Panasonic Mobile advertisement - When Corporate giants make mistakes

One of my oft repeated quote has been "Common sense is not very common". It is applicable for everyone including you me and all the corporates. Especially the corporates who spent crores and crores of rupees and yet come out with howlers. 

Let's take the case of Panasonic Mobile Phone T31 advertisement aired on all the  major TV networks recently. The Hinglish version of the advertisement goes like this: Two young men are comparing their phones, one has a Panasonic T31 and the other has a popular Phone (S4 from Samsung?). The popular phone  guy reels off the features of his phone and all the features are matched by his friend having the Panasonic phone. 

Then the Panasonic guy says "your phone has something that my phone does not have" His friend is very happy and before he could preen himself the Panasonic guy says "EMI" and roars in laughter and adds "I can go to Goa and take Leena there too". (Check out the advertisement).

The idea by itself is brilliant that Panasonic is as good as any other phone and that is very reasonably priced  and value for money at  sub 7500/-.  That we can get a phone that is comparable with a one costing 25,000/- (Samsung S4) the phone so costly that the buyer has to pay for it in installments (EMI).

But man proposes and god disposes. I saw the same version of the advertisement and this time it was in Telugu. To my surprise at the critical juncture of the EMI, the Panasonic guy says “Naa phone lo vokati undi nee phone lo lenidi (Translated it means – My phone has something that your phone does not have) and adds “EMI”. The entire punch of the advertisement is lost. HE IS SAYING HIS PANASONIC PHONE HAS TO BE BOUGHT IN INSTALLMENTS where as the central theme of the advertisement is exactly the reverse.  (Check out the advertisement).

What is surprising is that it went under the radar of Panasonic and got telecast! The way out is to get the advertisement translated and show it to people who know all the three languages (English, Hindi and Telugu). Even better show it to a total stranger and he/she would have told Panasonic about the goof up. These types of translation mistakes happen as most of these advertisements are made and dubbed in Mumbai and the dubbings are done in haste and by Mumbaites who might know a smattering of telugu and are not totally proficient.

The words should have been “Nee phone lo vokati undi naa phone lo lenidi” Very simple and very avoidable. 

When Silence is not only Golden - It is everything, Ask Gillette, KLM and Sunshine Hospitals

What was Gillette thinking about? The advertisement of Gillette is in plain words Jingoistic. It is playing to the most basic sentiments of the people. Most of us understand that cricket is just a game. We also realize that cricket is not war and yes we enjoy winning and winning against Pakistan is Sone-Pe-suhaga. But that is where the buck stops or should stop.

Playing and wining against Pakistan is not winning a war with our neighbors. Nor it is a   war against the Muslims of Pakistan or to that matter Muslims of any county including India. That is why the Gillette advertisement is cheesy and so much off the mark.

The advertisement too seems to be made in a hurry. The stubble is green in color. Why green? Does green mean Pakistan? And prey why green (the usage of green is not an accident). Green is the predominant color in the flag of Pakistan. So Gillette wants Indian Cricket team to “Wipe, them clean”. As if taking the dirty stubble off.

And what does Gillette want to achieve. That too only for a cricket match. Is it not thinking about the millions if not crores of Indian consumers that it is antagonizing apart from the millions and crores of Pakistani and other country citizens? Gillette needs to think many times before biting this genre silver bullet. This is one bullet that could back fire, hurt and injure the shooter – Gillette itself. 

What started out as a lark went horribly wrong. The world is tuned to FIFA world cup and Dutch Airlines thought that they would cash in. And cash in they did - After the match between Netherland and Mexico (which Mexico lost) they sent out a twitter feed. The twitter feed had a picture of an Airport departure sign under the heading 'Adios Amigo'. And next to the word departure was an image of a man with a mustache wearing a sombrero (Mexican hat).

The twitter went viral and Mexicans hated it. A Mexican actor promised that he would never fly Dutch airlines. And rubbing salt into the wound he told his 2 million followers to do the same. Seeing the alarming negative reaction the post was pulled off the net half an hour later. 

The issue became prickly and later in the night KLM issued a formal apology. The lesson is very clear. Do not indulge in something that is sensitive and where by celebrating only with one set of people you would hurt the sentiments of the other set and as a company you want to be in the good books of both sets of the people.

What is Sunshine thinking? It is a corporate hospital. It would need the patronage of people from all parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. By supporting the division are they not antagonizing the vast majority of Andhra people living in Hyderabad? They might win the confidence of the Telangana people, but are they not losing the trust of the Andhra clientele. 

As far as I am concerned it is was a absolutely zero sum game.  Sunshine hospital has to realize it is better to be silent rather than to put up advertisements that are controversial. It is better to be safe than to be sorry. 

As if to make amends Sunshine put up another advertisement. The advertisement says 'one moon for Andhra Pradesh' (Chandrababu Naidu the chief Minister) 'one moon for Telangana' (K. Chandrasekhara Rao). Chandrudu in Telugu means moon. The advertisement goes on to say ‘one sun for Hyderabad’ that is Sunshine Hospital. 

A sunshine hospital is being too clever for its own sake. First it supports the division and then it tries to appease the Andhra Pradesh clientele with another advertisement. It is just trying to be safe. This way I think they would have lost the confidence of both the clientele; Andhra Pradesh with the first advertisement and Telangana with the second one. It is caught between a rock and a hard place. Time Sunshine Hospital does focus groups interviews to avoid such controversial advertisement campaigns.

Depiction of women in Indian advertising

Advertising is the window to the society. It is a story told in a minute. Thus it is not surprising that it reflect what the society’s prevailing views about a particular topic. Let is examine 4 popular advertisements and show you how they depict a woman in the society. 

Bajaj Motorcycle: The first advertisement shows two loving sisters fighting like dogs. They are at each other, they claw, spit fire and have murder in their eyes for the each other. One finally throws the other into the bathroom and locks the door. She takes a helmet and triumphantly leaves the house. Waiting for her is a young man on a Bajaj Motorcycle. She seats herself and is driven into the sunset. The lesson: materialism is everything in life and you can half kill your own sister for a ride on the latest motorcycle.  

CEAT Idiot series: CEAT wanted to highlight the grip of its tyres. It hit upon a funny series. Both the advertisements show women in mundane and inane activities. One of them shows two young ladies involved in shopping. The small child of one of the ladies wanders into the busy traffic. She is almost overrun by a motorcycle only to be saved by a guy with CEAT tyres. The IDIOTS (in this case the women) assail the young man about his driving skills. The voice over says “the streets are filled with idiots……” The young man is shows looking at the women with a bemused jaw  open expression.

The second one shows a lady driver jabbering away with her aunty seated in the rear seat. The driver is overly excited, can’t control herself and cant resist partaking a huge homemade laddu. In her haste to gobble down the laddu, she almost collides into a two wheeler. The two wheeler driver saves himself with a sudden break. The tyre obviously CEAT again. The women are again shown as half-witted bimbos. Is this the real depiction of women drivers or is it the manifestation of deeply rooted stereo types?  

Axe chocolate advertisement: Axe takes the cake (pun intended). The axe advertisements are excessively sexy and too overboard. They show very puny guys suddenly becoming Greek gods with a liberal dosage of axe perfume. The advertisement shows a man covering himself with the chocolate Axe. He turns himself into an axe chocolate man. He becomes an instant sensation. He is adored and women literally take parts of him. The advertisement shows the women biting off his ears, his buttocks and even one of his arms. So women only think of one think is it. Always below the belt! It is funny to a point. After that it becomes blasé. Too predictable and no longer funny. Remember there has to be something in the advertisement hat hugs your heart strings - case in point the recent ICICI Prudential’s – Per Bandhe acche hai advertisement.   

World's Funniest advertisement - Quba Mobiles

I had written about Prince Phenyl advertisement made in the eighties that was so badly made that it becomes a cult classic.  I have moved heaven and earth but I could not get a copy of the prince phenyl advertisement.

Check out the blog posting at

http://dranil-marketingmusings.blogspot.in/2010/05/worst-advertisements.html

Yesterday my friend from SSIM, Rhammdas Dasari shared a very funny advertisement of a mobile shop in Hyderabad called QUBA Mobiles. This funnily made advertisement has all the chances of becoming a cult classic in itself.

 

The advertisement opens with a girl talking on a mobile phone. Suddenly she notices some goons leering at her. Frightened by the goons the girl takes off. The goons chase her. The advertisement is full of gory scenes of the girl running and the goons in hot pursuit. The girl is finally trapped in an apartment block. The girl pleads with the goons. She implores the goons not to harm her.

One of the goons presumably the leader says “why are you yelling like that. We don’t want to harm you or do anything. We are just curious to find out from where you bought the mobile that you have in your hand”.

 

The shocked girl responds “Oh this mobile, I bought it from QUBA mobiles, Hyderabad”.

The classic ad ends here and the scene cuts to the QUBE mobile shop in Moghulpura, Hyderabad. The voice, coming from the deep crevice of a well or from a creaky gramophone record player (also sounded like the advertisements aired in Hyderabad exhibition) informs the viewers about the USP of the shop. The grinning and happy face of the owner of the shop is final shot. Wow this is the funniest advertisement that I saw. A very close second to Prince Phenyl.

 

Oh Blimey - These were the cigarette advertisements!

The number one culprit for the most deaths caused in the world? No it is not war, terrorism or AIDS. It is deaths caused by consuming tobacco and tobacco related products. Tobacco is available everywhere and is still not seen as a major addiction. Except in the western world cigarette smoking is still  glamorous and smokers are idolized. Thus is not surprising that for many years advertising for cigarettes also followed the same trend. Sample some of the advertisements of the 1930s and 1940s to find out how cigarettes were promoted.

Santa Claus, an obscure figure from mythology and history has been popularized by Coca-Cola as the fun loving grand father figure everyone loves. Santa also promoted cigarettes. The brand - Camel and the punch line ‘two ways to say Merry Christmas – Pleasant smoking’. 

Phillip Morris claims scientific evidence to say that its cigarettes are milder on the throat than other cigarettes. The model looks like a teenage boy scout! 

Chesterfields teaches the smoker ABC – Always Buy Chesterfields. It rams it point with the copy ‘Always milder, better tasting and cooler smoking’. No surgeon's warning yet! Also claims a report of a market research firm – ‘no unpleasant after taste’.

This one is the masterpiece. It is a testimonial by the physicians. 20,679 of them saying ‘Luckies are less irritating’. 

Marlboro goes one step more. The advertisement depicts a toddler admiringly telling his father ‘Gee Dad you always get the best of everything – even Marlboro’. No talk of passive smoking and even of the bad influence of a dad smoking in front of his toddler.

The doctor ordered for LM filters. May be even prescribed - a pack of twenties per day! A twenty a day keeps the doctors away - permanently. If you are dead then there is no need for a doctor! 

Phil Silvers acting as sergeant Bilko endorses camel. So now an endorser from the armed forces, so what if it is not a real but a reel sergeant. 

Tipalet takes the cake. The advertisement says blow it (the smoke) in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere. The ultimate male dream – dominate her and smoke her into submission a la 40s and 50s style.

This one has Patrice Munsel a concert and opera singer proudly saying ‘My career depends on my voice. I smoke cool, mild Camel. The cigarette that agrees with my throat’. The same advertisement says more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarettes.  

Seven letter for flavor. It is Winston. The advertisement depicts an idyllic scene of a husband and wife bonding over, what else the seven letter word for flavor – Winston.

The advertisement claim that doctors are very busy treating people and that they get a rare moment of pleasure of smoking a cigarette before they get back to the drudgery of treating people. The advertisement claims more doctors smoke Camels than any other brand of cigarettes.

Those were the days when the law was not very stringent and the horrors of both active and passive smoking were not known as clearly as we know them today. All in all a very nice study of what the initial phase of cigarette advertising was like in the throw back days years of 40s and the 50s. 

Advertisements that could have been better - Limca, Spirite, Olyx, Fast Track Bags and Havells Geyser

Five not so good advertisements that have been aired recently

Limca: Marketing pundits have told us that instant gratification is the best thing. That is consume the product the minute the urge hits you. Instant need/want and instant gratification is the buzz word. Thus it is surprisingly to hear a husky Kareena Kapoor say “Tum na Thodi Pyaas Badhoo – You there – why don’t you increase your thirst”and she takes the Limca bottle away from the cricket player in the latest Limca advertisement. So is Limca only for the very thirsty people?

But isn’t Limca missing a trick. I would rather have a product that I would consume many times a day rather than have a product that is only consumed when the urge becomes desperate. The point here is about the postponement of the gratification.

Watch the Limca advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbjFqxso2pg

Olyx on line web site:The site is about online buying and selling of products. The advertisement opens with two teenagers talking about the old things that they have become obsolete, which they want to dispose of. They talk about the old PC at their home.They remark ‘it has become old’. The father who overhears the conversation pipes in “when I become old tomorrow will you dispose me off too?” One of his sons shrugs his shoulder and says “Okay but the offer is Rs 6,500/-”   The father says “Sell it” Of course we all know that they are talking about the computer.  But I have a sneaky feeling that it looks very much like as if they want to dispose off their father! Not very clever I would say!

Watch the Olyx advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F-bfavddq8&feature=relmfu

Fast track bags:an advertisements that is so bad that it becomes very good. It gets talked about. May be it was a deliberate attempt to shock people to talk about the product. If it was a deliberate attempt it surely succeeded. It was yanked off the air! The advertisement is about a girl who had made it out with her boyfriend in the night in the boys’ hostel. The next day morning she wakes up. She is shocked. She is naked. She struggles to get into her clothes. She is shown wearing her clothes one by one. The last piece of assessory as she escapes is her bag and presto is a Fast track bag.

This advertisement left me confused. Does Fastness mean boldness nee brazenness? Does fastness means throwing morals to the wind? All in all an advertisement that leaves a bad taste in the mouth and is definitely not for family viewing.

Watch the Fast Track bags advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQcofWKpEEA

Spirite: Spirite prides itself as a no nonsense brand. Sprite advertisements are laced with the right amount of cynicism and smart alerkiness that the present youth simply love. The advertisement in contention is the one about the pretty girl and a lift being offered to her. A smart man (obviously) a Spirite drinker offers her a lift. Before she can accept his offer a swanky car stops by and a voice hails “Hey baby want a lift?” The Sprite drinker does a quick retake and offers a lift to an old lady at the bus stand. The pretty lass says to the old lady “You go in the car; I will go with in the motorcycle”. 

The advertisement ends with the pretty girl on the motor bike and the old lady in the car. My contention is the car would have accommodated both the old lady and the pretty girl. The Old lady could have got into the back of the car and the pretty girl could have sat in the front. That way the car owner could have the cake and eat it too!

Watch the Spirite advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCmdR-C2ewI

HAVELLS GEYCER: The latest advertisement of HAVELLS geyser too is a harbinger. It shows a man who is brushing his teeth in the bathroom. He looks at the geyser and gets annoyed. He chases his son who just came out of the bathroom. The boy runs towards his mother. The annoyed man pulls both his wife and his son to the bathroom. He points out to the geyser. His wife shrugs her shoulder and says “well it is off” Her husband says “that is the point - why is it not on”. The voice over booms “HAVELLS geyser - When it consumes only half a unit of electricity per day – why should it be off”

This is the catch. We shout from the rooftops to save energy and here is an advertisement that is telling us to keep the geyser on for 24 hours. I don’t know what our electricity conservation societies and action groups have to say about this type of promotion. It makes the point but ½ a unit of electricity is still 15 units of power per month only for water heating. Real food for thought.

Watch the HAVELLS Geyser advertisement at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0d_yKqY75Y

Worst advertisements

There are lots of advertisements that come to the mind as being very silly and banal. They are so bad that they become classics in their own way. People remember them. Sangeet Cinema at Secunderabad, India was a place for English movie buffs. Sangeet cinema was known for its ambience, superb sound system and its USP was a hep, light colored, desi phirang crowd. In short it was the happening place in the 80s and the 90s.

Visitors at Sangeet cinema eagerly looked forward for the film trailers and some ad films that were played before the movie itself. One of the most memorable ad films was one that was promoting ‘Prince Phenyl”. A harassed looking lady (albeit well dressed) is shown sweeping, mopping and scrubbing the house. She is tired and is perspiring heavily. Her husband comes home. The lady resignedly goes inside the house gets a brown liquid in a cup and hands it to her husband.

Her husband takes a sip and his face breaks into a huge grin. He says in Telugu ‘Prince Phenyl entha manchi Phenyl”. Translated it means “Prince Phenyl is very good”. The entire theatre roars in laughter. The antics of Jackie Chan himself would not have elicited such a response. Was the husband drinking Phenyl or was it poor editing or poor screen play? It was anybody’s guess.

Two classics that David Ogilvy would have watched with his mouth open were done for “Vilan underwear and garments”. A buxom lady in distress at a sea shore. A group of miscreants are harassing the fair lady. She screams out in agony. Lo and behold the hero appears. He trashes the villains. The heroine flutters her very elaborate false eyelashes at the hero. Love blossoms. They link their arms together. Presto! out of their clasped hands appears an underwear “Vilan underwear and garments, VILAN, VILAN, VILAN,” The entire auditorium is echoing with VILAN and the crowd is hooting, cheering, whistling, clapping and shouting. Who says that people do not appreciate mediocrity? At Sangeet we used to love it.

Another gem from Vilan. A group of well muscled hunks appear in three piece suits. They appear to be very self conscious. Our Hunks from Hyderabad walk majestically and occupy the entire screen. Voice over booms and the visual comes on “the secret of a well dressed man”. The shot is cut. The next shot shows our hunks cowering. The reason - they are magically stripped to their undies. White cotton Vilan banians and white cotton V shaped Vilan vests. Every one at Sangeet was enlightened. One can wear a suit from “John tailors or Reliance tailors" but without Vilan it amounted to nothing. What a Gyan!

National level agencies too have goofed it up. An ad film of Birla Automatic generator set says “Bull dog protection”. What is wrong in it ? The copy says bull dog but the visual is of a boxer. Any dog lover would say the difference between a bull dog and a boxer is the same as the difference between Aishwarya Rai and Kalpana Rai. Wake up my friends in advertising. An ad film is a regular movie but the story has to be told in a minute. Our role model should be Piyush Pandey who crafted memorable campaigns for Feviquick. Classics that stand the test of time. Hats off to you Piyush.