Learn from ADs??

I have always thought that commercials serve only commercial purpose. If I look back, I am not the one to be blamed for that thought. The oldest ad I remember is of a tooth-powder. In a film shoot, the hero is about to deliver a romantic one-liner and the heroine closes her nose indicating the hero's mouth stinks. Nothing creative there. Well, 2 months before, there was a new Airtel ad. With King Khan as a Mobile Connection Sales person. He just rants about all the new plans his company is offering (in an idiotic accent) to another guy coming up an escalator. When the man reaches the top, he asks the rep to shut up. Focus shift and there you go, the other is guy is again, SRK. He then really rants about Airtel's new idiotic plan in King Khan's own style. I can't imagine how Airtel has produced such a bad commercial.

So many years of TV Ads and nothing much has changed. Really? We do get some very good ads. Not necessarily all thought-provoking ads are good. And vice-versa too holds good. Just when I was wondering Airtel too has started giving me crap, I saw this new Airtel ad yesterday. Location is some country border with heavy fences. The case includes 2 chotus (happy that no SRK here) A football from one side of the fence falls in the other. Both speak different languages, so the ball owner chotu, say chotu 1, make signs of kicking so that the other boy can understand it and kick the ball to his side. After a bit of build-up, the boy sends the ball across the fence. Now chotu 1 calls chotu 2 to cross the fence and helps him out when he gets himself stuck between the barbed wire. Then they start playing football in the space between the 2 fences. Good na. Well, the icing is yet to come. Its in the form of a voice-over with a message something like this, "Lot of problems can be solved only if we talked with each other". Kudos to Airtel.

One more ad that I found interesting is that of Idea Cellular. In the midst of a community war, Abishek gives an idea to solve it. Abolish the concept of naming a person. Instead, everyone is called by their mobile number. Really, what an idea sirji.

Whether we learn from these ads or not, one thing is for sure. More ads like these will mean less endorsements for the likes of SRK & co.