Blue period blood, Midaseque pan masala, make-believe doctors recommending toothpaste; some advertising tropes need to retire

They have lived long enough to become villains, and are now objects of annoying exhaustion.

Advertising can lull you to action – that is its superpower. For centuries, this creative pursuit has employed many a tool to deploy its potent force.

The tools, creatively expressed, are known as tropes. Using fear to sell life insurance is a trope. So is the rising crescendo of bubbles when a cola bottle’s cap is popped open. There are many tropes that advertising agencies employ in their work every day.

Some of them need to retire and never show their faces ever again. They’ve not only outlived their usefulness, but have become examples of lazy and ridiculous creative thinking, expressions of conversative minds, and leaders in supposed misinformation.

How else does one explain that the path to wealth, fame and unimaginable success, lies in a spoonful of pan masala? ‘Muh mein Rajnigandha, kadmo mein duniya’, anyone?

Can someone reveal how period blood defied the rules of Mother Nature, and turned blue? And, what’s with deodorant brands turning one into a ladies’ man?

These are some of the more popular tropes that India’s ad world has in its arsenal, and it hasn’t shied away from using them often enough.

We, at afaqs!, believe that some ad tropes must be exiled forever. But what do India’s top creative leaders feel about the tropes that must go.

Here’s what four of them had to say (their names are arranged in alphabetical order of the first name).

Kartik Smetacek, Jt NCD, L&K Saatchi and Saatchi

Let me start by admitting that tropes are often a shortcut to conveying a message. I’ve leaned on enough of them in my career. But if there’s one that is past its expiry date, it’s probably the slow motion hair toss, the all-important money shot in shampoo commercials.

This three-second clip undergoes more scrutiny than a pimple on a teenager’s face, and is the subject of intense debate by the otherwise well-adjusted MBAs. It has spawned an entire sub-industry of something called ‘hair specialists’ and does no favours to the environment, with chic Frenchmen flying across continents to oversee its creation.

Surely, in 2023 – the cynical age of anti-influencers, the audience is far too savvy to fall for this bit of follicular hyperbole. But what do I know.

Mayur Varma, chief creative officer, 82.5 Communications

“In India”, in case study AVs, is my favourite advertising trope. It basically means, “World jury members, you don’t know India enough. So, listen to us when we say this idea can help to solve a big problem.” Use case: “In India, people use their hands to clean the shit off their cracks and then don’t wash their hands before eating…”

After this, even if you drew a circle as a solution, you’ll get the Grand Prix (prize).

But no. The jury doesn’t give a flying duck. Just like the consumers, who don’t believe in the ‘reassured man’ wearing a lab coat and being passed off as a doctor, ‘without the stethoscope, only because that ASCI will not approve’. He recommends the use of a dishwasher that contains, wait a minute, just the fragrance of neem and tulsi.

But thank god for such tropes, advertising makes it to some stand-up comedians’ sets. And, there’s an outside chance that someone in the audience thinks – I’ll join advertising!

Tropes will continue till the time advertisers get their ideas ‘research-approved’. I think that’s because research falls back on formulas. Today’s winning formula is tomorrow’s trope. Which is why you see so many characters in ads suddenly break into a mindlessly odd dance only to get ‘a smile’ in the research’s facial expression reading test.

Tropes are diametrically opposite to one’s gut feeling. And, we make the choice every day.

Nisha Singhania, co-founder and director, Infectious Advertising

There are tropes that are harmless and the maximum damage they can do is – well, they’re simply boring.

But there are tropes that legitimise several social ills and, thereby, cause far greater damage. Those I believe need to disappear as soon as possible! For example:

- Stereotypes of nerds being bullied and jocks being dumb

- Men not doing any household work versus the hard-working women who do all the chores

- Male jokes about in-laws or wives

- Parents investing, or saving, for their daughter’s wedding

- Gays being depicted as overtly effeminate comical characters, who’re to be laughed at

Vikas Chemjong, chief creative officer, Cheil India

The world is full of people telling us what we can’t do – from lawyers, to executives, to people on Twitter. So, instead of adding one more ‘can’t’ to the list, I think that advertising is the one place where we can, and should, try anything and everything. Whether that’s finding something new in tired old clichés, or turning a trope on its head, it’s our job to play and experiment with ideas to create fresh, meaningful work.