Thursday, June 15, 2006

Express YourSelf!!!

Airtel’s tagline- EXPRESS YOURSELF is extremely well potrayed in all its ads. Their ads have truly matured to be at the level of platinum brilliance. Like all big firms, earlier Airtel ads used to focus on superstar. That was the herd mentality. Catch on a superstar’s popularity to sell yourself- it was spineless.

From Dil Ki Baat ad things have totally changed. While superstars still endorse Airtel, the focus have shifted to vibrating the innermost core of a viewer’s heart. In the Dil ki Baat commercial what worked like majic was the background narrations and apt models playing out a well planned scene. It was the first ad in the series which had no mention of the product itself. Everything was cute there: a little girl playing with a poorer girl, an old couple watching a young couple, a teacher ineracting flawlessly with her deaf student and finally a girl practicing gymnastics. Each clip by itself was satisfying.

That satisfaction has been carried several notches higher in this particular ad. The ad simply plays on the emotions. The motto is once again to ring the emotional bells of we sentimental Indians and it suceeds once again. This time we are shown a series of clips with a different narration for each. We see Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar, Dalai Lama, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, an old nun and Berlin Wall collapse. Each clip is an actual video of a moment that altered our history. The taglines with each clip are deeply touching. Sample this:
Churchill- Two can win a war
Sachin-One finger can break a billion hearts
King- One dream can change the world
Khan- Some can dissolve boundries
Lama-One whisper can inspire hope
Lata- One voice can move a nation
Berlin Wall collapse- One act of defiance can spark a revolution

At the end of it we hear the signature A R Rehman Airtel tune and many candles coming together to form a giant sign of peace. The final tagline is: That is the power of Human Expressions. It is so true. Expressions, open and subtle can change our lives forever. Airtel sells itself here via the tagline, not the product. Kudos to this gem of an ad!!