Preamble: I rarely think of Ads as creative as they most often act destrucitve - they destroy the continuity in TV viewing. So I started killing commericals. But not always, sometimes I had mercy & spared them too ;-)
Return of the commerical killer: Recently came a TV ad, that did a 'ek bhale maanush ko, amaanush banake choda' out of me - I killed it so many times, for its sheer lack of any info abt the service. One expects to get info, feature details, pricing info of the product from ads, none of it were in the ad. Being a rational soul(?) I found nothing creative in it. So after killing it many times, I thought of writring a obituary to it. So I went in search of the video, and found a person who also asked the same questions as me ( remember great minds think alike!) . His questions are:
1)In which country is this "Friendship Express" running?
2)It does not look like India. Then how come all the passengers on the train look South Asian descent? Looks very stupid to me.
3)Is this "express" a long distance train or an intracity commuter train?
4)If its a long distance train, then why does the train have handles for standees (check the ad carefully).
5)If it's a local train, then why is it running in vast open plains?
Aam Aadmi's Interpretation of the ad: The ad is so abstract to me, so I sat down, analyzing it and cracked the 'logic'(or the lack of it) behind it. With that done I could easily decipher what they wanted to convey, wat the story board is, here is my blow by blow (or frame by frame) interpretation of the ad. Watch the video, if u hadnt seen it yet!
1) kids are sh*tting by the track side in scenic locale (they look like urban kids? ) actually this frame is cut by censor board, so u dont see it in the aired ad, sources on location told me!)
2) The hero in train waves at the kids, the kids pull up their pants (and socks!) wave back, run along train (usually u see rural kids waving at passing trains, this is reverse osmosis!)
3) The hero settles down in seat. everyone busy in their own reading etc. hero says "friendshit express" - to remind them "chill out guys, we are all friends, going for a sh*t together!
4) one guy stands up and says "two two two" means i want to go to number two(number 2 is a Indian code for Sh*tting, used mostly by students ). when u see food u get hungry. he saw kids shitting, so he also feel urgent! the train has no loo, the event was to go to the nature to attend natures call but seeing the kids hurried it up!
5) This urgent thing is so much like smile -infecttious! like mass hysteria, it spreads another guy in specs feels urgent
6) then a girl too feels urgent
7) start crying do co mo, which in japanese mean Ro ko na.. rokona in hindi = please stop (the train!)
8) the hero realises screaming makes it more urgent. so asks to calm down
9) calm down, seems everyone in control. then suddenly a small girl feels urgent
10) even shouts into sleeping persons ears to wake him. they are jealous he isnt feeling urgent. they think as he is not feeling urgent, he can go tell the driver to stop!
11) suddenly a north east guy comes up with an idea. music therapy to control the urgent!
12) message flashes - why sh*t alone, when u can sing and control it together
13) the train vanishes. stops further ahead, where everyone relives the urgent - not shown as sensor board wudnt allow! showing it may have 'hurt the sentiments' of others who dont have the luxury of travelling by train to relieve their urgent, or it may also be against 'indian culture'!
14) end statement "tata docomo - do the new" means take a train, go the scenic places and relive ururgent!
Thanks for reading, Please share your interpretations if you are free and dont have any urgent tasks!! ;-)
