Stark Raving Ad: A Giddy Guide To Indian Ads You Love (or Hate)

Stark Raving Ad A GIDDY GUIDE TO INDIAN ADS YOU LOVE (OR HATE) RITU SINGH First published in India in 2018 by Hachette India (Registered name: Hachette Book Publishing India Pvt. Ltd) An Hachette UK company www.hachetteindia.com Copyright © 2018 Ritu Singh Ritu Singh asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work Cover image: Wolfgang Krodel, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, 1543, Oil on panel, courtesy Wikimedia Commons Cover design by Sukruti Anah Staneley All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system (including but not limited to computers, disks, external drives, electronic or digital devices, e-readers, websites), or transmitted in any form or by any means (including but not limited to cyclostyling, photocopying, docutech or other reprographic reproductions, mechanical, recording, electronic, digital versions) without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by her and have been verified to the extent possible. The publishers are not in any way liable for the same. Print edition ISBN 978-93-5009-767-0 Ebook edition ISBN 978-93-5009-768-7 Hachette Book Publishing India Pvt. Ltd 4th & 5th Floors, Corporate Centre, Plot No. 94, Sector 44, Gurugram - 122003, India Originally typeset in High Tower Text 11.5/15.4 by Manmohan Kumar, Delhi For Papa, Mummy. For Avni, Nagesh. Contents PREMUMBLE THE VERY FIRST APPLE AD The Eve of Advertising ONES UPON A TIME Ad-ing Up the Years CHADDI PEHAN KE FOOL KHILA HAI Bawdy, Shoddy Happenings CHARACTER LOOSE Mascots at Large THOO-THOO, MAIN-MAIN Brands Fight Thooth ‘n’ Nail LINGO DANCE, LINGO DANCE Desi Ad Talk BADALNE KI AAG Agents of Change MUMMY BADNAAM HUI Targeting Character Roles BTM Brandjis Turned Modern DIGITAL, WIDGETAL AND APP TOH AISE NA THE Cool Tools INCONCLUSIVE Wi-Fi, Sci-Fi, Bheja Fry ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Premumble L ike thousands of advertising hatchlings, I was quite clueless on my first day at work in an ad agency. As I entered the office, nothing could take away from the All-Ye-Who-Enter-These-HallowedPortalsof-Advertising chant in my head – not the piglets scuffling through the bullshit at the entrance, not the snot-pickers near the shady (very shady) park across the road, not the absence of any team member till eleven in the morning. No, not even the sight at lunchtime of a senior copywriter wiping his hands on a newspaper after a sumptuous meal of mutton curry and rice eaten with five fine-dining tools. I felt privileged when my creative supervisor sat me down in his gas chamber-like cabin, filled with cigarette smoke and his smoker buddies (not all offices were No Smoking zones then). He started with the Talk. ‘Advertising is a complex business where you have to slog your b**t off to come up with f***ing great communication. But there is an almost magical formula for coming up with ideas. Today, I will share that with you.’ I listened reverentially as he spoke. ‘Great ideas are autobiographical. A really great guy (not me) once said this: Look at the oyster – its autobiography is the pearl. So when you work, go ahead, pull out those insights from your own experiences.’ He leaned forward to make another revelation. Eager to learn more magic formulae, so did I. ‘And always remember,’ he said, ‘every person who has made it big here has at least one divorce behind him or her.’ And that is how agency lessons/conversations have always been – the real mixed with the comic, the truth with the farcical. So it was some decades ago. And so it is now. W hether you are