Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Socially Relevant Ads

Just recently, I got awakened to a new kind of awakening in Indian Ad Industry - Socially Relevant Ads.

I am sure the ads I have mentioned below in this category would already have been noticed by you. At least, that has been the case with many of my friends. They found them very amusing, short and sweet. I first came to know about the concept of socially relevant ads through a news article about Tata Tea in Times of India which itself has fueled similar campaigns in the past ("Day in the Life of India", "Times City, Mumbai", "India Poised"). The latest one in the TOIs campaign series is "Lead India".

Other ads of similar nature are
  • Greenply - chalta rahe (both greenply and the case in Indian court)
  • Vip Innerwear - kitna adjust karte hai
  • Dish TV - Don't be सन्तुष्ट(satisfied) ! Thoda wish karo, Dish karo (SRK)
  • Kerala Tourism - The Hindu
  • Idea Mobile - an idea like replacing everything with numbers to fight caste differences can truly change the world :)
  • Some more in TOIs Lead India fleet
In my opinion, its a great innovation which makes both social and business sense. If this phenomenon catches a widespread use, advertisements would no longer be considered a waste of time, money and energy of consumers. since they are the ones whose pockets incur the costly advertisement campaigns.

* Most of the above links are video ads. Do visit them. You would surely like them. In all it would not take more than 20 minutes to watch all of them.
** Credit to some of the above ad videos goes to magindia.com that maintains an online ad gallery.