ADs: Well placed & Ill Timed

My mind was blank for the past many days and my blog been a true reflection of that blankness. The net connection at home which been down for the past 5 days kept me away from my blog and so I couldn't get the motivation to write. So, the last few nights were spend watching movies. Anyway, Yesterday night I got this sudden urge to write something, maybe because of the wild holy celebrations by the bloggers in my company yesterday evening. I think the riot of colours on everyone's faces and my own eyes stirred up my mind. So here it goes...

Advertisements are an art form, just like movies. Some are irritating, some are pleasing. Some are well timed whereas some others are ill timed. Here is one such list...

Strategically placed ADs and establishments


1. Condom AD placed at the climatic curve of a long hairpin climb.

2. Motion control(Constipation inducing) tablets AD placed at the backside of the door to a public toilet.
Reason-Nobody would dare to use a public toilet unless in an emergency case which at most times happens to be a bad stomach due to an over eating excercise. And by placing the AD at the back of the door, we can be sure that it will be noticed.

3. Restaurant AD(or the restaurant itself) near the venue of a political Satyagraha.
Reason- You will think that this is a candidate for a wrongly placed AD. No, this is one of the best placed of the lot considering the sincerity level of our political Satyagrahis.

4. Job website AD at the gate of popular companies.
Caution- This works only during recession.

5. 'Horse for sale' AD outside parliament.
Reason-Obvious. Think horsetrading.

6. Saree shop AD outside Ramsene headquarters.

7. Pirated CD/DVD stall in front of a music shop. I saw a perfect example of this infront of musicworld in Bangalore. When I got out of musicworld, there was hardly anyone inside, but there was a big crowd in front of the pirate guy.

8. Matrimonial agency/website AD outside a family court.

9. 'Defeat fear of heights. Meet Psychologist Mr. X' AD placed at a bungee jumping location.

10. 'Complete final year project for 500 rupees' AD outside engineering colleges.

Wrongly placed ADs

1. Barber shop AD at a heavy metal concert.

2. Chicken shop near a Brahmin settlement.

3. Saas bahu serial AD in between cricket matches. Set Max is the best example. Even during the current India-NZ series, which happens at hours during which saas bahu fans never watch TV, we are given an ample dose of these ADs.

4. 'Faith healing' AD opposite to an atheist's house.

5. Adoor Gopalakrishnan movie poster outside porn movie theatre.

6. Itch guard AD inside a restaurant.

Feel free to add more.

your crusader Praveen

Iran and starless ADs

Listen all you AD gurus and AD superstars. Train your ears to what is happening in Iran. The government there has banned sportspersons and film stars from acting in ADs. The reason given is that ADs promote consumerism in soceity. Just think what will happen if this rule is implemented in our India. Cricketers and actors will be crying hoarse. Among the filmstars, Shahrukh will be the one who is going to be affected the most. As AD hungry he is, he's starring in commercials ranging from cars to ladies' bath soap. We'll be back to watching those famous ADs from the good old doordarshan days-a la "Vicco turmeric, nahi cosmetic...vicco turmeric ayurvedic cream" or the unbearably dull ADs by government agencies-remember the ones about tax payment or tha famous mala D ads? Also we could get more ADs like the Hutch pug or the airtel 'expressions' AD. The AD gurus will be forced to put their creative hats to use as they have to make an impresson without the help of stars. The quality of advertisements will go up once the stars are out of it. Have you ever noticed that the ADs starring the stars are mostly done to project the star and doesn't warm your heart like the raymond ADs starring unknowns or the Hutch ad starring the pug? Hope to see more such ADs coming out from Iran in the near future.

your crusader Praveen

MAD ADs

Its election time here in Karnataka and the campaigning is going on at a feverish pitch. There are vehicles laden with big cutouts of the candidates looking at us with a big fat conceitful smile. And newspapers are also filled with political ADs of one party or the other. Yesterday, there was this AD in Times Of India by the Congress party carrying the pictures of the usual suspects, the Italian glam girl, her brainless son and the puppet with the beard. But what caught my eye were the pictures of the Kandahar plane hijacking episode and the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh accompanying the Taliban terrorist who was freed in return for the freedom of the passangers. This was accopanied with a question in bold letters-"Which is the party whose external affairs minister accompanied a terrorist to safety?" and below that there's the answer in even bolder letters-BJP. Then they go on to explain how the BJP and its allies were always soft against terrorism and considering the safety of the nation its better to vote for congress. This is dirty campaigning to say the least. Kandahar is one of the saddest episodes in the history of the nation and putting ADs like this will dig up the trauma that the surviving passengers went through.

PS-Am not a supporter of BJP, or any other party for that matter. Its just that I found this AD was in real bad taste
Your crusader Praveen