Vivo pits X50 Pro’s gimbal camera against a ‘sadharan’ smartphone's in new ad

The new Vivo smartphone X50 Pro features a built-in gimbal camera system. This advanced optical image stabilisation (OIS) feature helps stabilise videos and photos by making up for the shaky hand or a camera mount.

However, it's not the feature that caught our attention. What really caught our eye was the ad film for the new model. It reminded us of and age old format of comparative advertising where brands used split screen visuals to present their products alongside an inferior other.

Almost all detergent ads promise to provide a better wash in comparison with ‘ordinary detergents’ or ‘sadharan detergents’. This format of comparative advertising has been popularised over years by brands that claim to provide a better solution against rival products available in the market.

For example, Tide offers a better wash than ordinary detergents, Colgate gives you stronger teeth and Dettol kills the most amount of germs in comparison with and ordinary soaps. While it is particulary popular in the case of germ-kill and cleaning brands it is only on rare occasions that we see an ‘ordinary’ smartphone.

In the latest Vivo commercial, Vivo’s X50 Pro has been pitted against an ordinary phone that doesn’t have the new OIS feature. In the ad, X50 Pro shoots steady videos while being carried on a bicycle across rugged terrain, against a shaky and blurry outcome of the ordinary phone under similar circumstances.

Not so long ago, Apple used such a format to mock at the performance of non Apple smartphone brands. Similarly, mouth freshener brand Mentos used it to create an ‘aam zindagi’ or ordinary life vs ‘Mentos zindagi’ or Mentos Life.