It's been ages since I wrote about advertisements, a subject I love thinking and talking about. I've been fascinated by ads and have been occasionally sharing my thoughts on the good and bad ones on this blog. But it's been a long time since I watched an ad that I found to be really awesome. Ah...well, that's partly because I haven't been watching any ads at all in the first place. ;) I'd probably be walking past the TV into my room and only an ad that had a true magnetic appeal would have made me stop and look. Anyways, I caught up with more TV than usual in the past few days and came across an ad that I think is definitely excellent material. It struck a chord in me immediately. Made me smile.
Canara Bank is undergoing an Identity and Brand makeover that sounds exciting. It has made a few ads to reach out to the people and communicate its new 'attitude'. I saw two different ads on the same theme and suspect that there probably are some more on the same lines. The ads are extremely good. I loved everything about them - the theme, the storyline, the actors, the art et al. In case you've not seen any of them, underlying this new branding exercise is the theme "We all change for the ones we love". The communication highlights the change of the Canara Bank Logo and that they've adopted more cutting-edge technology but have retained the smile that's on their lips while servicing customers. Hmm. The ads that I caught on TV were:
- A South-Indian woman meticulously learning Punjabi (mainly through soliloquy; commenting to herself on general day-to-day things that she does) much to the surprise of her husband. The climax of the advt. is when they go to the airport to receive her son and Punjabi daughter-in-law that - one would assume - they meet for the first time ever, and the mother-in-law welcomes her in Punjabi. Cute! :)
- A young woman learning the basics of cricket and even purchasing the Indian Team's Blue T (and optimistically checking with the shop-keeper if the T is available in pink ;-) :-D). The climax is when the hubby is watching a match and expresses disappointment about a shot and the wife while casually walking past the place says "He should have hit a square slice!"... :-) only to be corrected by the husband. Very cute! :)
Both the ads are wrapped up with the tag line "We all change for the ones we love". Very cute ads, both of them. Kudos to the team that conceived and made this. I can't stop admiring them for now. :)
Makes me think that the Canara Bank ads will probably make it to the top of the Cannes list this year! Good luck to them!
PS: Well, that may have been the story of the ads. But I've always - naively, perhaps - expected organizations to live their ads. To reflect the spirit of their communication in every way possible and have - obviously - been disappointed more often than not. I hope Canara Bank did enough to help its employees imbibe the spirit of their new identity and brand and reflect a 'real' change - which is what will bring true merit to their ads.
4 comments:
Just yesterday some of my friends were discussing about this ad. I am yet to see it. But I guess, since its already being discussed, it has to be a good one.
yup...i love the ads. the world we live in is getting selfisher by the day....fiercly independent people...unwilling to compromise, forgive, apologize, admit mistakes etc etc.....not that being independent is bad...on the contrary it is great to be independent and not be influenced by society at large when it comes to certain things....but this ad - the way i see it - is about making those small changes...doing things that are quite easy when one tries just a little more....changes that do not necessarily harm the individual in any which way...changes that contribute to happiness at the end of the day....ok...screech...halt.
All thru the post i was thinking abt the Practise wat u preach..u 2 mentioned the same in the PS , tho' I can visualise the AD, and it increases the curiosity to see it - lovely narration :) which induced the curiosity more .....if the change happens in actual working environment and the ppl they love to wooo them, them ad will empower their growth !! But currently its otherwise in our system, lets c if Canara proves me wrong !! I hope all the companies does that in the coming days...thx for a good narration tho'
Yes. I second the views about cannes. the ad is really touching and good. I had reviewed it on my blog and was happy to find the echo here.
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