Farrukh Khan Pitafi’s Official Website

For quite sometime I have been using a metaphor to highlight the lack of proper policy orientation in our country. In several of my columns I have brought to the fore the example of a Lollywood choreographer Pappu Samrat. Mr Samrat directs steps that are fast paced, very angry, highly impossible to perform, yet so naive that they hardly pass for good dancing. In fact quite a few steps are so much visually offensive that you really feel slight tinge of shame and headache growing in your head. I mean folks how can anyone even tolerate watching such stuff.
I have then used this mastery of this man to embarrass us to illustrate the politics of Pakistani establishment. Always work hard to produce results that are counter to your own interest and often your own existence. But that is politics, I never imagined that I’ll ever be employing this yardstick in the field of advertising.
Actually having worked as an ad copy writer I know quite well how much investment takes place in this field and when a product comes out as offensive it is a crime really unforgivable. Western and often Indian ads really pass muster. There are some very nice Pakistani ads too. Sober, cute or even sensate but not dull or offensive. Yet some of recent Pakistani ads are so horrible that you cannot even explain the damage done to your brain cells properly.
Before I try to dissect a couple of ads, I must say that by offensive I do not mean anything sensuous/ sexual appeal. Quite frankly these things are very normal these days and in this world of ruthless capitalism and omnipresent internet they are nothing but the need of the hour. By offensive I mean simply offensive. When something is done in bad taste and really tortures the part of brain charged to tackle aesthetics. Also let me tell you it is usually not very wise to write these comments in the newspapers because it can often offend the advertisers and drive away business but because this website is my personal property and thus far it is not dependent on ads from such sources I can take liberty.
Until only recently the ad campaign of Telenor was quite sumptuous. Dances were well coreographed, no matter slow or fast, music and themes well coordinated. After all who can forget the charms of Sonya Jahan dancing with Ali Zafar on gripping numbers. However it seems the imagination of those who visualize these campaigns has plummeted. Not only Amna Haq has replaced the damsel, the entire campaign has been swarmed by some eerie ape mentality. In a recent ad Ali Zafar and Amna Haq shown busy in monkey stunts quite similar to Brandon Frazer in George of the Jungle. While they keep bumping and bouncing around in an unnatural manner throughout the ad there is no cell phone visible. In fact the entire ad is so naive and childish that it fails to convince us that it is the promo of a cellular network. I mean what is the purpose of a commercial? To sell your message as convincingly as possible.
Likewise a recent Mobilink Jazz campaign is horrible too. Oh my God it is so unnerving that if Pavlovian conditioning was any standard, I’ll never go even an inch closer to the Jazz connection. I mean to start with it is an insult to the genius of Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The copy writer indeed had some old score to settle with Faiz. His renowned poem Bol Keh Lab Azad Hain Terey (Speak for your lips are free)’s opening line has been twisted into a terrible terrible song which goes like this Dum dumadum dumdum, Bol keh lab azad hain piyarey (Dum dumadum dumdum, speak for the lips are free my sweet). And that is not all. The dance steps in the commercial remind us of the well known horse and cattle show in Lahore, with veteran cricketer Wasim Akram presenting a classic horse dance. Since the ad is repeated ad nauseam just have a look. You’ll feel like vomiting through your eyes. This sure is the work of Pappu Samrat or one of his pupils. Such ill coordinated dance performance, bad music despite such an overwhelming star presence stinks more than what PG wodehouse would have called acrid smell of burnt poetry. There is another rather old ad of a Ghee brand in which a woman walks around with such bitchy expression and gait that she would soon devour her male companion with her mere gaze. I don’t mind the fact that her emotions are projected so openly. My issue is that the performance and visualization is zonkingly stupid. Is it our fate then? No sir we deserve better.
There are uncountable good examples too. For instance the ad for Meezan Ghee is amazing. Similarly I am always hooked by each campaign for Olpers milk. I very much liked the concept of Coke’s Brrr ad. The Zong commercial is also very convincing even though it tells only half truths. I mean what the advertising agencies make is their business, but as a viewer one can expect that they will do justice to the viewer’s taste also apart from doing business with their clients.

Posted on May 14th, 2008 under Favorites, General •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback