04 March,2011 08:14 AM IST | | Prahlad Nanjappa
It's just getting very, very monotonous. From the usual 300 or so endorsements that the boys in blue appear in, every single ad on television now has a cricketing cue to it. Even for people like me, who couldn't care a damn for cricket, we know there's something big going on.
Those rather silly Pepsi commercials are all over the place, with various shots dredged up from rather boring inspirations. So we have Mahi threshing the water well, we have another guy learning how to drink a can of cola, and we have a third for some strange reason flipping a pallu (that he is wearing) in a sari store.u00a0The only thing that saves these commercials is the halfway-to-decent music score in the background.
The Lays commercials have Saif and Dhoni mouthing bad rhymes and choosing flavours with screaming fans cheering on their favourites (now really, if anyone ever got that finicky about a wafer flavour ufffd!). Every time it comes on air ufffd and the times are too frequent for comfort ufffd I lunge for the remote in self defence. If Lays was ever my favourite snack, this commercial has definitely made me lose my appetite for them.u00a0
Those downright irritating Tata Sky ads are the next on my list to get banned permanently from public consciousness. Bhai Babloo and his asinine umpire on the field need to get a serious makeover from the brain dead marketing and advertising rooms they originated from.
Virat now advertises fairness cream. Virat endorses sportswear brands. You see Virat taking off his shirt for a campaign for team jerseys. And you catch the rest of them appearing in everything from shaving cream ads to car commercials to food ads. All in all, it's good to be a cricketer these days.
And for those companies, who couldn't afford to pay cricketers ufffd or in these 'shoot happy times' couldn't get dates with the blue boys, it's still mandatory to have cricket tied into the script.
So we have a matrimony site where the girl coyly accepts only cricketers' pictures. We have an anti-pimple cream where the girl sails through office and clean bowls the guys. We have a car where the owner gives out rides to aspiring cricketers.
For the last two months, the scenes in boardrooms have been rather the same:u00a0 as marketers tell their agencies to go back to the drawing board and return only when they've figured out something that can connect with the Indian fan's pulse.
The rare few commercials that don't have a cricket connect stand out just by their refreshing non-World Cupness. Unfortunately however, the guys at Amul Macho decided not to get onto the cricket bandwagon.
What is that stupid commercial with Saif being rather retarded, about?u00a0
