Cadbury : Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye

BRAND : Cadbury

AGENCY : O&M

BASELINE : Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye

DESCRIPTION : There is excitement all over Palampur (a village). Everyone is talking about Radha, the most beautiful girl in the village who’s won the title of ‘Miss Palampur’. All the village lads are patting their hair into shape hoping to catch the belle’s eye, the women are praising her – and everybody is getting ready to see Miss Palampur. Suddenly, Amitabh Bachchan appears; he’s the village elder, spreading happiness by giving out bars of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. The ad ends when Miss Palampur makes an entry, and guess what? She’s a cow, but what the hell! Besides, Big B tells us that Miss Palampur will make it to the movies by next year!

4Ps TAKE : From “Pappu paas ho gaya” to endorsing that the bovine Radha will be in the movies shortly, Big B has been a true brand ambassador of Cadbury’s Dairy milk. The idea is to enjoy the sweet taste of Cadbury’s, whatever be the occasion, because you just need any old reason to bite into the bar! That’s life. The positioning is very high on life and the feel-good factor, and why not – as the branding is impulsive and aspirational. The ad scores high on the funny element, and, of course, Big B is the star of the show par excellence. So are you ready with an excuse, any excuse, to pop in a cube? Stop staring at that cow!!

Nokia N-Series: Naya daur, nayi manzil

BRAND : Nokia N-Series

AGENCY : Bates Enterprise

BASELINE : Naya daur, nayi manzil

DESCRIPTION : A punk removes his junk jewellery, chucks his torn jeans in the dustbin after trying on a regular new pair, cleans up his room; goes to a salon and chops off his long hair and gets a new clean crop. Coming out of the salon, he clicks his snap on his new Nokia N series sends it to his girlfriend, who is apparently pleased with her new-look beau. The ad ends with the voiceover: Naya daur, nayi manzil!

4Ps TAKE : The communication is crystal clear: Change is in the air, and it’s time you changed too. The new Nokia N-Series is positioned as the vehicle of change, the old order is passe. The colourful, vibrant ad is targeted essentially at the youth because they are ones who believe in change, in setting new goals and going to new places. The message is aspirational: who knows, maybe change can take the form of going upwardly mobile, getting to upgrade – to the Nokia N-series. The clinching benefit to the brand is moving ahead with the times. Visually pleasing, effective communication, complete clarity of positioning.

Bottomline: Great way to connect to people, yet again! Awesome!

Wagon R: For the smarter race

BRAND : Wagon R

AGENCY : Hakuhodo Percept

BASELINE : For the smarter race

DESCRIPTION : A guy introduces his new WagonR to a friend. The new features are unfolded: a new grille, swept back headlamps, luxurious interiors, automatic side view mirror et al. Driving down, the two give a bunch of girls a lift. One of them sits in the front seat, but the friend ain’t complaining as he gets to sit at the back with two of them.

4Ps TAKE : The best part about the ad is that it combines the functional element (describing the features, which is done in great detail) with the aspirational element (the fact that it’s young and affordably priced). It’s catchy, specially the way the five-seater arrangement is communicated: You can now comfortably sit with two others on the backseat.

Tata Indicom: Do more, live more

BRAND : Tata Indicom

AGENCY : McCann Erickson

BASELINE : Do more, live more

DESCRIPTION : There are shots of people who are going out of their way to disconnect the phone, to save money on their outgoing calls. Any old excuse will do – they just want to hang up. But Tata Indicom promises to change all that, with its Pay 1399, Get 1399 offer... where you get more than you can say!

4Ps TAKE : Yet again, Tata Indicom Truepaid comes up with a winner. Taking forward the Tata Group ‘transparency’ credo of what you see is what you get, this TVC communicates an offer that is hard to beat: Getting full talk time value from your prepaid connection. The ad is funny, slice of life, and juxtaposes everyday situations that we all encounter with the brand-building effort. It’s a happy ad with a lot of smiling faces, which hammers home the brand proposition of ‘live more’ – while you keep talking, that is!

Nivea: Wherever skin needs care

BRAND : Nivea

AGENCY : TBWA India

BASELINE : Wherever skin needs care

DESCRIPTION : A series of shots of people all over the world applying Nivea creme because skin anywhere needs to be taken care of, right? So it is with someone in Australia, Ireland, Brazil, Norway, Portugal, and the list goes on. Finally, the ad pans to Bangalore in India, where both grandmom and granddaughter apply Nivea crème.

4Ps TAKE : The ad not only straddles the world, but also generations. While the shots from all over the world positions the brand as an international one, the shot where grandmother and granddaughter apply Nivea together puts across a great power idea that Nivea is a brand that has been trusted by generations, and probably will be by those to come. Trust is the clinching benefit for this brand – and it doesn’t come easy!

Akai : Truly Japanese. Truly Advanced

BRAND : Akai

HEADLINE : Amazingly Real. Simply irresistible!

BASELINE : Truly Japanese. Truly Advanced.

AGENCY : NA

4Ps TAKE : Hang on a second; it’s not the ad of the long forgotten chicken and egg riddle for all you know. Akai is back with a bang, and this is the print ad for its new range of colour televisions. The communication is about the power idea: The clarity is so sharp that the hen mistakes the eggs on the TV to be her own brood and sits on top of the set! A bit quirky, but works...

Epson: Exceed your vision

BRAND : Epson

HEADLINE : If it stops printing, the error’s probably human.

BASELINE : Exceed your vision

AGENCY : www.epson.co.in

4Ps TAKE : GREAT catchline. What better way to grab attention than be almost nonchalant about your product confidence? The visual speaks a million words and is a logical extension of the catch line: The printer won’t stop working unless you trip it up or something like that. The body copy talks about the other features of Epson printers, but the power idea is a winner and takes the ad very, very high on the recall stakes. This truly is the Age of the Machine!

Visa: Only Visa Power, Go Get it.

BRAND : Visa

AGENCY : R.K Swamy/BBDO Advertising

BASELINE : Only Visa Power, Go Get it.

DESCRIPTION : Javed Jaffrey and Arshad Warsi are shopping in a departmental store. Suddenly, they hear Siddhu’s voice; he’s on television, talking about the Visa Clean Bol contest, where one can win packages for ICC Champion’s Trophy by using Visa credit cards. Both reach the counter to pay (obviously with their Visa cards!) and find Sidhu there, asking people to go “get it”!

4Ps TAKE : Although the ad grabs some amount of attention because of the strength of the star cast, the focus gets diluted. It’s the classic case of the brand value losing itself somewhere in the chatter – and in this case, the chatter is being done by the very talkative Sidhu. Result? No clear cut communication and a plot that appears to be overplayed. Too many cooks spoiling the broth? Possibly. This is no way to go get it!

Happy Dent Protex: Protex Daant, Happy Daant

BRAND : Happy Dent Protex

AGENCY : NA

BASELINE : Protex Daant, Happy Daant

DESCRIPTION : Just when an army is discussing its mission, a man who is a spy comes out from a box where he was hidden and says ‘nahin pahuchne doonga’. Having said that, he takes out an ‘unknown’ chewing gum and pops it in his mouth, but his tooth comes out in the process, and he starts crying like a baby. The army guys catch him, and the general tells him not to have any other chewing gum other than Happydent Protex. Everybody’s gets to be great friends, and all’s well that ends well.

4Ps TAKE : Happydent has been making very over-the-top ads, which nonetheless manage to stand out. This TVC, too, is a humorous attempt to reach out to the target audience by telling them not to trust the brand of gum they’ve been chewing. The power idea is that Happydent is good for the teeth, and this is communicated in a light-hearted way. This one is somewhat over the top – but, again, manages to grab eyeballs.

Reynolds: Racer Gel, Waterproof

BRAND : Reynolds

AGENCY : JWT

BASELINE : Reynold’s Racer Gel, Waterproof

DESCRIPTION : A few kids are playing cricket when they see Sachin Tendulkar. They rush to him for autographs. One of the boys pushes a fat guy while he is running towards the Little Master, and the fat guy falls down. The other boy gets Tendulkar’s autograph signed with a Reynold’s pen. The fat kid, meanwhile, wants to get even, so he takes a pipe and showers the boy with water, and the piece of paper with the autograph gets wet. But all’s well, because Sachin used the waterproof Reynold’s!

4Ps TAKE : The brand communication is about the product benefit, the ‘waterproof’ element. The power idea is to position the pen as one which remains unaffected come rain, hail or storm! With kids being used in the medium, this is a fresh way of putting the message across. And of course there’s Sachin Tendulkar as the brand ambassador: when he bats for your product, you don’t need anything else.