What's With The New Coke Commercial?

I used to think Pepsi owns undisputed rights to make lame advertisements. Their strategy was to sign up all the movie & cricket celebrities possible, put them in one frame and give them lame lines to mouth, just b/c they had to be given some lines. Who cares about content or message?

I preferred the Coke ads way more - their campaigns revolved around the product and brand values (purity, trust, happiness etc.) rather than a bunch of loser celebrities. But have you seen their latest ad - the one with Imran Khan & Kalki Koechlin? I don't like it at all. I can't even tell someone what it's about because there's no story whatsoever.

The ad before this (the one where a guy & girl are studying together, they link hands and coke flows from the veins of the guy to the girl's) was quite cool. This one's a drab, the only good thing being the song playing in the background.

Those who haven't seen the ad yet can check it out here. And tell me how you like it :)

To Bollywood

Have you seen the new Airtel ad with Saif Ali Khan & Kareena Kapoor where he's engorssed in a video game and she wants to download a caller tune on her cellphone? It's a disaster! There is zero chemistry between them, besides the fact that the content of the ad itself is pretty silly. And it shows Kareena Kapoor in all her bimbette splendour! If I were her, I'd be kicking myself in the butt for appearing in such an ad.

I didn't like the Airtel ads with Madhavan & Vidya Balan either. Loved Madhavan, didn't like Vidya Balan at all. I generally don't like her. She's got something very prudish about her, and her character in the ad was so bossy! Especially the one where she's calling her husband from the cab and asking him to clean the house, set the table, make salad etc.

On the other hand is the Tata Sky ad with Aamir Khan & Gul Panag. I don't like their chemistry too much. She looks sort of a misfit with him but overall, the ad works.

Four ads have already been aired, I think - one where he's doing the dishes, the second where he's making tea for her, the third where he's speaking to his mother-in-law, and the fourth where he's lecturing his friend on how to keep one's wife happy! The ads are really witty without being over the top.

Cola Wars

Seen Pepsi's new 'Youngistan' ads on TV? I have only one word for them - Whatever!

I think JWT is completely ripping Pepsi off! Or maybe they're just going by the brief given to them by the Cola major - "Get as many celebrities as you can on board, content doesn't matter. We're following a predatory strategy here!"

Whatever the case, the ads are dumb and not worthy of the viewer's 30 seconds. I can remember only two Pepsi ads that were good - the 'Hi, I'm Sanju' ad with Amir Khan & Aishwarya Rai and the 'Bubbly' ad with SRK.

The 'Hi, I'm Sanju' ad was original, intelligent, funny and was aired after Amir Khan's 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar', when the character 'Sanju' was still fresh in the minds of people, thus encashing on the popularity of the movie. We also liked Aishwarya Rai more at that time...she was the green-eyed girl & not the plastic moron she's known to be today.

The 'Bubbly' ad was an instant hit because of it's 'Be my lover Bubbly' jingle that was cute & catchy. And ofcourse it had the affable SRK in it, doing his usual tomfoolery. I still find myself humming the 'Bubbly' jingle sometimes.

I'm not a big fan of Coca Cola ads either. They don't make much of an impact though I must give them credit for originality. Even content-wise they are slightly better than Pepsi ads, and they're not as celebrity-centric as Pepsi is. While Pepsi's strategy is to sign every new "big" kid on the Bollywood block, Coke has stuck to Amir Khan and now Hritik Roshan. I think Ms Rai also moonlighted for them sometime ago.

I think among all soft drink companies, Mountain Dew has the best ads. First, the 'Bad Cheetah' ad & now the 'Dar Sabko Lagta Hai, Gala Sabka Sukhta Hai...Dar Ke Aage Jeet Hai" one. Atleast they've been sending out a consistent message since their launch in India - that Mountain Dew is for the adventurous & brave-hearted. Coca Cola's message too has been consistent - they emphasize on brand loyalty & a clear brand association (Thanda matlab Coca Cola). Pepsi on the other hand has been all over the place with no clear message or brand association. They come across as a confused, wannabe set of people. They indiscriminately sign on celebrities who have no connection to anything that the brand stands for, thus ending up with a fuzzy brand image.