Sunday, March 4, 2007

Cricket ads

With the World Cup around the corner, it's time for some very interesting cricket centric ads. Marketers will try every trick in the book to associate their brands with India's inexplicable obsession with cricket, and hope for a reciprocal Pavlovian passion for the product to develop. This one is the new Nike ad. Excellent stuff. Notice how Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan have the most insignificant role in the whole story. I have a feeling the ad is trying to tell us that the Indian cricket fan is much bigger than the Indian cricket star. I love the way the ad has this "order in the midst of chaos" feel to it, that only Mumbai can create.



And here's an old Adidas ad featuring Sachin, that still gives me goosebumps. Notice how the phone rings throughout the ad, as the world comes to a standstill waiting for Sachin to face the delivery. This is probably the best Sachin ad of all time, because it just lets him do what he is good at (playing cricket) without having to mouth any inane lines like 'Visa power, go get it'.


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