I have been an avid follower of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and watch many of the matches. This year there are no ticket sales simply because there is no audience on the ground due to the raging Covid 19. As a result, I guess, the number of TV commercials have increased substantially to make up for the lost revenue.
Being quite interested in advertising, I don’t really mind! I have always believed that the creativity of those who design our advertisements or TV commercials in India is often second to none. What sets the typical Indian TV commercial apart from all others is the raw appeal to the emotions of the viewer. This is seldom the touchpoint in Western advertisements.
I am not talking of emotions flowing from celebrity endorsement of brands. Surely they must be a force to reckon with which is why top celebrities, be they film stars or cricketers these days, are much in demand to endorse every conceivable product. The message goes out that this product or brand should be good because Amitabh Bachchan or Viral Kohli is using it. Likewise, the feeling that you use the same toothpaste as Aishwarya Rai or Kareena Kapoor probably appeals to millions of people. Otherwise, celebrity endorsements would never be as big as they are.
This report by Duff & Phelps may be slightly dated (2019) but it makes for interesting reading. It says that as celebrities feature in 20 % of endorsements in the United States, while in India the figure is much higher at 50 %. It also talks of the growing clout of “star couples” such as Indian Cricket’s super star Virat Kohli and his film star wife, Anushka Sharma.
Sometimes, celebrity endorsements can backfire! M S Dhoni was at one time India’s most loved sports star. However, his being Brand Ambassador for the Amrapalli Group resulted in the kind of embarrassment he had never faced before. His fan base felt cheated when the builder he endorsed did not deliver their flats on time! Many claimed it was his advertising that led them to trust this builder!! On top of that there was an unsavory dispute regarding his own payments from that group! Of course, those cheated in their purchase of flats argued that the amount Dhoni was fighting for was a very small percentage of his overall wealth. They, it was argued, had sunk a substantially higher percentage of their life’s earning in buying that flat from Amrapali!
Personally, however, these advertisements have never appealed to me. I prefer advertisements which touch my heart or tickle my funny bone. I saw one from Cadbury’s recently- one in Hindi called Laundry– which I thought was superb. But then, this is nothing new as Cadbury’s has always been recognized as a strong brand for many decades.
I also lhought this one from Cello for their Butterflow Pen called Lamba Naam was quite hilarious ! There are so many more I can mention but I shall save that for some other time!
Advertisements are expected to inform, to persuade and remind! The fact that even today we remember so many old advertisements seen on Indian television screens indicates that our advertisers have pretty much hit their mark!
T
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 