Addendum is a weekly column that takes a sometimes hard, sometimes casual, sometimes irreverent, yet never malicious look at some of the new or recent advertisements and comments on them.

Mega events such as the World Cup seem to bring out the best in the creative community. It’s like the Rose Bowl in Pasadena which has seen some of the most iconic launches in the world, including the time-defying launch film for Apple. I was wondering when the biggies would come out to play, and they have arrived. Pepsi and the World Cup have a history to live up to. I still recall the cheeky irreverent film with Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar many World Cups ago. One cannot think of a bigger coming together of celebrities in India. And so we have the film created by JWT Delhi which has the irrepressible Virat Kohli hitting the ball out of the ground, straight into the outstretched hand of a spectator, Ranbir Kapoor. And Ranbir, cast in the Pepsi mould of youngsters who want to seize the moment and do whatever they want, prefers to keep the ball, break into a dance, and even the floodlights, not just the audience, begin to turn towards him. Much to the chagrin of the fielding side and an irate Virat Kohli. Finally, Ranbir loses the ball, Virat picks it up and with a scornful look at Ranbir returns to do what he does best, play. The crestfallen Ranbir saves the best for the end. His eye falls on Anushka Sharma who “happens” to be in the audience and the cheeky script then shows her signalling Ranbir to call her, and once again his mind races toward seizing the moment and doing whatever he wants. Sometimes controversies help advertising. The recent storm Down Under where Virat abused a journalist for commenting on what the presence of Anushka did to his form in the UK would seem to have been just what the doctor ordered to make this TVC even more topical.

Get it right

Grey group has made a TV commercial for the Union Government as part of the Swachh Bharat campaign. The TVC is focused on Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. It shows a diverse range of people describing streets or monuments or places in a very different way. For example, “This is Azad’s Maidan” (for Azad Maidan) or “Chandni’s Chowk” or “Marina’s beach”, and then the narrative changes to each of them saying they will not allow you to dirty the particular place. If each citizen knows about the place she lives near or walks by and takes ownership of it, it could be a small but significant step towards keeping it clean. Everything is nice, except I think someone has been very lazy. Marina’s beach? Azad’s Maidan? The Governor of Madras Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff made this charming beach and named it the Madras Marina. And in Mumbai, Azad Maidan was earlier called the Bombay Gymkhana Maidan, and the Azad here stands for liberty or freedom and not for anyone’s name. So while the script could very well read Azadi ki Maidan and really nothing for the Marina, one finds it difficult to overlook slipshod execution of a perfectly good idea. Let’s clean up our act.

The good in a deal

We’ve seen the OLX genre of films. Just sell everything. This is for those who value the things they have hoarded or look at a little something beyond the wad of cash that comes immediately after the picture is posted on one of these sites. Incidentally I’ve often wondered why they show only cash (never a cheque) for the sale of even high-value products. Anyway, there’s a cute TVC where a middle-aged couple banter while the lady tries out the old jeep the man is looking to sell. Some light-hearted flirting later, the wad of cash is exchanged but the underlying message is that along with a good deal there is something more valuable happening. There’s also this monstrously long short film about a young man who wants to be a cricketer but has to manage the family marble business. After 3.5 minutes of the ‘Devdas’ look and a song straight out of a Bollywood tear-jerker he sells it to a boy who wins a match with some lusty hitting off the same bat. And so there is some good to be derived from selling the old stuff. Now that is really pushing the limits of emotion a tad too far. And I am getting increasingly worried about how easily agencies are able to convince clients to invest in these Mahabharat-type films that go on forever and are shown only on YouTube. I worry that we will lose the ability to tell a story in 30 seconds, and tell it well at that.

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Mail your comments to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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