By Anil Thakraney
An extremely boring campaign from Voltas for their aircons. They’ve created this brand mascot called Mr Murthy. He’s been around for some time now. In each ad, the chap talks into camera making a pitch for Voltas. I’ll be very frank out here: I have no bloody idea what the man says, and I am not even interested. And no, that’s not because I am not looking to buy an air conditioner.
The reason is simple: Pathetic, intolerable advertising. It’s all very well to appoint a brand ambassador (and to Voltas’s credit, at least they didn’t sign up the maha tired Shri Amitabh Bachchan). But you have to make sure that the individual is appealing, happening, charming, funny, adorable, memorable… am sure you know the criteria. He can’t be a man who has zero charisma, zero humour (and yet tries to be funny) and zero personality. This ad is bound to crash; as David Ogilvy said a long time ago, no one buys from boring people. And if this isn’t sad enough, Voltas has made this big bore belt out a brand window too! Grr.
I have two reflex reactions each time Murthy comes on air (which is way too often): One, to smash the TV set. Two, to grab the remote control. Thankfully, the Sindhi in me makes me opt for the latter. 🙂
Rating: (On a scale of 1-5): 0. Dunno if the A/C cools, but the ad leaves me heated up.
Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views of the writer are his own.