So here’s the thing. Having spent decades as a creative and then moving to the other side of the table on the brand side, perspectives may have changed but the truth hasn’t. The ad break remains my favourite part of content watching, a great idea continues to inspire and a boring one still makes me want to whack the team for embracing mediocrity.

BRAND: QMobile

Campaign: QMobile is the choice of the new generation

Message: Kohl for it! Oh man! Those eyes obliterated all else. I can only hazard a guess at what could have led to such a stylistic nightmare. Like all big spenders, QMobile bagged a big name – in this case Atif Aslam – to endorse the brand. Then came the unenviable task of creating an idea around him. This led the team to create a vaguely Jekyll and Hyde-ish storyline, which sees our celebrity flitting between two avatars; the city slicker Atif Aslam and his alter ego – a modern day Che. These personas keep walking, talking, frowning and holding up phones, as a pacy jingle sung by guess who, plays on. The walk/talk/strut/frown/ continues until Atif waxes eloquent about QMobile. That’s pretty much it. The ad is one of many which pop up and then disappear from our consciousness. But it is Avatar Che’s eyes that come back to haunt me.

Verdict: Falls short of being forgettable on the Richter scale – only because of the kohl.

BRAND: Kake

Campaign: A new coconut and milk flavoured mini cake launch

Message: Olper’s meets Cadbury to create a me-too called Kake.

Team Kake seems to have decided that inspiration is the best form of flattery, which is why their copy is an ode to the idea of ‘Kuch meetha ho jaey’ and the visual speak of Olper’s. I mean that both literally and figuratively. Not only do we have a replica of the ‘choose a modern day dessert instead of the traditional one’ idea, we also have colour coding, which in all probability was inspired by their packaging, but ends up reminding me of the famous chocolate brand. The only distinguishing feature is that with Kake, the standards of production and cinematography fall short by several hundred metres. Layer that with vignettes from every Olper’s Ramzan copy made, sprinkle some average sound design and mediocre product shots and voila! An ad that reminds you of not one brand but two! And neither one goes by the name of Kake.

Verdict: Too much inspiration leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Team Kake – lazy much?

BRAND: Servis

Campaign: Servis Shoes for Everyone

Message: It’s Eid. Please go buy Servis shoes.

From shiny happy kids running back to school or bangled bajis shopping for Eid, most shoe campaigns did not deviate from the tried and tested. Until Servis broke the clutter. A groovy track, engaging lyrics, clean production design, a zing of Servis red and some fun characterisation – the ‘everyone’ in Servis Shoes for Everyone kept those 30 seconds far from boring. Yes I have managed to review this ad so far without mentioning Fawad Khan, but team Servis I bet it’s a delight to be on-air during the Khoobsurat frenzy.

Verdict: Enjoyable. But they do need to refresh the copy.

BRAND: Habib Cooking Oils

Campaign: Habib Oil has v5 technology that keeps those arteries running smoothly

Message: I like this one! The V5 whatchamacallit does stuff that keeps the arteries running smoothly.

I like the fact that the analogy of smooth roads that keep the traffic flowing with arteries that are unclogged and keep the quality of life smooth, has been used consistently. Yes, we have the category clichés – produce sliding into pans bubbling with oil, the daal ka tarka, the tasting of food with eyes closed and then the opening of said eyes at the epicurean delight just savoured. But give me an ad that has a distinct idea and a clear hook and I will forgive you a cliché or two.

Verdict: You have something good and you are smart enough to stick with it.
Good going Habib!

BRAND: EveryDay

Campaign: Chai chahay koi bhi ho, khaas banayay Nestlé EveryDay

Message: Clear and simple and consistent with the brand’s claim of making every cup of tea special. To make the khaas bond even more special, real life couple Khalid Anam and Tehmina Khalid have been brought in. The story revolves around a typical tea drinking moment where the husband doesn’t enjoy his cup of tea and the wife blames the brand of tea, until the blue fairy (aka brand ambassador Mahnoor) waves her magic wand and says it doesn’t matter what brand you drink as long as you use EveryDay. But this communication doesn’t have those tons of warmth I have seen in a tum may hai kuch khaas. That je ne sais quoi is missing. Could it be that the blue fairy looks so plastic (no pun intended), or that the wife seems to be more of a ‘if you don’t like it why don’t you go make it yourself’ type!? An extremely forgettable soundtrack doesn’t help either.

Verdict: Bring back the warmth, EveryDay! This offering left me cold.

Farahnaz Haider Shaikh was ECD at a multinational ad agency and is currently GM Marketing, ZIL Limited.
farahnaz.shaikh@zil.com.pk