I don’t think you can ever quit advertising 100%. Once you have lived in that world, you will always look at any campaign with a scrutiny worthy of an art critic. You will look at a great campaign from the perspective of a proud parent and check if others noticed it as well. Similarly, a bad campaign will make you cringe and roll your eyes in the same way you would when someone you know does something embarrassing. So although I am not into conventional advertising anymore, new campaigns are not lost on me. Here are some hits and misses.

BRAND: Peek Freans Sooper Biscuits

Campaign: Sooper hai zindagi
Message: Life is super with Sooper biscuits.
Effectiveness: I heard this commercial before I saw it on TV and I was convinced someone was ‘spoofing’ the popular Indian film song Batameez dil from the film Ye Jawani Hai Deewani. When I finally caught on that it was a Sooper campaign, I had one of those ‘I give up throw-my-hands-up-in-frustration’ reactions. The rights to the Bollywood song have apparently been ethically acquired, but maybe the client or agency should have invested their energies and the funds in developing a real concept rather than another slice of life ad with people smooching biscuits. Seriously, who eats biscuits like that?
Verdict: At least everyone is talking about it. Who cares if it’s negative? Badnaam hongay toh kiya naam na ho ga?

BRAND: Tapal and Lipton

Campaign: The playground fight (I made that up)
Message: ‘Our tea is better’ ‘No! Ours is!’
Effectiveness: Although the recent TV commercials from both brands are worthy of individual critique, the fact that they allowed themselves to be caught up in a ridiculously hilarious battle essentially saying the same thing, it makes sense to take them on together. It started with Tapal Danedar doing a heavily branded and predictable taste-test format commercial where (shocker!) people blindly picked Tapal Danedar as the better tea. Lipton fought back with a not-heavily-branded, but ridiculously disguised and heavily Lipton coloured art directed counter ad, where a young woman taste tested and picks Lipton as the better tea. And then a creepy disguised guy with an obvious fake beard reveals himself to be a swoony celeb. Both ads have made anyone associated with advertising sad – and embarrassed.
Verdict: Everything happens for a reason. So if these two ridiculous ads had not presented themselves, we would never have seen all the hilarious online posts brands quickly churned out in a show of fantastic topical advertising.

BRAND: Sprite

Campaign: Mirchi ka tarka
Message: Same old Sprite commercials.
Effectiveness: Sprite almost did something fun and different this time. They engaged two heartthrobs, Ali Zafar and Sidharth Malhotra, from both sides of the border and created a fun and effective teaser campaign on social media that had followers believing that the duo were bantering about Ali Zafar inviting Sidharth over to Lahore for dinner. They traded playful tweets and Instagram videos and had fans going crazy over their exchanges. Yet, what it led to was another template Sprite film, same street scene, same masala flying through the air and Sprite consumption followed by screams. Watch the commercial and you will not be able to tell it apart from the last three or four Sprite has churned out – were it not for the two celebrities.
Verdict: All that stood out was the ‘OMG Bollywood Star’ factor and I am pretty sure the only ‘creativity’ involved in this film was how to manage budgets and travel logistics. There was no scene of Lahore, the city the campaign was based around. I get that the visa drama would not have made it easy, but if you are going to cheat, make a little more effort.

BRAND: Cadbury Dairy Milk

Campaign: Marvellous Creations chocolate range
Message: Cadbury Dairy Milk just got more exciting.
Effectiveness: Cadbury’s commercial shows a family walking into a shop that looks like the lace and button ones we have all been to with our moms, where the jars are full of colourful buttons and bits. Here, however, we find jellybeans, popping candy and other stuff one would never have been able to credit Cadbury with being adventurous enough to try. But they did. And the range, if anything, has us all intrigued!
Verdict: A good way to refresh the brand. I will admit that I am curious to try it.

BRAND: Cornetto

Campaign: Let Cornetto be your Cupid.
Message: Take a chance on love!
Effectiveness: So Cornetto is offering to make dreams come true for lovers through their website www.cornettocupidity.pk and to promote this they produced an absolutely adorable and seriously relatable six minute short about two young lovers in a long distance relationship. With the right casting (a not fair and perfectly blow dried haired heroine and a likeable shy guy) and relevant insights, they managed to create something that was shared with me by at least three friends because it had a happy feel good quality. It has no tragic pauses, no other woman, no illegitimate children or melodramatic partings – a standard formula for local love story productions. This commercial is a hit because it feels so real (or at least it will to a certain segment of society). Well okay – until the private jet comes into the frame. But I’m hoping that is one of the prizes on offer.
Verdict: Adorable; it’s like watching a friend’s love life happily unfold.

Khizra Munir is CEO, CoPakistan. munir.khizra@gmail.com