The latest Indian advertisements that clicked with me-2010

With the mushrooming of TV channels and even the unheard products trying Television advertising, it has become difficult for the consumers to decide what ads to pay attention to and what to ignore. This also leads some good ads to be overlooked due to uncontrolled exposure of the consumers to ads. But every now and then, there comes along an advertisement which freezes the consumers' attention. These ads are the work of creative geniuses and demonstrate that it is not necessary for an ad to be big in terms of money. Sometimes even the ads created with a small budget can do the job. Here is a list of some ads that came to my notice recently:

1) Cadbury Chocolate- Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye
The first ad in their new series was that of a girl sitting on a bus stop and a guy coming up to her and asking for a bite from her chocolate. She says why should she do this favor to a stranger, then the boy replies that her mother advised him to eat something sweet before going to do an auspicious work. The girls gives him a bite and asks what auspicious work is he going to do. The boy replies with a smile 'I was thinking to drive you home'. The girl gets impressed and they exchange smiles.
The reasons why this ad seems to click is-

• The main characters in the ad are fresh faces, relating to common people.
• The ad targets the teen/youth crowd as the main characters look in late teens.
• The chosen faces have an innocent look, not making them look haughty and over-smart.
• The background music is very appropriate.
• The idea of the boy asking a girl out is innovative. All credit to the script writer.
• The length of the ad is optimum. It does not have an abrupt ending, and it does not stretch longer.
• Instead of relating the 'festive' spirit with their chocolate(like sometime back), Cadbury decided to replay the 'romantic' factor. That works well with youth crowd.

2. Ceat Tyres- The streets are filled with idiots
There are multiple ads under this campaign, but the one which grabs most eyeballs is the one where a moronic dad is talking on phone and walking his baby in a pram. He is blatantly walking on the wrong side of the road and it's the people, who are in right direction, are avoiding a collision with him. The man is so busy talking on the phone that he abruptly takes a turn on a very busy highway and starts crossing the road. But suddenly an unaware biker stops just short of a collision. The biker is scared to death and checks if the baby is okay. The dad, who had taken a stupidly wrong turn and was still talking on the phone, gives a dirty look to the biker and asks him in an authoritative tone 'Abey, andha hai kya?(Hey, are you blind)'. The biker is so shocked that he can't say a word.
A voice in the background says 'The streets are filled with idiots'. They suggest that you use Ceat tyres to keep yourself away from a trouble of encounter with such idiots. The biker's Ceat Tyres saved him, the dad and the baby by immediately braking, demonstrating their firm grip. Ceat is back after a ling hiatus and have come out with some cool ideas.

3. Idea Telephony- No Idea.. Get Idea
This campaign is a series of some very short ads. Each ad shows a customer of some other service provider irritated with the high bills, customer care or bad signal. Abhishek Bachhan(the brand ambassador of Idea) is with each of these frustrated customers. He asks them a question related to the bad service of their provider. The customer replies 'No Idea'. That is when Abhishek, with his poker face says 'Get Idea' and moves on. The ads may be short, but are innovative. But I doubt if they have anything to add to this, because after a point, they might become plain boring. It is to be noted that the former 'What an idea sirjee' ads were also well received.

4. Mc Donalds- Be quick, or Be Sorry
Now this series is very funny. They have the right central character who just fits the role. The first ad starts with the main character trying to practice grabbing things in a fraction of second. He does it everywhere, at office, at home and in his bus. People around give him weird looks due to his lunatic behavior.
Next scene shows him along with his 3 friends sitting in Mc Donalds and there is one last Mc Nugget in the tray. Each one plans to pick it, but the practice of our main character shows and he grabs it(and puts it in mouth) before other of his friends . The background voice says 'Be quick, or be sorry'.
The ad is catchy and the sounds the main character makes(as if he is in a kungfu fight).

These are all for now as I can't remember of more and I am feeling sleepy :p

The fatal CAT, and the attack of Prometric

Well, if you reached this place through a search engine, it is clear you understand the Title of this article and you have a slight idea of what this is about.
To those, who do not know what I am talking about, let me clear the mist. CAT(Common Admission Test) is one of the biggest exam in India for admissions to Top B-Schools. It is considered as one of the toughest exams. Originally being a paper-pencil test, it went online(Computer Based) this year. And the company which was awarded the contract to conduct the exam is Prometric.
The exam turned out to be a disaster this year and attracted a lot of controversy and wrath of the aspirants. There were cases of computer shut-downs, technical glitches, mass-cheating, people getting unfair advantage and leaking of questions(Well, that's not a big deal.. is it :p) The convenors of this exam refused to hold a retest, setting up an example of dictatorship in a democratic country.
The results which were scheduled to be out by 22 January 2010 are still not out by 15 February 2010. But the test left many heart-broken, many undeserving might get into top B-Schools.

Another consequence, Prometric is labeled as a big dud. This company attracted so much of negative publicity that it has become synonymous with failing things. Check out this real life joke which came out of two guys' conversation:

Guy1: Hey, I don't know what is wrong with my watch. It isn't working... Guy2: Why ? Did you get it made from Prometric ? HA HA HEE HEE HA HA... Guy1: I said it is not working. I didn't say it NEVER worked... HA HA HA HA

Well, the 'HA HA HEE HEE...' part was a bit exaggerated. But, this is a common joke among those people who think that CAT 2009 made a joke of them.

I am not an academician. Nor am I a CAT aspirant. But I keep my eyes and ears open. I usually talk about technology, internet and related stuff. But I keep an eye on what is happening around. But since this was about an online test, I got into more of it.
I know people who were confident of getting in IIMs(Top B-Schools in India), but now don't even expect a single call. I also know people who managed to attempt the whole paper by cheating or other unfair means, and are now sitting confident of landing up in a good B-School.
But that's how life is, and one has to go through these hard times sometime in life. But the one who remains unmoved is the one who is really successful.

I need Windows 7 asap. Vista sucks !

I know many people might be sharing the same opinion with me here- Windows Vista Sucks !!
When I upgraded from Windows XP to Vista, I liked the new glossy, cool feel of the new OS. It was easy, the animations were smooth and I almost took my 'hats off' for microsoft, yet again.
Just then did Vista start revealing its true colors(i know it sounds dramatic, but whatever).

Vista eats up your RAM like dog eats up a piece of meat...(well, the analogy didn't quite fit here :p, but you know what I mean..)
And then appeared the legendary 'Windows Explorer will have to shutdown' problem !! Damn, it is one of the most irritating things I have seen(after Lil Wayne's last music video :p).. The system keeps crashing. The startup applications keep crashing. You cant do a thing. I tried all the remedies offered on the internet. I even removed my antivirus. But no ! Vista is a tough act !

So, I finally decided to switch to Windows 7. It is cooler, uses less resources, and is more stable.
Now, i was confused, which one to get.. X86 or X64. Then I found out that X86 was for 32 bit processors and X64 was for 64 bit processors(who came up with these misnomers :D)
I needed X86. So, ordered it yesterday. Cant wait to upgrade and get rid of this Vista shit :|

Well, that's all for now.

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Google's way to take over facebook- Google Buzz

There was a lot of hype surrounding Google Buzz even before it was launched.
Things were heating up at Silicon Valley. Google has been seeing a decline in number of gmail users. Reason ? Facebook. People are getting addicted to facebook and are spending more and more time there. They prefer to contact their friends directly, reducing email usage.

In an attempt to resurrect, Google launched its latest product- Google Buzz.

I open gmail today and I find this 'test google buzz' banner. I check it out, and I find the most, visually unappealing social utility in the world. It looks like an amalgamation of facebook, twitter and flicker... you can follow others' activity stream, update status, share media. And not to forget *LIKE* others' stuff :D

Google seems to have performed an incomplete market check. They forget that the prime reason of facebook's shooting popularity is the third party applications.
To challenge that, Google really has to come up with something out of the box.

My verdict: After Google Wave, Buzz is another dud. But if it strikes a chord with people, it can pose a serious threat to Facebook's current monopoly.