The new commercials playing on the fears of prepaid users should evoke laughs; the idea is highly campaignable

I look out for mobile phone adverts with a great deal of curiosity. What can one do in a category where all's been said and done, where all routes have been exhausted? Videocon Mobile has released new commercials for prepaid users.

Encouraging them to opt for a plan. And they have come up with the correct strategy, I must say. The mobile marketer highlights the fear that the pre-paid chaps constantly have of running out of talk-time. Especially when they need it the most.
Once this particular strategy is decided, one can produce a thousand hilarious adverts, and that's what Videocon Mobile seems to be doing. And looking at their first few commercials, I must say they have done a pretty decent job.

The commercials feature movie comedian Ritesh Deshmukh. (On a bitchy note, good for the dude. Obviously he has been doing a cool job of being a funny man in Bollywood flicks for Videocon Mobile to hire his services. Not being a fan of the trash that Hindi films dish out in the name of humour, I always thought young Deshmukh was getting the sidey roles due to his parentage.) In one commercial, a man is seen dying, as he makes a frantic call to Ritesh, who's travelling in a train. To tell him that he (the dying gent) is not his real dad, and that the title belonged to another man. But before he has a chance to reveal the identity, poor Ritesh's talk-time gets over and the call gets abruptly disconnected. To add to his misery, the newly turned lawaaris spots a random man in the train who looks like his dad. Yup, the commercial is funny. And Ritesh does a good job of a man doomed not to know who gave him birth, for the rest of his life.

The other one I saw has the actor playing the role of a geeky porn surfer. As he downloads the image of a topless woman, his pre-paid balance gets over just as the image is about to reveal the, er, critical parts. And the phone goes dead. Yup, quite funny.

All in all, good work. The correct strategy (feeding on a pre-paid user's main worry) and a humorous take on situations. Should evoke laughs and people will recall Ritesh Deshmukh's various miseries. And yes, the idea is highly campaignable. And it's good to see the marketer experiment with a fresh face, because quite frankly, it's now become tiring to watch the same ol' Bachchans and the same ol' Khans. — Anil Thakraney