John & the Yamaha FZ

Addendum is a fortnightly 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. Write in with either advertisements you wish reviewed or with your comments at addendum.brandline@gmail.com

John Abraham wants to ride, but the bike has other ideas. Wow, and I thought anyone or anything would unhesitatingly say Yes, yes, yes! Jokes apart, Yamaha has a very “different” TVC to announce the new colours its FZ and variants are available in. Future East has commissioned Andrew Hardaway, a celebrated director, to make this TVC, and the overall look and feel do not disappoint.

The script revolves around three John Abrahams (indicating three different types of people) trying to ride the Yamaha FZ in its new colours. The bikes seem to have a mind of their own. They imitate bucking broncos and then place the Abrahams under a searchlight-like scan to decide which Abraham matches the particular bike.

That done, they indulgently let the by now completely fazed John Abrahams mount them and take off. The effects are superb and the direction is good. This TVC should stand out in a clutter, provided you don't pay too much attention to the story line and ideation. Just revel in the special effects and enjoy the ride. This is like one of those thoroughly enjoyable action-packed movies where you must remember to leave logic at home.

Sugar & Spice

Britannia biscuits took advantage of the IPL to reach out to a new and ever-growing audience segment of cricket on television: Women. A series of well-made 10-second spots used insights about what it was that made women like watching cricket. Remember, till a short time ago, this was a male preserve. Well, looks like the handsome players, a dose of gossip and a genuine interest in the game have all contributed to this new audience that cricket and the racier formats of the game, in particular, have garnered. And these are exactly what Britannia focuses on, in its TVCs.

Of course, they take the opportunity to also launch two new flavours, Maska Chaska and Sweet & Salty, while serving up these 10-second films. I must say I liked the films, and if you wonder why this male member of the audience segment found interesting in films aimed at a female segment, well, take a look at the three actors in the films. Britannia has learned that if women like the male players in the game, well, men might naturally like the female players in the films. Fair is fair.

Big bucks. Big idea?

There are four IPL teams and some real big-ticket names such as Sehwag, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj in one 45-second television commercial that shouts out “big bucks”. It also whimpers “no big idea”. The TVC labours hard to show you four different ways to celebrate. And proves to you that a great player such as Virat can turn out to be a wooden-faced actor under some directors.

Will someone tell me why Virat and the rest attempt some sign language and say “look into my eyes”? Incidentally, that is the only bit of voice-over till the sign-off which talks about different ways to celebrate the same lousy idea. Sorry, the same big product.

And will someone also tell me where I can conveniently buy Royal Challenge music CDs? And then feed me with some information about what the sales figures for these CDs are. I am dying to know what one needs to earn to afford such a big banner TVC. And then ASCI talks about surrogate advertising …

ASCI news

Since we only talk about advertising in this column it would not be wrong to mention a few advertisements against which complaints have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). They include such worthies as Dabur, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, L'Oreal, Procter & Gamble, Pernod Ricard, American Tourister, Kent water purifiers, Reebok India, Ceat Ltd, Hyundai Motors and TVS Motors. I am only mentioning the big names because let's face it, what excuse do they have for contravening sections of the ASCI code? Surely, they should know better. Tsk tsk.

Getting it right

It has all the makings of a real humdinger of a TVC. The Don music track in the background, King Khan in the foreground and a really interesting script that shows “cash” being eliminated by the Matrix FX card. Very clever, a great connecting idea and quite well made. But why have Brett Lee, Kallis, and Yusuf Pathan in the TVC? Too much money? And why the New York scene with an East European cop interrogating the Don in something that sounds like Russian? Anyway, on the whole, I like it, and subsequent edits would no doubt filter out what is irrelevant and leave something that has good repeat value.

(The writer is a communications consultant.)

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