Abhishek Bachchan continues to give us ideas, and we’ve finally discovered Yuvraj Singh’s secret of a revitalising performance. Closer home in Chennai, the Usman Road brigade (read sarees-jewellery), no less frenzied, upped the ad frequencies to a crescendo for Diwali. The maximum ad clutter was contributed by mobile networks and FMCGs, and therein lies the challenge of creating distinctive out-of-the box advertising.

Here are the top 10 ads in order of best brand association, distinctiveness and execution.

1. Cadbury Dairy Milk– Shubh Aarambh

While we love the ad at the bus stop, we give the ‘Jeans’ one the top slot for its detailing and treatment.
Uncle encourages his self-conscious traditional wife to have an auspicious piece of ‘meetha’ (read chocolate) before she steps out of the house wearing jeans for the first time. We love the cramped middle-class apartment with pickles on the table. We love the invisible mother-in-law. Most of all, we love how perfectly cast Neena Kulkarni was, as the Aunty with plaited hair, nose-stud, mangalsutra, green bangles and bindi. Her expressions – priceless!
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Directed by Vinil Mathew of Footcandles Films

2. Coca Cola – Warli

A young boy waits at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere for a ride back home to Delhi for Diwali. He opens a Coke bottle, and wishes himself ‘Happy Diwali’. An animated firecracker bursts forth. An old Geeta Dutt song gets trendy. Animated tribal figures do a festive dance on the bottle. The figures spill out and draw the boy’s attention to a mini-bus that he had assumed had broken down. The driver gets into the bus, switches on kitschy Diwali-esque serial lights and yells, ‘Dilli.’ The bus leaves with the elated boy on it. We totally dig the song and the use of traditional Warli art in contemporary animation.
Agency : McCann Erickson
Directed by Dibakar Banerjee of Freshwater Films

3. Cadbury Celebrations – Chintu and the doorbell

Another Diwali ad, this time, to atone for social sins of the past. Mr. Joshi opens his door to find Chintu from Flat No. 15, who, as a pesky kid, used to ring his doorbell and run away. Now, when kids do the same to grown-up Chintu, he realises how annoying he must have been. He extends a peace offering – a box of chocolates. Mr. Joshi asks suspiciously if he was the kid who once gave him a chocolate box filled with firecrackers. Chintu sheepishly says that this time, it’s ‘meetha’. When he hugs Mr. Joshi and wishes him Happy Diwali, a smile lights up Mr. Joshi’s face.
Sumeet Raghavan is very ‘Chintu’ and Vinod Nagpal of ‘Hum Log’ fame is perfect as the harassed Mr. Joshi.
Agency: Contract
Directed by Vinil Mathew for Footcandles Films

4. Limca Summer – Neighbour

A breezy song plays as Hrishitaa Bhatt’s cute neighbour sips Limca to magically convert everything she touches to a splash. The pranks escalate until she is completely drenched and he runs out of Limca. Now it’s her turn to walk across to his place, sip Limca and get even by turning his bike into one big splash. There’s mischief, there’s romance and Caralisa Monteiro’s voice playing in your head long after the ad is over.
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Directed by Vinil Mathew for Footcandles Films

5. Vodafone Delights

Promoting Vodafone’s exclusive discounts and deals for its subscribers, are two school girls. One makes the other feel special by doing little things like giving her more chocolates than others, giving her a ride home on her bicycle and reserving a seat for her at a school gathering. The girls are natural performers and along with the song and the lyrics, bring the commercial alive. This B&W series has a nostalgic quality, perhaps to remind us of that one friend in school (Hint: like Vodafone) who made us feel special.
Agency : Ogilvy & Mather
Directed by Prakash Varma for Nirvana Films

6. Mirinda -Asin and Speed Sangar

This one will score high on recall value in Chennai and will warm the cockles of every autorickshaw passenger’s heart. Speed Sangar, an arrogant auto driver refuses to return change that’s due to Asin. The polite Asin takes a sip of Mirinda and turns into galatta-girl. She asks Sangar to start the auto and takes him on a wild goose chase all around Chennai, finally returning to the place they set out from. When he asks for a thousand bucks, she says, ‘I got in here, and I got out here –you want to get paid?’ Atta girl, Asin!
Agency: JWT
Directed by Rajesh Krishnan for Soda Films

7. Asian Paints – Brothers

A series of ads where big brother whines about how he no longer has a role to play in little brother’s life. He laments that Chotu has become quite the design expert, decorating his house stylishly. Chotu denies this, and says that it’s really easy to simply log on to the Asian Paints website to select colours. But Bhaiyya goes on, hurt that his little brother has become independent and his advice is not sought for anything. This insight into Indian families where elders’ advice is sought for every little decision, forms a humorous backdrop for conveying the website’s features.
Agency : Ogilvy & Mather
Directed by Prasoon Pandey for Corcoise Films

8. Idea – Language No Bar

Abhishek Bachchan plays as a speech-impaired tea vendor who has an ‘Idea’ to solve the problem of four tea-stall regulars transferred to places where they can’t speak the local language. Faced with a mob of language-proud Maharashtrians at a railway station, the Hariyanvi calls his Marathi friend and learns to ask for the toilet in Marathi. The Bengali goes to Kerala and manages to get a room on rent on the basis of a thick Malayali accent. The Maharashtrian sings in Bengali to get a seat on a tram in Kolkata. The Malayali learns the right way to say “Ram Ram Tau” in Haryanvi. And we learn how useful Bluetooth (and friends, and Abhishek Bachchan, and Idea Cellular) can be in a multi-cultural society like ours.
Agency: Lowe Lintas
Directed by Amit Sharma for Chrome Pictures

9. Airtel – 3G

If there’s something that young lovers wish would never occur, it’s separation. And if there’s anything that video call receivers wish would never occur, it’s buffering. To showcase the quality of video calls via Internet on 3G, Airtel uses an endless loop of lovers’ meeting and parting over and over again.
The other ad – the 3G Live Entertainment one – has A.R. Rahman’s uber-cool composition picturised on a street performer following a young woman everywhere. She walks away, but her eyes are still riveted by his moves, he finally accompanies her. The camera pans out to show different people on the street accompanied by performers.
Agency: JWT
Directed by Philippe Andre for Independent Films Ltd

10. Vodafone BlackBerry boys

Five stuffy-suited postpaid types dance in sync, calling themselves the BlackBerry Boys, when suddenly, some very obvious non-corporate pre-paid types dance into the frame singing about cool additional features in the BlackBerry. The ad ends with the ‘suits’ lost in a crowd of ‘non-suits’. As creatives go, this ad isn’t up there with the greats. But it efficiently redefines BlackBerry as a brand not only for male corporate executives but for everybody.
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Directed by Prakash Varma for Nirvana Films
And for sheer advertising effectiveness, we would like to nominate the Chennai Super Kings’ 2010 Whistle Podu ad to this list! All that whistling worked, eh? 

An edited version appeared in TAXI’s January 2011 Issue