Drama is not just a genre of movies or the soap operas on the TV screens, it can also escape the screen and enter into the realms of reality. There must be someone who you and your friends like refer to as a DRAMA BANDA / BANDI ..
These Drama Bandas and Bandis are part of our society. And they go one and enter different fields of work contibuting their skill of Dramay bazi to their respective sectors. But two fields with the maximum number of Dramay baaz has to be; Politics and Marketing. Politics; no need to explain that point, and marketers...? well not much to explain here either.
I dont know who originally came up with the idea of Drama (considering it is a Greek word, so may be Greeks) but I know who re-invented it in the recent past.. STAR PLUS..Indian dramas were at the all time peak with "Keun kay saas bhe kabhe Bahoo the" and "Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki"..
But with every action there is a reaction. As the time went on, popularity decreased and now to a point that they are hated by the majority.
I know you hate Indian soap dramas, which means you like it when someone pokes fun at it...DEFINITELY ( hmmm..or just a..may be)..
Guys at Olivia had the same thing in mind.. and they acted as though there was some thinking behind the concept, with a launch ceremony,where some guy was trying to explain the BRILLIANT concept; hoping to capture the minds of consumer with it and kill the audience with laughter. The plan was to "smart and anokhay andaz mien apni marketing karaen aur logon ka dil bhe bhelaen". That was the plan. But as we know, rarely things go as planned. They bought 7 mins of air-time at different entertainment channels and started series of plays making a mockery out of Indian soap dramas (and also out of themselves)..
(video of the Launch ceremony)
The Concept was named Olivia Moments and different drama (skits) were aired every week.
Buying 7 mins of air time at different channels like HUM TV and KTN must have been costly than 1 min advert, but that 1 min ad cant make you laugh like these "humorous" skits (Cough Cough) ..
So it didn't serve the very purpose of its creation, so what.Everyone makes a mistake.. but there is no harm in accepting your mistake and moving on..
But what can you say about the stubborn nature of humans. They went out to make 30 episodes of "Keun kay saas bhe kabhi achi the " and 9 of " Kahani har ghar ki" with a combine views of less fourteen thousand (on youtube).. making it an average 350 views per video, not an impressing showing,considering that there is a team behind it all. But are things which leaves a question mark.. if you go see their facebook page, every episode has LIKEs upto 180 on an average.. may be the numbers of employees there.. no I'm not being skeptical, if you go and read the comments below, you will find a common factor of "insult" "disgust" and even "hated" towards the episodes. this trend continues, likes followed up by comments like "kia bakwaas ha".. actually the comments where the only thing which made me laugh in their entire campaign.
May be the audience didn't get the idea... so lets educate them..
Or may be they did and just don't like.
OK there were some (only a few) comments which appreciated their efforts.. Overall the facebook page of Olivia is very active and it is doing well..
Applying my "Benefit of Doubt" theory I will leave Olivia alone and move forward with the theme of things that were meant for Laughter, like the Walls ad..
This ad was suppose to be funny.. and you wonder how I was able to figure it out.
the actors; Tipu (actor/comedian) and Barkat (comedian)..
the ads end with the tagline;
"WALLS ka inaam.. bhula day sab kaam"
The ad missed it mark from a mile and yes this one will soon be forgotten.
Ufone has always been leading the way with funny ads even though they lost the plot somewhat because they were focusing too much on others (mobilink, telenor) but their new ad reminds me of the old Ufone.
Ads can succeed even without humour. I particularly enjoy the Ariels ads because they reach their target audience with a factor of believability. The ads usually show a housewife talking about husband at work or child at school.
Tooo much on TVCs... moving on to Billboards..
An interesting thing I noticed today as I was driving back to home from a friend`s home, there where many competitive(direct and indirect) brands` billboard in pairs.
1. Index .. comfort and style (with a total of 4 billlboards) [2 talwar]
2. Slice .. Fruitily [3 talwar]
And few other at Shahr-e-faisal.
Another trend in billboards is; to put up more than 1 billboard of the same product on a single road, especially of lawn exhibitions. I thought the season of lawn exhibition was over but I guess some exhibitions will continue is April as well and they again have the billboards to show it.
Sometime I wonder the difference between these lawn exhibitions billboards and billboards put up by political parties. 4th April was the day when Bhutto was hanged, so the PPP
But it is not just a tribute to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto but a way for local leadership to move up the ranks and win the support of the workers. Therefore If you look closely, you will find that at the bottom it usually states the name of the person who put the billboard up. This time round it was a closely fought match between Mir Mazhar-ul-haq and Agha Siraj Durani... May be its perfectly normal and I am just over thinking stuff.. May be I am creating DRAMA out of nothing.. May be I am that DRAMA BANDA whom you have met with.. MAY BE.. I don't know..
But one thing which I know is that just like the Indian soap drama, the drama in the Political and Marketing World continues...........
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LINKS
-latest Olivia moment episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrTyTiWUMU&feature=related
-Walls ad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulsgFnKmLMo&feature=related
