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 route less travelled

I guess making an advertisement for commercial vehicles could be pretty challenging. There is the real fear that you end up doing the utterly predictable.

You tag the ruggedness, the mileage, the hostile terrain that needs to be negotiated and take the route commonly travelled. Not this one for Mahindra commercial vehicles created by Interface Communications and Purple Vishnu teams.

Here they address not as much the vehicle directly, but the people who drive their commercial vehicles and take the less travelled path, with great results.

You have vignettes of people who dare to dream, to take charge of their lives, whose heads do not bow to lucre, who plough a lonely furrow.

Real people you would like to be yourself. And, of course, there is one part where a Bolero does everything you thought a commercial vehicle would do in a TV commercial. I love the script and carefully avoided trying to translate it.

The music was pretty effective too. All in all, a winner! This is what people would want to relate to. Something a little inspiring, a little emotional, a little different and rather well made.

Well intended

You haven’t heard of the Dalmia group? I don’t blame you. It has kept a rather low profile but has been active in the areas of cement, sugar, power and refractories. Don’t think I am acting knowledgeable after reading a press note. I’ve actually spent time in the group’s factories in another avatar of mine, several years ago.

And, therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to see them coming out of their shell and making a grand corporate statement. “ Mera Bharat bada ho raha hai ” is one hell of a statement to make, and if not handled well could end up making you look like a little pompous.

JWT handles that part rather well. The message comes across with the right tonality. In fact, I thought the TVC started off promisingly.

The scene where an IIM graduate talks about becoming big only when his country became big was sweet music to my ears. Then somehow, with the right patriotic tone intact, the film meanders a trifle listlessly into a “clean India” bit and an even more depressing “help the poor” bit. Patriotic themes rarely fail. This one succeeds in its intent but falters in its execution.

Vox pop: Reader Ajit Wadhwani from Mumbai writes in about the Hero Karizma commercial (the one on the Polar ice pack) and says “The advertisement is about a person on a flashy bike moving ... or should I say gliding on snow with the wheels of the bike easily cracking through the ice as smoothly as one would feel cutting a rich creamy cake. Please note: right through the ad, a fairly longish one, the focus is always on the wheels of the bike with the camera taking close shots and zooming in on the fabulous tyres. The ad ends with the normal small message band telling us not to imitate the actions performed.

But it also adds: ‘Note: Tyres used in this ad are not for commercial sale.’ I understand that the creative director gets a lot of leeway while making ads but here the essential focus is all on the wheels and tyres of the bike.

So what sense does this ad make? Only one I think ... Taking the public for a ride.” Ajit, I must say I missed that line myself but yes, it would make the creative effort rather far-fetched.

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Mail your thoughts and opinions to >cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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