Advertising archives from India

Indian advertisements have a nostalgic, patriotic charm about them. Here’s my collection of some timeless Indian TV commercials:

The Airtel ‘Express Yourself’ Campaign, always a classic.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slpElBClGy8]

A brilliantly funny, witty, creative Camlin ad.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=002AY4cb5uw]

A really, really old one from Cadbury, something special 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Iai5mSOxYU&feature=related]

…..Can’t say anything about the next one…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTav-vdht0E&feature=related]

A recent ultra-creative ultra-funny one by Happydent.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdesIbwOYAA]

Another Airtel classic.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNSF0WIZw2s&feature=related]

Of course, the list will be incomplete without this HA-HA funny one by Orbit White 😀

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDiNtKMqHG0]

What’s in your Indian-TV-commercials’ memorabilia?

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9 Comments

  1. Indian advertising has gone from good to worse… Ads used to be so effective, so creative… But now, all we see in ads are fallout from movies… Shah rukh Khan figures prominently in most of the ads nowadays.. Aaargh! I hate that moron! 😀

  2. I love them, can watch million time. I bow to people who develop such artistic and intelligent ideas for some ads.

  3. Lot of it.
    Starting with Nataraj Pencils . Remember that one where the Pencils race between themselves ? The second one would be Taj Tea….Zakir Hussain with his famous Wah ! Taj line. And all those famous DD Educational Short Films like Mile Sur Mera and Ek Thithily (I dont know the spelling of it )..

    We were Innocent, so was India !! Then Cable TV happened 🙁

    VC

  4. Very Nice Post 🙂
    My list includes : ‘Lalita Ji’ ( though i was very small, i still remember it), ‘Cadbury-Girl dancing a celebrating in cricket match’, ‘Wah Taj-Zakir Hussain’ & Mobile Ad – one cofee please’.

  5. 🙁 🙁 Typos …. girl dancing AND celebrating. & CoFFee.

  6. docmitasha says:

    omg i love indian ads and miss them so much! cadbury was such a classic. i used to love that one cooking oil ad where that little kid wanders off and his dadaji brings him home to jalebis–you know what im talking abt? Also i love metlife/new york life ads, and this peugeot “hasina” ad i once saw. ohh and who can forget ek thithli!, though that is more of a public service announcement.
    the orbit one and happy dent one im seeing for the first time. love them!
    the airtel one is quite great, actually, touching. i loved the music they used in their main one this summer (the one with SRK). I miss turning on the tv and just getting these ads. you made me nostalgic!

  7. Great set of ads. I love em all. The ads in US are a waste compared to this. except Apple’s. The first airtel ad reminds me of Apple think different ad. I loved the camlin ad. Totally unexpected and very funny! Thanks for sharing these.

  8. @ Nikhil : Hey, that’s not fair. There are still some brilliant Indian ads. I loved the latest few by Vodafone. And Shahrukh Khan ads are sometimes classy okay! :@ :p

    @ Neilina : Same here. There could be an exclusive channel dedicated to Indian ads by now!

    @ VC : I remember the Wah Taj one. It’s very nostalgic. I’m looking for the Natraj ad now. I have some vague recollection of it. Haha, can you really imagine your life without cable tv???

    @ Rahul : Yeah, I think we watched so many ads as kids that subconsciously relate to our childhood now 🙂 I can’t remember the one coffee please ad though.

    @ docmitasha : Yes yes, I remember that cooking oil ad. Saffola I think. The kid was too cute. Yeah, i miss watching these ads 24-7 too. Thank God for youtube 🙂

    @ Dinesh Babu : Yeah, the Apple ‘think different’ campaign was classy. If you think ads in the US are bad, you should come to the SEA! 😉

  9. That’s a great collection of ads you’ve pulled out. Truly, Indian ads are a league apart. In contrast, Australian ads are pathetic.

    Some other ones that come to mind are the Perk ‘pet-pooja’ and the ‘log Chloromint kyun khate hain?’ ads.

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