addendum. Hugs come Ezee

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.

Godrej seems to have gone into an overdrive with its public service campaigns. Now it has come up with a two-and-a-half-minute film on the digital platform which basically has a montage of situations, all essentially in North India where the winters are relentlessly cold and, as we are informed by the film, there are an estimated 20 million underprivileged children in dire need of woollens to get them through the winter. The film itself shows the emotional effect a nice warm hug can provide. The last scene shows a young boy draping a woollen on a poor little boy sitting forlornly by himself and the supers exhort you to donate your old woollens. ‘Hugs are Ezee’, says the super, informing you about the Ezee Raahat Abhiyaan. The film, albeit a trifle long, is interesting. The song definitely adds value but what is really interesting is the way Godrej is intelligently combining its brands with good causes.Here, a woollen fabric cleaner truly resonates with a cause for donating old woollens. That is a great lesson for other corporates. It’s easy to tear a cheque for a cause, and important as well, but here is an example of doing good and building a brand, hug by hug.

North or South, your kind of jewellery

The family (bride-to-be, sister, father, grandmother, mother) is shopping at a Tanishq store for wedding jewellery. And they are asked what kind they want — Tamil, Bengali, and such. They opt for Punjabi and amidst typical balle-balle Punjabi music in the background, the bride-to-be and everyone else is examining the wares. All except the irrepressible grandmother who is casting a covetous eye at another shopper who has bedecked herself with traditional South Indian jewellery, while the background music accommodatingly turns to a nadaswaram and a mridangam . The grandmother then wishes that the girl had married a South Indian so there could be two types of ceremonies and two types of jewellery as well. The bride-to be says she has already made her choice but grandma could may be work on the younger sister. The film, made by Lowe Lintas, has a pretty pedestrian script. But the way the film is made, the way the grandma acts, the way the background score changes and the way the range of jewellery available at a Tanishq store is brought out, brings a smile to one’s face. Clever. And well made.

Love by any name…

I remember the last ad for 99 acres.com. The one where Shah Jahan is hunting for a plot to build the Taj Mahal, and I can never forget the toothy smile of Mumtaz Mahal when she hears that land is available on 99 acres.com. The use of humour was really effective. Now JWT has come up with a new commercial for 99acres.com. There is this young couple lounging on a couch with a mother eating her meal at the dining table in the background. The couple seem to be talking about Kalyan, whom the young lady seems to love, and Shobha, whom the man seems to love, and Amrit and Nihar and other names are dropped with ease, much to the consternation of the mother who seems completely at sea at what she feels are names of men and women. Finally the young lady says she loves Amrit and the husband says he loves Amrit too and the mother swoons into the dinner plate with shock. The scene quickly moves to where a voiceover tells you to check out all choices before deciding on a house and the 99acres.com site shows you properties of realty companies such as Kalyan, Amrit and Shobha. The humour helps cut the clutter in this segment and definitely makes the advertisement stand out.

Happy New Year!

We wish all our readers a year when all their wishes come true. And as we always say, wish wisely, dear reader. And when it comes to advertising, tell us what kind of ads you would like to see in the year ahead.

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

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