Ad review | ‘It’s fine to break the rules ...but let’s start with an idea’
Ad review | ‘It’s fine to break the rules ...but let’s start with an idea’
Spot: The ibibo “bomb" ad. A bomb is found, and an expert from the bomb defusing squad is at work. As time runs out, he calls his senior on the radio to find out if he should cut the red wire or the green. There’s no answer. For, on the other side, is a “balti" (bucket) in place of a person.
The voice-over says, “Kuch log balti hote hain, aur balti nahin deti jawaab. So don’t be a balti. Log on to ibibo.com for answers to all your sawaals. Now" (some people are buckets, and buckets do not respond to queries).
Why I don’t like it:
But, then, I thought what the hell? What is the idea? If advertising was to just create some random stuff, buy a lot of airtime (hours and hours of it) and expect the weirdness of it to stick out oddly and work, then to hell with advertising. It’s fine to break the rules, but let’s stick to the basics. Let’s always start with an idea.
How I would have done it:
Probably, ibibo could have taken a higher ground about the question and answer thing. Probably, they should have encouraged people to question things. And the idea could have been “question everything" and find answers.
But, definitely, I would have started out by thinking.
As told to Gouri Shah
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