On Iconic Advertisements and Advertising: A slightly boring essay

Advertisements have always been and will always be the forerunners of India’s collective buyer psyche. Ever since we were little kids, we have been seeing ads and been getting influenced by them. They have created some really iconic images in our minds. The kids from the 80s and 90s can imagine the kind of nostalgia these ads can evoke.

I personally remember how the Onida TV ad gave me chills. The horned devil selling the TV haunted me for days and yet, I grew a strange attraction toward the brand. There is the Nirma girl in her flowing white frock and the Parle G kid who have taken branding to a whole new level. These images render words useless as they convey the message so perfectly and vividly that the consumer is drawn to the product like a bee to the flower.

What is it in an advertisement though, that makes it iconic and the character turn into cult figures? We try to decode this mystery in our today’s post.

1. Connection

The message should have a content that should directly concern the reader. It is always better to say ‘Eat healthy, think better’ than just ‘Eat Healthy’. Tell the consumers what they will get.



2. Clarity

Some ad campaigns, mostly of Pan Masalas and Deodorants forget the message and rely too much on the story. At the end the consumer forgets your product’s name and is just left with a vague image of a hot girl sitting on a bike chewing a random pan masala or getting turned on by a random deo.



3. Standing out

There are so many products in the market that it is hard to tell one detergent from the other. This is why you need to create a unique image in the buyer’s mind. There are so many chewing gums in the market but when I say ‘Zubaan pe lagaam’, your mind instantly goes to Center Fresh because the message is unique.



4. .Being precise

It is the most challenging job for an ad-man. A good tagline is really short and is easy to memorize and reproduce. ‘Chaunk gaye?- Tide’ is a good example.
http://abhyudayatoons.blogspot.in/2012/06/tide-chaunk-gaye.html

5. A catchy jingle

Sometimes it is hard to convey the message in two-three words and then the advertiser takes help of tunes and music. I am sure the washing powder Nirma jingle in itself is proof enough for this point.

We talked about iconic advertisements but there are also ads which are not so iconic and make the audience cringe with disdain as they go on air or on pamphlets. There are ways you can make any product look laughable and a good marketer knows how to steer clear of such ad tactics. In the following discussion we will dissect some of such instances and help you identify and manage bad advertisements.


1. Disconnected Repartee 

The worst one can do with a product is not talk about it. I came across one such advertisement just recently. It was a pamphlet about antibiotic tablets and 75% of it was covered with a picture of a parrot. The caption on the top read- ‘Beautiful Birds’ with no description of the product being sold. You’re doing one part right when you’re capturing your audience but the other, more important aspect of sending the message across is not being done. 

2. Too Long 

We live in the era of short attention spans. Long adverts get skipped even before displaying the name of the product. In YouTube commercials, the 20 second ones are definitely more effective than the three-minute long ones. 

3. Creating cynicism 

A commercial’s job is to suppress the cynics, not give them a voice. Unfortunately, most commercials end up doing just that. Although there is no good way to sell a fairness cream, hiring a dark model to sell a fairness product is bound to backfire. Some models leave their social impression on the product and then it is hard to wash off. If you’re making an item girl sell your tea, it will be hard for you to target tasteful consumers. Try to look at your product from your customer’s view and then go ahead with the marketing campaign. 

4. Ordinariness 

There are some ads which are just too easy to forget. Don’t be one of those ads. You can get a great model, talk about all the advantages of your product and still get zero attention. It happens because your punchline wasn’t catchy enough. Make sure you say it emphatically so that people notice. Do not be the run of the mill ordinary ad talking about the ordinarily liked qualities about a soap. 

5. Culturally different 

Sometimes you can do everything right and yet not get to your audience. It might be due to the language that you’re using in your ad, not the verbal one but the one of actions, is not the one that the masses in the country understand. If in a conservative country, you show an ad which has a shocking appeal, it will grab eyeballs but no one will be using your product due to the stigma attached. Revolutionary thoughts are good but not in terms of thematic arrangements. It is safer to stick within the conventional themes and setups and within those you can come up with revolutionary ideas.

And thus ends my weirdly long repartee. 

Can you trust him?

An idea sparked and created by Ms Brishti Guha and her fear of dentists. :P

The Kind Of Love I Want

Interesting People Around Me.

The Coffee Guy

The hospital in which I work has a Cafeteria. Sitting in my chair, I can just dial 400 on the intercom and the Barista brings me coffee and snacks as ordered. I have made friends with the guy. His name is Ishu Sharma and he is a UP-ite with a Gujarati accent. He doesn’t like to use the electric grill on the sandwiches because he thinks the grill occasionally gives electric shocks. He is an English Literature graduate but all his knowledge has either withered away or was never there as he can hardly read and write in English. There is an India everyone silently knows about. Our educational degrees are a sham and our system is built on nepotism and wily networks.

The guy is fine with it though. He is content pouring coffee for random people throughout the day and likes to make friends with new doctors like myself who can help with his small curious inquiries. He is fascinated easily and can talk at length about things he doesn’t know about.

He told me that his father has the habit of forgetfulness and sometimes forgets obvious things. The details he gave indicate progressive Alzheimer’s disease and the drugs prescribed by other doctors to his father more or less confirmed the diagnosis. He keeps forgetting to mix sugar in my coffee and I am afraid he will inherit his father’s condition.

He proposed a theory to me recently and it is interesting for its unscientific-ness and silliness. He said that if two people were given objects carved out from a bigger parent object, and were made to associate themselves with those objects in their daily lives, their lives are bound to intertwine as a part of the common fate associated with the objects given to them.

To put this absurd theory in more vivid light, he proposes that if there was a large diamond and two pendants were carved out of it and were given to two different people to wear as lockets, rings or bracelets, the pendants will attract each other bringing the two people closer.

Silly theory but it depicts how hope springs fiercely and against logic where adversity is stronger. He is a man with scarce means and that’s why he romanticizes life and is able to see the world through the eyes of his fantasy. Is that why the best writers in history have faced poverty at one or other point of time? Does scarcity push imagination?

Do you believe in his theory too? Et tu?

The Rickshaw Guy

So, last Saturday, I had to take an auto-rickshaw to go to the hospital to take care of some important lab work. I took a rickshaw from my colony to the hospital and back, which would have been a trip of around 3.5 kms. I convinced him to make the round trip for Rs 60 which was an achievement considering that it was night time and it was Gurgaon.

Gurgaon is essentially the city where everything costs a little more than normal. Maybe because everyone has a little more than normal. Of course, that statement excludes the daily wage labourers and manual workers. So yeah, I took the rickshaw and we started with a tense air. The air was tense because the bargain had started at Rs 100 and he was grumpy to have conceded Rs 40 in the bargain. It was only when I had threatened to walk away that he got convinced for the ride.

We went to the hospital quietly and he drove in silence too. On our way back, he began to ask questions as he realized that I was a doctor and was going to the hospital for some fancy urgent work. I decided to engage and replied to his questions. I even asked him to get a check-up done in my clinic. He immediately brought up the topic of affordability and like a novice, I offered him free consultation. I am very liberal with my consultation fee because I feel that the power of healing should be used liberally.

Later on, he told me that his younger brother (he himself looked not older than 16) was working in a dental clinic and was earning a handsome salary. I urged him to stay ambitious and try for such jobs which require technical skill. To my surprise, he told me that he was already married and had to bear the burden of his family. That was the main reason he was unable to freely go job-hunting and field-switching.

I told him that marriage is a big responsibility and should be taken only when one is ready. We talked about marriage as if it was something he was lamenting and I was running away from. Only in the last leg of our short trip he dropped the bomb when he said that his marriage was a ‘love marriage’ and he himself had pushed for it.

My parting words to him were that he then already has everything a person dreams for. We dream, we earn, we work to finally be happy with our loved ones. He had love and happiness. His joy of togetherness trumped my quest for survival.

Sometimes, in our small little, we lose sight of the real targets. Maybe there is nothing to take away from this story, maybe life is just as random as it gets, maybe life is just a series of mood swings.

But, there are times when we WANT and NEED to make sense. Love helps there.

Third #BookWalk

On 4th of this month, I conducted another book walk and this time, we had Brishti Guha with us. The other members couldn't make it, and it ended up being just the two of us.

My meetup group is turning out to be such a fun experience. I had looked up Brishti online before coming to the meetup and I was already in awe of her academic achievements.  She is an economist with broad research interests and a PhD from Princeton!!! She knows Sanskrit and her interest areas range from cooking to dancing. Needless to say, it was an absolute joy meeting her and listening to her.

We started off the conversation with 'fear of dentists' and how she wouldn't get a consultation by me because she thought all dentist are sadists (well, not really!) and then we talked about myriad things.

She talked to me about William Dalrymple and the history behind the white Moghuls- about how those Britishers who intermarried in India were turned into untouchables in terms of jobs and perks by the East India Company and the British Crown.

She mentioned how her interest in classics runs parallel to popular fiction. She can seamlessly switch from Dalrymple to Game of Thrones. I liked how she didn't judge the book by its cover. She also talked about how she found the book 'Bali and the Ocean of Milk' utterly amusing and humourous. She quoted instances from the book which she liked most. We shared a chuckle or two. 

I mentioned how I had picked up Chekhov from the Russian book stall at the Gwalior Vyapar Mela (fair) in my childhood.

I tried to elaborate more on Chekhov's writing style by mentioning how he left the conclusion the reader by leaving the ending in suspense. My memory failed me though when I tried to use one of his stories as an example. 

She told me that she liked historical fiction and I introduced her to The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett.

We both agreed that the book was pretty thick. :)

We talked about many different things. The books we intend to write (Mine is going to be a comedy involving a dentist and his love-life), the people we have met on meetup.com thus far, the things we have learned and the things we wish to do in life. We also had a brief conversation about stereotypes and I wondered how much she fits in the Bengali stereotypes. She did love her books, art cinema and fish. Thank you Bengal, for people like her.

She also mentioned how she wants to brighten up the winters by strictly wearing bright colours only. I welcomed the decision and mentioned how I have been doing my bit by wearing floral patterns.

Until next time then!

Book Review- The Martian - Andy Weir (5 stars)

Publisher	Ebury Publishing
ISBN-10	0091956145
Book Type	Fiction Book
Imprint	Del Rey
Number of Pages	384 Pages
Publication Year	2014 August
Language	English
ISBN-13	9780091956141
Binding	Paperback

The Martian (Buy on flipkart)

My first book of 2015 and boy! Did I choose wisely! This was the geekiest book I read and also the most hilarious. Mark Watney is the stuff heroes are made of. This book displays the most attractive thing about men- their sense of humour in the face of adversity. Isn't it why we love Iron Man and Spider-Man? It's the story of a guy can say 'fuck you' to a dinosaur coming to trample him and then think about an exit strategy with a cool head.

The novel is geeky and there is a lot of fascinating space-y stuff thrown in. There are calculations and measurements. The novel is about smart people being emotional which is a rare combination and that's what makes it endearing.

Watney's exasperation with disco music, the jibes in the emails he writes to NASA are all made of stuff great comedies are made of. The novel has an American heart and it speaks warmly to the Indian in me. I think Americans and Indians share affinity toward the same kind of humour which may have been a result of cultural exchange between us through movies and transmigration. The book is heavy on drama and all the moments when things go wrong bring the reader to the edge of the seat.

I would not be ashamed to say that I shed a tear when the novel came to an end. It was an epic saga and there was a lot at stake. Andy Weir has done justice with the language and the genre. I was so tempted to turn to the last page and read what happens in the end but I am proud that I didn't. The novel is going to go in my cherished list and I think I might re-read it for motivational purposes or just to cheer myself up.

Thank you, Andy for this bundle of joy.

5 stars without a doubt.

2014 in review

2014 was a great year for me. It gave me so many memories and new directions that I am literally overwhelmed. True, my search of 'true love' and other corny things didn't lead me anywhere but life has been eventful.

This was the year I started working in SmileArc Dental Clinic, Mayom Hospital and the experience has been delightful. I am so happy to have such helpful seniors who let me have this opportunity. My experiences with patients have been humbling and educative. I have had patients who wanted to hold my hand during anaesthesia injections, patients who would ask too many questions, patients who wanted free goodies, patients who wanted to bargain for the costs of the treatment. They have all been my teachers. And the learning curve has been immensely gratifying.

This was also the year I moved to Gurgaon from New Delhi and discovered another world. A world where pedestrians are an abomination and cars are the norm. I like the high rise buildings and the broad roads but I hope the people took to walking a little more. I like how pizza delivery boys are everywhere here. I like how now cheese crust is now available for regular size pizza too.

This was also the year when I again thought of giving love a chance. Well, that chapter will unfold in 2015. This year wasn't that eventful.

It was also the year I went to Mussoorie and met Ruskin Bond! It was a dream come true and the most amazing thing is that the person who was an inspiration behind it was just a chance encounter. Sometimes, people come to your life just to give you something that belonged to you. I still remember the moment when I handed my hand-drawn card to Mr Bond and he smiled when he saw it. I am beginning to believe in destiny.

As a blogger, this year brought me immense joy as I had these two emails in my inbox from two leading blogging portals in India-

Things like these make life awesome, don't they?

It was also the year I started reading fiction again and how! I have come a long way with my book reviews and am getting requests to review newly launched books on a regular basis. So, the year was good for my blog too. 

Yes, there were lows on the career front. I couldn't clear the UPSC prelims, there was hopelessness after seeing the cut-throat competition in dentistry in India. There was heartbreak and loneliness but now as I enter 2015, those low points seem to disappear into oblivion.

Cheers to a happy new year!