It’s an Ad Mad World!!

There is so much going on in the TV world! So many game shows, reality shows …. every channel has a Saas-Bahu, tear jerking family melodrama playing at any given time of the day. Among all this what I really like are the ads that are made in India. According to me India has always been a front-runner in the ad biz world.

As a kid, I was so fascinated by the ad jingles and the tag lines more than the ads themselves, that I still use so many of them in my day-to-day conversations. In school, I also remember playing antakshari, not only of film songs, but the ad jingles as well. Who can forget the famous Lalitaji saying “Dhoondthe Reh Jaoge” or Hamara Bajaj’s song “Bulund Bharat ki bulund tasveer” or Kapil Dev saying in his gruff voice “Palmolive da jawab nahi!” or "Melody khao khud jaan jao"?

The ads that are made in India are so intelligent, witty and totally relevant to the product they are endorsing. There are so many classics that I could mention here. Few of my favorites being all of the Cadbury’s ads especially the one where the girl comes out on to the cricket field and does a jig ‘cos her boyfriend’s team won… oh that one was really one of the best shot ads. I also remember the Liril ad where Preity Zinta takes a shower atop her car in the car wash on a hot and sultry day; I love the Titan ads for the beautiful music piece that they play (Mozart or Beethoven I forget!); the one for Coke with all the local village kids wearing Sachin Tendulkar masks on their faces or the Amul’s ad for milk – Doodh! Doodh ! Doodh!

It is always amazing to see that a 1 minute or sometimes shorter than a minute ad conveys so much about the product and also is so effective in a way that the viewer should remember it. Writing ad jingles or coming up with the tag lines for ads is such a creative effort. To come up with something that clicks to the audience’s mind and lingers there is so much of a challenge. I mean coming up with something as simple as “Utterly, Butterly, Delicious!! Amul!” is so challenging according to me! I can think of popular jingles written for every product we use in our day from the time we wake up!!
From brushing our teeth “Babool Babool, paise vasool” to soap “Lux- Filmi Sitaaron ka saundarya sabun” to having the first cup of coffee in the morning with “Ho shuru har din aise, ho shuru har pal aise…Nescafe! to going to bed in the night with a mosquito repellant “Meethe sapnon ke Goodnight dost!” we have a jingle or a tag line to match every product we use.

Well as an audience, these days I rather enjoy the ads more than the program being telecast on TV!!

-Moi