Advertising

Apart from being glued to my TV on the night after the Mumbai terror attacks I haven't really watched that much TV while being here. But the times that I have opened the devils box of laziness it has been quite entertaining to see how they are advertising here. Of course the influence of Bollywood movies is one theme around which some ads are built on but seeing some branded items being sold is a bit confusing. For example they have an ad for Zeiss glasses where there is a guy in office, showing off his brand-watch and brand-shoes but when a girl looks in a really interested manner over the wall of his cubicle it just strikes to her that his glasses don't have any brand markings. "What's that on your eyes?" she says and loses her interested. In comes the Zeiss optics "With brand mark". (laser engraved logo in the specs). And some slogan in Hindi about style and brand.

I guess just the fact that something has a "brand" is enough to sell the product to gullible buyers here. Oh well, to each his own. It just strikes as a blatantly pathetic attempt to make your product seem better for no reason at all. But when you come down to it, that's what branding is all about. Advertisers in the west just try to be more subtle on the subject whereas the Indians just try to convince people that it actually is a brand.