Monday, September 25, 2006

New Lamps for Old, the advertising way!

on my way to office i was flipping through today's newspaper and i saw an ad which made me feel a little bad about my profession. something akin, to the way you feel after youve chewed on the pip while having the orange. let me describe the ad to you:

it was an exchange offer ad for Maruti Baleno:

Copy: 'Exchange your old car for a brand new Baleno' (so far, so good)

Visual: (now this is where the 'leaves a bad taste' part comes in: its the often used 'before / after' visual technique. its just that the visual for 'before' is an 'sad-looking old man' and the one for after is a 'young dude-looking man'.

okay...i get the point immediately and the agency's (topmost in the country) job is done....client's happy. but then, there is something called sensitivity/sensibility/good sense. what i got appalled at is the blatant implication of the message (purely from the used visuals): 'get rid of old stuff from your life, for instance elederly people'. not the best thing to come out from an almost heritage brand belonging to a country where we are taught to respect elders, right from our childhood.

being a sensitive person, perhaps i am exaggerating things a bit....please convince me that i am.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even if it meant "be a young dude insead of being an old hag"
It shows bad taste. Downright silly.

Anonymous said...

hey meeraj bhai

i think old is gold. the ad is totaly in bad taste 1 would get indigestion.

the mouse squeeks

meraj said...

i love the usage 'the mouse squeaks'...keep squeaking in this space.