Typos and more: Is this the worst ever Pond's ad in India?

Normally, I ignore all cosmetic and women’s personal care products ads. I would have done so with the Pond’s ad which appeared on the front page of The Times of India yesterday as well, except for the fact that, while glancing at the headlines, I spotted a typo.

A typo in the headline certainly got my attention, especially since the typo was in the spelling of the name of their brand ambassador for the new product.

[caption id=“attachment_755485” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An image of the Ponds ad[/caption]

Navneet Kaur Dhillon is misspelt as Navneet Kaur Dhillion. Hmmm. I started reading the ad to see if this was an aberration or there was more entertainment to be had. There was.

More from Lifestyle

Is it safe to travel to Indonesia as violent protests spread? Why does South Korea still ban tattoos, and is that about to change?

One could list a hundred or so errors in the copy, but that would include quibbles, so I’ll stick to the highlights - the really bad bloomers.

1. Navneet Kaur Dhillon’s name misspelt.

2. “The Pond’s BB cream conceals spot instantly…”. Conceals a spot? Conceals spots?

3. “Talking about her relationship with the brand, she said, “My association with them is not new.” Them? I thought she was talking about a single brand, not many brands.

4. Is it Pond’s white beautyTM BB+ fairness cream or Pond’s white beautyTM BB+ Fairness cream? Should the ‘F’ be capitalised or not? Can you please decide?

5. Similarly, should CREAM be in all caps or not?

6. “This is what a woman seeks for..” Seeks for? Huh?

7. “A beauty product which can make her as fair as snow white…”. No capitals for the name, Snow White?

8. BB+ is in purple in a number of places and in black in the rest. Consistency, please.

9. One headline says “A great complement to the Pond’s face care regime:”. Where did that colon come from, please?

10. Why is instantgratification one word?

11. Can you decide on whether you are using the American moisturizer or the English moisturiser?

12. When you use bullet points, please decide whether you want a full stop at the end of each point or not. However, for God’s sake, a comma is completely unacceptable.

13. “How long does a tube lasts?” Facepalm. How long does my patience lasts?

14. Is it ‘skin care’ ‘skin-care’ or ‘skincare’?

15. One headline says “The reason for BB cream”. Below that, a balloon says “83% said they were not happy with what it does to their skin…”. What does the pronoun ‘it’ refer to? Since no other brand is mentioned, are we to presume that ‘it’ refers to BB cream?

16. “Pond’s is a global face care expert that has a presence in over fifty countries including Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Vitenam, Korea and Japan) and USA…”. Asia is a country? And if we forget that faux pas for a moment, er, Pond’s is in India as well, one thought.

I could point out many more, but I just realised that it’s not my job. It’s the job of someone at Pond’s. Can you please get on with it?

Check out the page in its entire glory here: