“Consumers should not become co-creators of ads”: Prasoon Joshi

“Even news has become a means of entertainment.”

“If something has happened somewhere, the media recreates it for the viewers. This is just an example to prove that there is a growing urge among the consumers to be entertained all the time,” said Prasoon Joshi, regional creative director, South and South East Asia, McCann-Erickson. He was making a presentation at the Annual Ad Review, 2006, organised by the Ad Club Bombay.

Joshi went on to give an example from personal life. “Once, I had a conversation with a fellow swimmer in a swimming pool, and the guy told me that he wished that someone would invent a water proof iPod so that he could listen to music underwater. That’s the level of entertainment people are craving!” Joshi said.

In advertising, too, Joshi said that the fatigue factor is building up faster than ever before. Even then, some ads in 2005 stood out from the rest, thanks to their high emotional quotient. The ones that made it to this list were Greenply ‘Reincarnation’, Sunsilk ‘Bald’, Coke Aish Cash Offer (‘Ramuji Yo’), Tide ‘New Pinch’, Toyota Innova ‘Desire to Stay Ahead’ and Hutch ‘Who are Your Super 3?’

Lately, one has seen increased consumer involvement in the media with television programmes such as ‘Indian Idol’, ‘Nach Baliye’, votes for polls in news channels and votes for Miss India. But Joshi asserted that this involvement shouldn’t include advertising, which is a concern for many creative professionals. He warned that this trend could harm the world of advertising and said, “Consumers should not become co-creators of ads.”

Joshi also spoke about the reality quotient in advertising. “The distance between reality and fantasy is fast fading. In ads today, real people are more visible than ever before,” he said.

For instance, the Airtel ‘Dil Ki Baat’ ad showed characters such as a disabled person and a poverty stricken girl, which was earlier unthinkable for a mainstream brand. Even the Saffola ‘Guilt’ TVC shows normal people with flab on their bodies, as opposed to showing fit people with slim waists.

“The audience today is mature enough to accept these images,” pointed out Joshi. Another ad that made it to the ‘reality’ list was SBI Life’s ‘Sister-Act’, which, according to Joshi, had two real women in it, as opposed to “rosy insurance ads showing someone playing golf”.

Three other ads in this category were the HDFC Standard Life’s ‘Grandfather-Cycle’ ad, NDTV’s ‘Awaaz Uthao’ and the campaign encouraging husbands to wear condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS, ‘Aap Kis Tarah Ke Aadmi Hain? (What Kind of a Man are You?)’

In the next section, Joshi discussed promotional advertising. “Promos are here to stay,” he said. “If one believes in one’s product, the promo won’t harm the brand.”

Some examples of good promos that he cited include McDonald’s ‘Lucky’ commercial, featuring postmen, MasterCard’s ‘Natkhat Saiyyan’, Tata Indicom Non Stop Mobile’s ‘Chal Chala Chal’, and Citibank’s ‘Sab Kuchh Bik Chuka Hai’.

Joshi went on to say that consumer tastes are evolving. Some fine examples of evolved ads that were a surefire hit in 2005 were Surf Excel’s ‘Daag Achhe Hain’, Tata Safari Dicor’s ‘Reclaim Your Life’, Coca-Cola’s ‘Piyo Sar Utha Kar’ and the Band Aid ‘Pixie’ ad.

Joshi concluded his talk with the growing trend of virtual reality and its impact on advertising. “The question that creative guys are facing is whether they should now borrow from reality or virtual reality!” he said.

He signed off with a few notable ads that struck a good balance between the two last year. These included ‘Pakya’ from ‘The Times of India’, the Hutch Delhi Half Marathon 2005 ad, the Bajaj Avenger DTS-I ‘Feel like God’ ad and Air Deccan’s ‘For Millions of Indians, Flying is No Longer a Dream’.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!