May 2010

Handcrafted cars and ugly fonts

by bhatnaturally on May 31, 2010

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As is my wont, I glanced through Hindustan Times’ epaper in the morning and noticed the Volkswagen Phaeton ad. On the inside pages, the headlines were rendered in some weird font. I attributed them to a PC-Mac issue. It dawned on me quite some time later that the headlines were meant to convey a ‘handcrafted’ [...]

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Volkswagen Polo: different, insightful, yet…

by bhatnaturally on May 27, 2010

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‘Surprisingly ordinary prices’ – that’s my first memory of Volkswagen Polo advertising. The TV commercial showed a tennis match in progress with heads bobbing left & right. And then while the ball is being lobbed across the courts, the heads are transfixed to one side. The camera then shows what’s got the audience hooked: a [...]

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Indigo Airlines – when time is not in your control

May 25, 2010
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In my first advertising job, there used to be the ’5-10 principle’. The essence of that principle is that advertising communication has two broad parts: what to say (strategy) and how to say it (creative execution). On the first part, you could either score a ‘zero’ or a ‘five’ i.e either right strategy or a [...]

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Accenture – when the elephants dance, without voice over

May 25, 2010
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A new television spot for Accenture is making the rounds of ad blogs. It started off as a print campaign in the post-Tiger Wood phase – showing an elephant on a surfboard, with the headline, ‘Who says you can’t be big and nimble?’. Check out the Director’s Cut of the commercial: Also see the making [...]

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Digital Advertising: a class room waiting to be created

May 25, 2010
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This article of mine appeared in the Brand Wagon supplement of Financial Express, today: – There was a time when the Pakistan cricket team produced a seemingly endless list of fast bowlers. It is said that one man – Imran Khan, inspired a whole generation of fast bowlers. In India, Kapil Dev is credited with [...]

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Does your brand really need Social Media?

May 18, 2010
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Mark Ritson, an Associate Professor of Marketing and brand consultant wrote a thought-provoking article in Marketing Week, lampooning the herd mentality of marketers who use social media for their brands, just for the sake of it, irrespective of the fit. By way of explanation, he writes: I can appreciate why 2 million people follow Google on [...]

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Ad scams, awards and alternatives

May 17, 2010
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I am glad this happened. And that it is created by Pratap Suthan. I am talking about The Delhi Alternative initiative. Not surprising really, after the master piece he wrote after the Goafest awards. My rants on Goafest event don’t even come close but I do feel as strongly about the way our advertising awards [...]

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