What’s wrong with admen these days?

‘HUL losing market share as rivals gain’ is what Mint reported on its cover page on 7th May’2009. Why was I not surprised?

Like most of you, I have been watching the IPL matches and the ads that come with it. My favorite is the Max New York life pension plan ad in which an old gentleman returns late at night and gets lambasted from his wife. The punch line is so well written, “Na jeb mein paison ki kami ho na samay ki…” Why I like this one is because the humorous creative delivers the message crisply. Zoozoos are good too but not all of them. For example the crocodile one on ‘set a busy message’ goes overboard to my mind. Also the one on voice message could have been thought better. However zoozoos, in totality, are very creatively done. But this article is not about the good ads. It’s actually about the bad ones…

Take the HUL’s commercials during IPL. They make me wonder how the creatives are thought and executed. Remember the Rin ad in which a boy playing cricket hits two sixes in which the ball lands on the score board displaying 50? Message: Rin now sold at Rs.50 with double power. The problem with the ad is given that it uses cricket to hammer the Rs.50 price point message, why did they not sponsor all half-century scorers on IPL? Linking real cricket to the brand. Somewhat like Parle did years ago with 50:50 when the decision goes to the third umpire. Execution could have been more like each time a 50 was scored, you see a message with that Rin lightning “Rin kadakedaar, damakedaar pachas”. During the extraa innings highlights, the 50 is shown like the super sixes or wickets as sponsored by Rin.

Next look at the recent Priyanka Chopra Lux commercial. Lux has always used film stars but those were the days when few brands used celebrities and Lux was a premium soap hence a top female actor endorsing made sense on aspirational grounds. How does the scheme fit if Priyanka, generally known to be very sophisticated and classy*, says Lux sirf 10 rupaye meni!, Not very well I guess. To top that in the next commercial break you see the same Priyanka endorsing Nokia’s 7610 and 3600 series or theHero Honda ad with Hrithik, brands that are clearly not of the popular type but more on the premium side. Is Priyanka the right celeb to promote a Rs.10 pack?

Check the Ponds Skin Cream painter ad. Seems like the painter on day one of the painting had the model’s face done and on day 7 when he realized that she does not have pimples, paints the area white where there were pimples initially. Does a painter complete the face on day one and even if he is good enough for that, does he then correct his painting by painting those areas white? Ad men?

HUL is not alone. Take the Airtel’s Madhavan, Vidya camping ad. These people are supposed to be camping in a cold remote place (search lights, quilts, tons of ropes etc in the setting). And the next thing you see is Madhavan getting a newspaper! A newspaper early in the morning in a camp? Certainly not impossible but does it not seem odd to use it to show the service offer?

Then you have these Godrej eon AC commercials. A series of settings where AC is not used due to high power consumption. The fact that Godrej ACs in fact consume less power is shown in such a dull way, it takes a lot of relooking and intent listening to the voiceover to get that message. That they have a five star rating is conveyed in a passing reference which should ideally be the central theme of the ad given the message.

Not all ads are great. We know. But given that the event is IPL and one is paying more than the deserved rates# with multiple reruns the investment is quite high. It therefore seems odd that these big companies and their ad men are paying little attention to the detail.
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* Priyanka Chopra is rated as the 4th most sophisticated/classy female celebrity by CelebTrack, India’s largest celebrity study done jointly by Percept Talent Management and Hansa Research.

# “MSM plans to hike IPL ad rates”, 2nd May Economic Times. According to TAM Media Research data, the average viewership rating for IPL matches so far this year is 15-20% less than last year. Media planners say they will oppose any move to jack up ad rates. Advertisers are already paying almost double of Rs 2-2.5 lakh they paid for a 10-second spot in last year’s edition of IPL, even though TV ratings have slipped this year, they say.