Thursday, October 22, 2009

The (Not so) Mad world of Ads

Strange as it may seem....I have been remembering something today... the advertisements on Indian radio and television. Sometimes, more than the actual programmes, I used to enjoy the adverts more and many a times was caught humming or singing them by family and friends...

On school days, part of the usual rush with the morning chores was the All India Radio giving us company and a tune to start the day. I don't remember the shows aired, or the news narrated, but do remember the advertisements in between.

We used to watch the serials every evening on TV…. some really nice ones were Udaan,Oshin, Mungeri Lal kay haseen sapnay, Ham panchi ek dhal ke and a few others...No matter what we watched or listened to, whether it was long hours of cricket matches, or the only movie that used to come on Sunday evenings or the 9'o clock News or anything...I very distinctly remember the advertisements aired in between....

A few that I remember very well are Chal meri Luna, Vicco turmeric ….nahi cosmetic, buland bharat ki bhuland tasveer… ..hamara Bajaj (remains one of my favourite tunes), hajmola sir (so funny!), Liril ads-Never wanted to use this soap though....remember my brother and me naming it ajji's soap(grandma's soap), Dabar amla kesh thail, How can I miss out the taste of India..Amul, swaad bare shakti bare…. parle G, washing powder Nirma, kurrum kurrum.. Lijjat papad, Cadburys... love the song, Fevicol ka jod, Natraj pencil- don't remember using anything other than the pencil with red and black vertical lines.

I have always thought that ads are such creative works...they need to get the point across in just about 30 seconds...I think that's amazing! Of late….of course, many of us might avoid watching movies on TV as a 3 hour movie would end up being 4-4.5hours with all the ads...Some ads of the 2000's that I liked were the Airtel ad (with A R Rahman's tune), the Hutch Ad, well…. the ad's with the cricketers.. Rahul Dravid's Pepsi, Aamir khan, Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan in Coke & Pepsi ads....the main difference I find in the ads now a days to the ads before were that the older ads concentrated a lot on family, society and India as a whole...we do have them today... but the feelings don't seem very strong..

If you are someone who enjoyed something similar to what I have written…. just you tube Indian Ads and it will take you back to those days... atleast for a few moments...

1 comment:

  1. We still remember those ads isnt it... These days the moment ads come on, I like to change the channel :). Ofcourse even now there are a few good ones, but there is an overdose of ads.

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