Ad Stand: Some new awards

The 'Laugh Out of the Year' award goes to MSG's God Man and surely, Red Chief Shoes deserves the 'Cave Man of the Year' award'

Delhi | April 13, 2016

Abby's is over, and the best of the Indian and South Asian advertising has been announced. Having won after tough scrutiny, they are the finest the industry has produced. Going with the mood, here are some awards that AdStand will like to give out.

The first is 'Laugh out of the Year' award. No, this is not for that video just released by someone called Tahar Shah, but for someone even more audacious, called MSG. The ad opens on a sort of comical dining room setting, where a God Man is advising an even more comical looking gent to put 'Kerosene Oil' in his expensive car, instead of expensive petrol. Surprisingly, the man refutes the God Man's sermon and says that he couldn't spoil a car by pouring cheap fuel in it. The God Man goes on to tell him to stop eating food with pesticide and eat only MSG Pure Noodles. This, the man with a strange goatee look, whole-heartedly agrees with. You can make your day by laughing along with MSG here. It is amazing that there are consumers who despite being smart and erudite, do listen to the voice of God. Now that the other God Man's noodles allegedly have ash, this one can lay claim to be the most pious of them all.

The second award is for the 'Cave Man of the Year', and this goes to Red Chief Shoes. Mr India meets Chulbul Pandey. There is nothing in the plot, a man is threatening a woman at knife point. She is wailing the way leading ladies from the 1970's movies did. Suddenly the door is slammed off the hinges and in walks invisible Macho man in Red Chief shoes. The man with the knife shivers in his pants, drops his knife and scoots. Why is the shoe called “Man among shoes”? Why does the ad say “Power of Real Leather” in another frame? Why did Mr India wake up stuck in a time warp? I thought the vest and underwear brands had explored every facet of the macho angle, but even they must be left wondering. Please put your hands together for the 'Cave Man of the Year' award.

The 'Kidney Beans Honest Soup of the Year' award goes to the new 7Up commercial. The commercial starts with mocking beauty pageants and ends up mocking itself.  The women have a chance to win the contest based on the final answer and finalist wins by making mincemeat of everybody in a pan full of kidney beans. If the green mood lighting on the set is indicative of the brand, then this one is a winner all the way. Incidentally, it is worth checking whether every potential beauty contest contestant was lining up to try the dish.

The 'Unopportunistic Ad of the Year' award goes to Yatra.com for its “don't do narebazi, only do smajhdari”. I did not know that Yatra had changed the airline seating system and everyone could now get to sit at window seats. The ad raises a burning social question: what happens when you discover that there are no window seats left in the flight? You don't grin and bear it, you revolt with the aid of an app. If all this sounds confusing, then do watch the ad. Is the joke on the brand or is the brand mocking the person? Yatra has gone into the war zone, hoping to win the war that Snapdeal lost. A brand trolling real life events is new.

On the subject of trolls, the 'Troll Conversation of the Year' has to go to the founders of two unicorns of India. There is nothing to add to the just two tweets exchanged by Sachin Bansal and Kunal Bahl over Alibaba's entry into India. After the two tweets, good sense prevailed and hopefully they picked up the phone to talk to each other.

The 'Grand Prix of the Season' has to go to Urban Ladder. Never ever has any brand ever released an ad as imaginative as this one. Urban Ladder released an ad on LinkedIn asking for people to be mattress testers. It didn't matter that the ad was released on April 1 - most people realized how easy their job was compared to the one Urban Ladder was offering and how they should trade their comfortable jobs for this really challenging profile. Urban Ladder. Well done Urban Ladder, really well done.

I am sure there are many more ads out there that deserve awards. We in advertising, are very accommodative. Let's create more categories.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com