 "The best TVCs of 2012")
As we come to the end of 2012, it’s time to take stock of the most entertaining TV commercials of the year.
Without a doubt, The Hindu TVC walks away with the honours.
[caption id=“attachment_570335” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Screengrab from the Hindu advertisement. Image courtesy: YouTube[/caption]
“Today, we’ll have a political discussion on the Rural Development Bill. Those on my left will speak in favour of the motion and those on my right will speak against it and I want proper parliamentary behaviour. So let’s start,” says the lecturer to a classroom full of students in a television commercial for_The Hindu_.
See the rest of the commercial here:
If The Hindu is in a zone of it’s own, here is a dekko at the top ten (and this is not a ranking, this is a listing of commercials that consumers and industry professionals seem to have found a connect to) other than The Hindu.
Still with newspapers - and it’s fitting that this is made by The Hindu’s biggest competitor, The Times of India, in a southern market. Here’s ‘A day in the life of Kerala’. How can someone from Kerala not like it? How can someone from outside Kerala not be enchanted?
This was a toss up. The Tanishq diwali ad or the 10th anniversary one? I plumped for the Diwali one. It’s soft, it’s natural, it’s got a delightful twist and makes you smile.
Vodafone’s ’tailor made’ commercial tells us precisely how difficult the mobile services category is. A great film which shows us, entertainingly, that each consumer has different needs and wants. Can the product deliver? That’s another story - and let’s forget that one. Bask in the film. Sit back. Watch. Smile.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThere are two TVCs I include because they build so beautifully on the investments that the brand has made in the past. The first is Nike’s parallel lives, which is so reminiscent of Nike’s cricket based communication of thee past in India.
The other is Airtel’s Jo tera hai woh mera hai. Lovely casting, great feel-good, clear focus on their target audience in look and feel. Here you go.
Cadbury’s ‘No umar for’ gets my vote. How do you maximise sales beyond what was a narrow defined audience? Change the definition - that’s what these commercials do.
Why does this get my vote? Because it works, and it’s captured popular imagination. How does it matter if I want to throw something at the TV whenever it airs, when everyone in India, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, seems to love it? Here’s Hunny Bunny.
And while on Kashmir, let’s see what Visa found there. They figured they could change the lives of people, all with the convenience of swiping a debit card.
When you make a brand into a verb, that’s huge. Are people shopping online or Flipkarting it? The e commerce brands hopes that you will, over time, say you’ll Flipkart it, not shop online. As always, the Flipkart story is told disruptively and entertainingly.
And finally, the IPL ad. I’ve never been a great fan of the IPL, because it’s a tamasha, a carnival, a circus. It’s not cricket. And that’s what this commercial says - and it says it so well.
Tell us in the comments which of these was your favourite commercial for this year.
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 "Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House")
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