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.

The importance of timely action

There’s this seminar going on, and as in all seminars, attention is wavering. One attendee is thinking of a young lady, Divya. His colleague advises him to message her and invite her for coffee.

The smitten man decides this is sound advice. So he scribbles his message on a note, folds it, and passes it on to his friend, to be passed to Divya. The friend looks surprised. A handwritten note in these days of SMS, whatsapp, Facebook messenger? Still, he shrugs and passes the note down the line.

As the note makes its tortuous journey from one delegate to another, the situation gets quite funny. One of the relay team evens opens it, reads it and nods approvingly to our smitten friend who is getting uncomfortable. And then, the inevitable occurs. The presentation ends and everyone instantly troops out. The note is with the Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund protagonist.

I like the man’s look and his voice even more. It is very distinctive, and I seem to remember it from the last ad of Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund featuring an anxious over-demanding father and the tutor of a little child. Anyway, this is a cue to say that lazy methods of investing could ensure you never reach your goal, and hence the SIP of Birla is ideal for equity investments. I like it. Very simple, good casting, and a clear message. Effective advertising!

The spices of life

Tata Sampann and Leo Burnett bring the message of love and goodness to their range of masalas. The TV commercial begins with a working mother (nice touch) coming home and beginning to cook. After that, the ingredients of the masalas become the heroes of the film.

The script talks about sourcing only the best spices from farms, while the visuals show the actual spices in all their natural glory. The film ends with celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor endorsing the masalas as the beginning of goodness, as the little family settles down to enjoy the dinner. This should appeal to any cook who knows their cooking expresses their love for those the food is being prepared for. Sanjeev Kapoor’s endorsement is the cherry on the cake, but I would have given this a thumbs up even if the last scene was deleted.

Men’s Day tribute

If you are someone who feels that men need to be celebrated on a special Men’s Day. If you feel men work up a sweat all year making women feel good. If you feel women should show their appreciation by letting you do whatever you like on that one day. And if you would like to watch a real fun two-and-a-half minute film, then what you need to do is watch the He Deo film on You Tube. And of course, spray on some He Deo from Emami. The women will do everything for you. All they need is for you to smell good. With He Deo. So says Leo Burnett in this thoroughly enjoyable digital offering. Suspend logic. Enjoy!

Vox Pop: Regular reader Ravi Shankar comments on advertising taking over the front pages of newspapers. He says, “Yes, it is a worry that the front pages are taken over by advertisers. Though I guess we need to make some adjustments to our long-set habits and thinking as the print media tries to survive the Net. So I normally just take those pages off and then sit down to leisurely read!

“I might be biased to The Hindu but let me state categorically that I don’t mind this paper doing it, as their reading material has substantially improved in both quality and quantity. I have seen some other papers that have ads crawling all over the pages. Having said that, one ad style that irritates is the half page ad that is stuck on. This causes the pages to not fold back neatly.”

Thanks Ravi, and in a lighter vein, now that the advertiser knows what you do, he might not even advertise.

And of course, allow me to welcome The Hindu to Mumbai, where I live. What took you guys so long??

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