Adman Sonal Dabral took to Twitter to post a quirky 'emoji' quiz - inviting useres to guess which ads the emojis represented.
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It may be an unconventional way to get a conversation going, but it definitely proved to be an effective one. Ex-Ogilvy CCO Sonal Dabral took to Twitter to post this cryptic list of emojis, inviting users to guess which ads they represented.
So I made an emoji quiz of some fav TV ads. How many can u get?
These emojis acted like a virtual storyboard of the ads they represented - using emojis to tell the ad's story and condense its meaning into a few pixels. Here's the list of ads that Dabral referenced in his emoji quiz
1. Neighbour's envy, owner's pride - Onida Televisions
It may have seemed like a counter-intuitive way to sell things but it definitely grabed eyeballs. With a simple devil and television emoji, Dabral referenced Onida's 'Devil' and the tagline (Neighbour's envy, owner's pride), which was conceptualised by Advertising Avenues.
David Whitbread, a model co-ordinator and stylist of the 1980s, played the first Onida Devil, while freelancing for various advertising agencies in Mumbai. Thereafter, actors such as Rajesh Khera, Ashish Chaudhary and Amir Bashir have played the part.
2. Fevicol's 'fishing' ad
This ad is well known in India's advertising history for its quick wit and incredulous storyline. Ogilvy was the agency that conceptualised and created this ad (they are still the AOR for Pidilite). Pidilite makes an appearance later in the story too. Read on to find out...
3. Happydent's ad with 'bright smiles'dancing
This 2005 ad, by McCann Erickson was named one of the 20 best ads of the 21st century. Until that time, the dental hygiene space was fairly formulaic, portraying attempts to woo the opposite sex. This ad won awards for its ability to break through the clutter and sell the product, differently.
4. Dairy Milk's dancing girl in the 'Kuch Khaas Hai' ad
When the cricketer's girlfriend rushed out to the pitch, dancing in joy, she won hearts all over India and created advertising history. The 'dancing girl' and 'cricket bat' emoji represent the ad for Dairy Milk created by Dabral and Piyush Pandey. The song in the ad, 'kuch khaas hai's lyrics were penned by Prasoon Joshi and the song was sung by Shankar Mahadevan.
5. Celebrating 60 years with a sofa 'stuck by' Fevicol
The sofa emoji was a dead giveaway for this one. To mark the 60-year old journey of Pidilite's brand Fevicol in India, the company released this ad film last year. The film is a story in itself and takes the audience on a journey of multiple generations through the story of a sofa. The ad set to the Bihari dialect, is produced by Ogilvy.
Did the jingle start playing in your head as soon as you read those three words? Dabral employs a clever use of emojis for this one - such as using a rainbow for Nirma's ad copy which says 'Rangeen kapda bhi khil khil jaaye' (which roughly means 'even colourful clothes will look bright with Nirma').
7. Guinness Beer - the first international ad on the list
Dabral did not keep his list restricted to the world of Indian advertising. He uses the horse and ocean wave emojis to reference this 1998 ad with Guinness which plays by fairly formulaic codes of masculinity to sell beer.
8. Dhara's 'Jalebi' ad
Dhara's ad pays homage to the pull that Indian sweets have on children. The young boy is seen with a small bag, ready to leave home out of anger, but changes his plans after hearing his mother has prepared Jalebis for him. The emojis Dabral used includes a train (referencing the train station where the ad takes place) and a young boy (to refer to the protagonist).
9. Reunited across borders
Dabral uses India and Pakistan's flag emojis to refer to Google's 2013 reunion ad - which was conceptualised and created by Ogilvy&Mather. Speaking about the campaign idea, Sandeep Menon, (then) director, marketing, Google India says that the company wanted to do something special, which was also very, very Indian โ yet spark conversations, hence they turned to a relationship across the border.
10. Fevicol's 'unbreakable' egg
It was one of those ads - you weren't quite sure of what product was being advertisined until you reached the end; but what kept viewers hooked was the creativity that the Prasoon Pandey and Ogilvy employed in their storytelling style. It was a stretch to link an egg (used in cooking) to an adhesive (used mainly by carpenters), but the execution brought the two together effectively.
The last ad was a tough nut to crack, given the cryptic devil and angel emojis interspersed with football emojis. But the final ad in the list was a reference to the 'Biblical' Good vs. Evil commercial that Wieden and Kennedy had created for Nike in 1996.
Don't miss Satan's demons drying to sabotage the game and Eric Cantona, Luis Figo's and Ronaldo's football skills, among other things in this surreal ad.
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