Faking it

Ha! You thought I was going to write an article full of sexual innuendo and double entendres. I was, but between you and me, there is this pesky lawsuit... just a matter of weeks, now.

Anyway, I have been mind-fucked by Indian TV. Specifically, I have to admit that the commercials on TV are in a class of their own. There is this excellent one for LMN, which, given the very Indian nature of the product, is almost certainly produced domestically. Then there are the series of ads for Polo, including this one and this one, featuring animals and creativity. Best not to watch if you are vegan. Then there is this terrific one, a testament to the Indian spirit to make fun of itself - once in a while. There is another great one with a dancing grandma and her blackmailing grandson (thanks "Oana"). Anyway, in this first part of the article, I salute the creative ad men and women, and perhaps marketing professionals in general. But they are still evil! 

Unfortunately, while many ads in India abound with creativity, with and lots of tongue-in-cheek humor, almost anything with India's faux aristocracy - Bollywood actors and cricketers - sucks. I reserve comment, but here are a few: a biscuit ad, a cable TV ad (I think) and this annoying jewelry ad. And walking around a Food Bazaar - for research purposes, during work hours - I found a new toothpaste called Sach! It has famous cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's face plastered all over it. This asshole has been playing cricket since before I knew how the penis worked. A billion + people and one man takes up 9% of its cricketing capacity for 20+ years. He has a gazillion dollars and is vending toothpaste for 20 rupees a pop. And ad men are prostituting themselves for anything with a "star" in it.