Incito MentisA blog by Syed Abdul Karim

It’s amazing how a powerful story can be told in just under 60 seconds. In fact sometimes it can be done in as little as 30 seconds. This is truly a masterful achievement. This is when advertising transcends from blatant commercialism to a higher art form. The way a poet manages to say so much while saying so little. The best advertising aspires and in some cases achieves to do the same. Anyone can throw an endless tirade to make a point but only a genius can make a point in the fewest of words.

The beauty of this is further magnified when what is created also delivers on what it was commissioned to do. In the end all advertising is paid for by a client to achieve and enable a business result and therefore there is an ethical obligation for it to deliver on the objective and not be an art form that is an end in itself. The challenge therefore is double. Not only has advertising to deliver on it’s commercial purpose but it has to be done in a way that exhibits all the passion and effort of an artist who creates his subject purely for the love of what he is doing. That indeed is a tall order since an artist chooses to create as he pleases when he pleases. An advertising creative has to deliver on whatever they are assigned in a preset time and both are not always their choosing. They usually would have very little control on what they can work on and by when.

When I come across this advert (I will not reveal the name and let you find out for yourself) I felt this was another case of beautiful storytelling. When a simple product message gets delivered in a way that is memorable and central to the story and at the same time captures the magic of what makes movies and films great then that is indeed something worth celebrating. See you for yourself!

The simplicity and surprise is outstanding. A simple product truth gets delivered through a powerful and captivating story. Kudos to the creative genius behind this and to the client for approving such a simple and bold piece of communication. Great work!

The concept of storytelling in advertising is a concept as old as advertising itself! Yet so many TV Commercials produced today ignore this wondrous and entertaining approach to communicating a message. Lately I came across two very good TV commercials that tell a story about a brand and do so beautifully! One is for Jameson Whiskey and the other is for Topline Kiss Chewing Gum. Have a look!

What can we learn from this? As a planner I would say the Topline Kiss is genius at multiple levels! I think the idea that someone thought of a gum for kissing is brilliant in itself. It is unique and puts everything in a whole new space. The second leap comes at the strategy level. The task here was to simplify and focus on the benefit. I think somewhere in the creative brief there must have been a key insight which went something like this, ‘A great kiss is long, intense, never-ending!’ and thus the idea of “for unbreakable kisses” must have been born! Kudos to all those involved! It would be great to get the creative brief from the team behind this!

As for the Jameson Whiskey ad! I think it is a very simple ad based on the “Taste” benefit. Something which we have seen in at least a million other commercials. What makes it stand out is the dramatization of this benefit in 30 seconds and doing so in a way unique to the brand. The characterization of the John Jameson! I wonder what the brief would have been like. I believe all the credit here goes to the creative team to crack an over-used benefit of taste in an interesting way!