depicted is just blown out of proportion in the worst possible way!! the plethora of influx of such "bad ads" only bears testimony to the fact that it is just sheer mindlessness that rules the creative business today.. they just don't focus on the basic utility of the product...
 
        But then there are certain ads that have appealed to me personally...to name a few- mastercard and its tagline- "there are certain things money cant buy, for everything else there is mastercard" how ingenious... loved it!! another really funny ad aired some 5-6 years back figures in my list of favourites...it was of monster.com.. May be the name "HARI SADU"  rings some bell :) besides mentos, raymonds, saffola,vodaphone  have advertised creatively.... a particular ad of kinley, probably the first one, was also one of the best ads ever picturized.. before I forget I must mention coca- cola's recent ad "ummedon wali dhoop,sunshine wali asha" is also one of my favourite ads :) such works of creativity are really commendable and they actually serve the real purpose of advertising... people look forward to such ads...a true mark of creativity..
     there is no dearth of talent, but creativity needs to be channelized in the right direction...with a strong discerning sense and a modicum of ratiocination, advertising world can actually come up with logical ads which not only arouses the curiosity of viewers but also inspires awe in them... at least then, we, as viewers , would be saved from being driven to exasperation and would get to view sensible ads :)