While I was in India, this HDFC commercial kept playing on the tv. I will reproduce it for you in case you haven't seen it.
An old man is about to step from a train onto the railway platform. His son extends his hand in order to help him disembark. The old man frowns at him. The son, chastised, draws back. The old man steps off the train on his own. He maintains his dignity.
Background : "Na sar jukha hai kabhi aur na jukhayenge kabhi"
Now the old guy's wife tries to step off the train. The old guy lends her his hand. She frowns in turn. The old guy is chastised and takes back his hand. His wife steps off on her own. She maintains her dignity.
A little boy is playing on the platform, probably the old guy's grandson. He falls down. The old guy is about to run and pick him up. His son frowns at his father, saying no. The old guy is chastised. Little boy stands up on his own. He maintains his dignity.
Everyone walks to the parking lot. Old guy is about to cross the street. A car comes careening by. The son is about to pull the old guy back in order to save him from being run over. His mother frowns at him. The son, chastised, lets his father walk on. The car runs over the old guy. He maintains his dignity.
The old guy is hurt and bleeding. He tries to get up. His wife puts forth her hand to help him off the road. His son frowns at her. She pulls back, chastised. The old guy falls back onto the road. The old guy maintains his dignity.
A crowd gathers. Someone calls the ambulance. Paramedics are about to help the old guy onto a stretcher. The old guy frowns at them. They cease and desist. The old guy crawls onto the stretcher by himself, moaning in pain and leaving a trail of blood behind him. The old guy maintains his dignity.
He is then taken to the hospital. A doctor gets ready to operate on him. He is about to begin the surgery. Both the son and his mother frown at him. The doctor withdraws from the operating table, chastised. The old guy tries to operate on himself, using a mirror. While cutting open his stomach with a scalpel, he slices through his heart by mistake. Blood shoots through the air. He dies. He maintains his dignity.
Voiceover : "We value your self respect almost as much as your life. HDFC Standard Life Insurance. Respect yourself. And buy our life insurance. 'Cause respecting yourself almost certainly means you are gonna die early"
16 comments:
I like your site, you are a good writer.
you are an idiot
I think I like randolph more than I like zambezi.
Yeah, that ad is terrible. There's also the other one where this kid is on stage and forgets her lines. Her dad steps out to the aisle and does comical dumb charades with flailing hands and moving lips, and suddenly she remembers her lines and does the rest of her number. Which, unsurprisingly, is "Na sar jhuka hai kabhi aur na jhukaayenge kabhi..."
So, you have a dad making an absolute fool of himself doing nutty actions in a crowded school auditorium's aisle. The other end is the ad you mention, about dignity and letting them slip and fall and rise to the occasion like the "Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? No it's a self healed HDFC Life Insured person!"
Do they want us to slip and fall and rise and die and all that? Or do they want us, as 8 year olds, to see our fathers doing monkey antics in the aisle, thereby rendering us unto a long era of snickering through our schooling?
They must make up their mind.
I think the next ad will have Mallika Sherawat, and we'll have the real deal. Buy Life Insurance, because we can pay for ads having women with big tits.
witty work, even i found the advt. a bit odd & i feel u are the extension of everyones humorous side.
I am so glad someone took the ad apart. I HATED that family, the overcute kid, the designer granddad and the significant glances they kept exchanging.
Yes, I need therapy. But this helps for the time being
Let me guess - this is your non-political shredding site.
You know you're twisted, don't you? I should have linked to BOTH your blogs. Drat.
J.A.P.
Thank you thank you all
JAP : Yeah, earlier I used to cram both life and politics into the same blog, but it kinda got weird, so I just got a new blog.
life is better than politics, methinks...:)
Heh! You totally killed that one. But at least its better than ICICI Bank with its SRK hangover going, 'Hum hai na!'
As someone who is closely involved in the process of creating advertising, I am saddened by such categorical dismissal of consumer insight! :)
Oh and I am this lurker person in your Blog, is cool! (teh Blog that is)
vague : I agree. Although politics is easier to make fun of.
primalsoup : Thank you. As to advertizing, one either has the talent to do it, or one can criticize. I criticize.
Hilarious... so how's the State Bank of India ad about the two old sisters then..
Omigod. That was BRILLIANT! I am an ad professional from India myself, and have just made fun of this ad myself...was researching a bit for it--and it led me to your blog on the same subject. I just died laughing. Will send you my own spoof on this too when it is done!! (it's about how this ad drove us bananas at the recent world cup final...)
Indu
(indubee8@yahoo.co.in)
Great take!
yoo... bookmarked style.
super original
Post a Comment