A call for intelligent advertising - No more of ‘angrezon ka band’ please!

Advertising has become an indelible part of cricket today, aiming to make the feeble whispers of the fifty over game and measured courtesies of the longer format heard amidst the clamour and frenzy of cricket’s cash-cows, the ostensibly promoted T20 leagues. No longer do you have just match stills played as a part of the advertisement, which would have sufficed to generate enough buzz, but now one must put up with cricketers or much worse, celebrities popping in and out of the frame, unconvincingly dishing out quirky tag-lines.

Do we really need to go this far? Isn’t the prospect of an exciting contest enough to work as an excellent promotion ‘strategy’ rather than resorting to such daft and in-your-face advertisements? When India toured Australia last year, the series was named the ‘Agneepath’ series, as part of the promotion strategy by the filmmakers and the broadcasters happily played along with the publicity gimmick. As a result, the viewers had to put up numerous times with the a chiselled Hritik Roshan running head long into an Australian player. The makers were left red faced when the series fizzled out without much of a bang. The recently concluded England series was christened as the revenge series by the media and the broadcasters in a bid to cash in, came up with an absolutely daft and irritating advertisements, tag-lined ‘Angrezon ka band’. However, the English had other plans and made the Indians dance to their tunes instead, handing them a 2-1 drubbing in the process. More recently we saw MS Dhoni in an advertisement for the India-Pakistan series, proclaiming in a complacent tone, ‘aane do!’ The visitors came, enjoyed the hospitality offered by the Indians, more so the batsmen, busted the empty threat and went back home victorious. An India-Pakistan clash needing such kind of publicity is unfathomable. Moreover, it makes the creators look a bit foolish when they try to predict cricket’s uncertainties and things don’t go according to script.

Maybe it is time the broadcasters don’t condescend to such levels, give up on the cheesy one liners that later leave them red faced and in general, be more responsible to the viewers. Advertisements need to be subtle yet significant, amusing without being demeaning. From an unexpected quarter, the simplistic promotions for the women’s World Cup threw up one such advertisement, worthy of emulation. It starts with questions such as “who has the record for the highest individual score in one day internationals?”, “what is the highest team total?” and just as one starts to think “Well! That’s easy, it is Sehwag and Sri Lanka”, the screen flashes the names of Belinda Clark and New Zealand. The advertisement is witty, creative and in a very unassuming fashion, draws attention to the apathy towards women’s cricket.

The game is still strong enough to draw viewers. Let’s not belittle its strength by resorting to the over-the-top kind of publicity.