Friday, March 25, 2005

Radio rocking

I am in love with an advertising jingle. Ridiculous, but currently true :)

The jingle is for a product called Parachute advansed and it's an after shower hair cream for guys.

The kind of ad that is usually devised for such a product is a permutation of the yo-use-this-product-and-you-will-get-all-the-girls.

However the ad that is actually running - on the radio at least - is surprisingly interesting. It's sung like a rap song, the lyrics go something as follows...

Page 3 cleavage, municipalty sewage..
Five star changa, bill kare nanga..

Chorus: Bure hain haal... Chak chaka chak baal.

Batti wali gaadi, hipster sari...
Girlfriend ka ditch, life's a bitch

Chorus: Bure hain haal... Chak chaka chak baal.

So - life is bad, but use our product and at least your hair won't be.
If I were a guy, I would!

Wish I could give you an audio link to it because really, I think it's extremely creative. Especially coming from a house like Parachute which for YEARS has been trying to livedown its 'telu' image.

There's hope yet
In fact, all of a sudden, there's a burst of creativity in the radio medium itself. Both advertising and content.

You don't hear any more of those Sholay inspired ads. Or RJs with highly exaggerated firang accents. Jaggu and Tarana on Go 92.5 in particular have achieved a very cool and easy conversational style. They exchange the kind of banter that comes so naturally to radio show hosts abroad.

Also, mobile phones with FM radios seem to be everywhere. Commuters/ salesgirls/ even panwallahs are now into it.

Now if only the government could resolve its licensing issues and allow a hundred interesting FM stations to bloom! Well, not a hundred perhaps but at least a dozen?

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:33 PM

    Kuch khaas ho gayaaa...Pappu paas ho gaya
    :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Rashmi, hehe have to totally agree with you, I love radio and yeah I am one of those who went to the dealer and asked which one has a radio;( Apparently Nokia did this survey and found out more women are hooked to radio than men and have designed the 4600 for women. Jaggu and Tarana ROCK! Love Glenn too and the T-man, but those two share an amazing chemistry

    ReplyDelete

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