The 5 Worst Indian ads of 2010 December 2, 2010

Bad ads

While a lot is seen and heard about the good creatives & ad copies, lesser is written about the ones which didn’t quite live upto the expectations and leave many of us floundering and gasping for breath. The post is not about moral policing but to an extent the responsibility that the brands, the media channels used for propagation and the society in the larger picture share when something like the following comes in public domain affecting the way a mass audience perceives and sometimes when the young portray what the brands they follow define for then unknowing of the fact that the same holds value or not to be encouraged as a part of their lifestyle & personality. The list is in-exhaustive..

1. MTV: STAY RAW

I was flabbergasted when something like this came up, all across the city. Is being Raw all about being abusive, ill tempered, over ruling the rights of someone because one stupid channel lets us think so. The campaign creative is not entirely bad but some sections are offensive and not in the right spirit, so much so that it occurred to me to report it for violating advertising standards.

MTV stay raw

2. Volkswagen Beetle:

India has long seen the tradition of Dowry, while everyone is fighting pillar to post to remove this stigma, and we talk about the next generation is going to make it extinct. We have a brand like Volkswagen glorifying it by portraying its product beetle as the ultimate reward (read-dowry). Who said that MNCs bring an international approach?

Press

Volkswagen beetle dowry gyaniz

TVC

3. JK Super Cement:

Nothing but stupid even in the follow up, the first campaign in which they used a red bikini clad girl emerging out of water had literally no connect with the product. It was written about strongly, but with the outdoor impact the campaign had good recall because it soothed many an eyeballs across the terrain of the country but eventually the brand didn’t gain.

4. Dominos Double burst Pizza

The double burst effect portrayed via twins getting born..need I say anything on this one, the idea has no connect, the events would not hold place even if it was made into a 3 hour Bollywood movie.

5. Rajnigandha Pan Masala

Since when did Pan Masala help us to build our pride, I am afraid that there is an army in disguise converting every city in India into a “Pink City” and that is all what it is all about. The one item which is an addiction amongst many and injurious to health as it is of carcinogenic properties amongst its ingredients. The last one in the series is seriously a plot of the 70s hindi flick, a old man whose hardwork is paid off by his earnest son..Did the creative miss an old dying blind mother and a young sister who is to be married but has the villians eyes set on her.. My advice don’t watch Hindi cinema late night.

Equally bad Maths Genius ad by them: