Advertisements

again, this post has been in my drafts for more than 3 days. i usually don't really pay attention to ads, be it on tv or radio, but some ads just tend to stand out... one particular radio ad induced me to blog about advertisements, however the inducement was not of a "wow, that's so cool!" nature... however since i've decided to blog about ads, i might as well talk about the ones which i find nice.

recently there's been a series of maxis ads on tv (well, astro at least... i don't usually get to watch national tv anymore) promoting the use of internet on mobile devices. the ads were very simple-looking (minimalist) using hand illustrations on white paper and moving these pieces of papers around in a timely fashion according to the narration. the storyline was about the convenience of using facebook and skype on your mobile... i really like those ads because although they were very basic (no fancy animation or what-so-ever), it stood out and had it's own originality.



digi has also had some interesting ad campaigns. like the "thetruthaboutprepaid.com" stunt that they pulled off some time ago... or the 'smile' thing they did not too long ago (can't remember what it was about, but they gave out tonnes of stickers and car stickers (which i saw pasted on many cars) with a short phrase and a smile... i normally don't go checking out websites which are mentioned in ads (unless i have an interest in the product they're selling) but after a few weeks of seeing "thetruthaboutprepaid.com" plastered everywhere (even on friendster), i finally succumbed to it and visited the website... so you can see the effectiveness of the publicity stunt! i think i read somewhere that the company hired by digi for that particular campaign won some international award for it... to me, those digi ads weren't visually 'stunning' but the idea/concept of it all was captivating!

petronas too have had some interesting ads, especially during the festive seasons. and usually their ads are really long and highly produced... so you can actually imagine how much money goes into their ads... of the petronas ads that i can remember bits and pieces of, i think that they mostly have asian-based (or malaysian-based, to be more accurate) themes. however sometimes, you can't really grasp the message they're trying to convey although the ad is fetching... perhaps its just meant to entertain or act as some sort of community message?

the HP ads are also very chic, the ones with serena williams, michael gondry and vera wang (i only recall watching these three)... really nice idea about the colourful miniature sets and hand gestures amidst narration... i think the campaign was about making the notebook personal... their print ads are also very colourful and attractive







one radio ad which i found to be quite good was the BSN song... cool tune with good singing voice although i was initially shocked when i found out that it was a BSN ad... being so used to those "stuck in the 80's" sort of ads usually chartered by these sort of companies... (maybe i'm just being stereotype...) but i see it as a good effort in modernizing their image!

the one radio ad that i really detest happens to be the series of gintell ads!!! i just can't help feeling that these ads are so annoying! (maybe to other people, they're cute?) i find the supposedly "cute fat cells" voices constipated and shrill... and there was one ad with a song... the recording (OMG!) was so amateurish (sounded like LK's early recordings using the gold Toshiba karaoke mic and the tape deck recording function of his Kenwood mini-compo... but of course today LK has advanced to almost professional recording quality with all the right gadgets - don't tell him that though, he might get abit too ruffled up! hehe) and the singing (argh!) with the awry diction!!! enough said! (i think i'm being abit too critical here, but this is what i truly feel...) actually there's another thing i didn't like about their advertising concept, but i think i'm too sleepy to dwell on it now... so this is goodbye for now.