India sings Phir Mile Sur..

There is probably no Indian who wouldn't have heard of Mile sur mera tumhara. Most of us grew up listening to it on Doordarshan. It brings back the childhood memories. I vaguely remember starting to watch this on DD when I was 7-8 yrs old and knew the entire song, with lines in all languages (I still do). Released in 1988, this video about national integration which was pretty much like a national anthem and brings out a medley of the country's languages and diversity, is definitely a legend....

But the question is, can we recreate the legend? Well, you can surely try but probably cannot! The new contemporary version - Phir Mile Sur premiered today on TV on the account of Republic Day. Zoom TV has been airing nothing but this since morning and I've watched it a zillion time already... It was a good thought and effort by Vodafone/Times Group and it is no doubt beautiful. The setting, screenplay, direction are truly brilliant. It presents India in its true glory but according to me, it failed to create the magic. First of all, the song/video is way toooo long (16mins) and seems like a drag. It doesn't sound all that melodius like before, coz of a too many additions. And above all, it's supposed to be a national integration video, so what are SO MANY bollywood stars doing in there?!!! Most of them look very superficial, especially Ash and Deepika Padukone. To me, the best part of the video was that of AR Rahman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Amitabh Bachchan...I feel more diversity in the artists chosen would have looked better.

Phir Mile Sur is no doubt good, but Mile Sur Mera Tumhara still remains immortal for the impact it created on the nation....old is gold..

Here is the Part 1 of the video...and full video is available HERE

First Look: Lux catch me

I caught this new Lux Ad featuring the Bachchan couple - Aishwary and Abhishek, for the first time on TV yesterday. Reportedly the couple has been paid 25 crores for this commercial! Hmmm..I feel, more than the product, concept, music or whatever for that matter... it's the presence of the duo together for the first time on small screen which is going to increase the recall value of the brand... coz when people see it, they are not seeing just another couple, its Ash & Abhi...and am sure that's the whole intention of the advertisement too..

It's been playing quite a lot and I actually loved the music and used to watch it everytime just for the song ..... was very suprised to find out today that the music has been composed by my all time fav Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy... ah! no wonder I loved it ! ;-) Their music has a very unique touch which can't go unnoticed...

Hum chlormint kyun khatein hai?

Looks like Perfetti has signed up the Khan brothers (Salman & Sohail) as the new brand ambassadors of Chlormint mouthfreshner. Caught this Ad on TV yesterday and I was seriously at a loss of words... Creativity seems to be going down exponentially in the Ad world or is it just the new mantra that if you can't make a good Ad which people will remember (in turn increasing your brand recall) then just make a bad one....... coz the end result is the same, people will still remember the Ad - just for a different reason!!!!! So you move up on the brand recall either ways... hmmm...interesting!

I was just browsing thru the reviews on this ad and was quite surprised to see the large number of ppl who actually loved this one - now, that's called tapping the fan following!! You know who I'm referring to, dont u?

Lead India Advertisement

"Tum chalo... to hindustan chale..."

This Ad, which is shown very often on TV these days is so beautifully made that I just had to post it here! The message is conveyed in such a subtle and simple way..... and it is so pleasing to watch :) Just loved it!

DD Ads..

A couple of days back, me and my colleagues were discussing about how Ads/TV commercials aid in capturing the mind-space of the end users and also help in creating brand value. .. we talked about a lot of TV commercials that used to be featured on Doordarshan (that was the only TV channel at that time!) decades ago... but still they are so fresh in our memories... isn't it surprising to see how simple these Ads were (unlike the present ones where every other Ad has a celebrity to capture attention!) yet they have left a permanent mark in our minds!

Some of the Ads that we all could remember very vividly, along with the jingle/song :) A couple of them also send across a strong message in a subtle way...

Hamara Bajaj



Gold spot



Ek Anek (one of the cutest ad/commercial i have seen!)




Mile sur mera tumhara
(I have heard this a zillion times but yet I am not able to map all the lines to their corresponding languages!)