tata docomo
A roadside Romeo keeps whistling at two timid schoolgirls at a bus stop. A young woman, who also happens to be at the bus stop, decides enough is enough. First, she stares straight at him and then, she lets out a blood-curdling scream. Shocked and shamed, the lout beats a hasty retreat even as the young woman breaks into a triumphant smile. Take that, teasers!
KBC
A young girl from the Northeast hits back at stereotypes and racial discrimination in this promo for TV game show Kaun Banega Crorepati. “Kohima is a part of which country?” host Amitabh Bachchan asks the girl on the hot seat. Without hesitating, she asks for the ‘audience poll’ helpline, much to the embarrassment of her friends and family, even as a few snigger at her in front of their TV sets. Once the audience poll turns in a 100 per cent result for “India”, Bachchan smilingly tells her: “Yeh to sabhi jaante hain”. Her reply: “Jaante toh sab hain, par maante kitne hain?” Precise and powerful.
cadbury
It was the woman calling the shots in the Cadbury ads this year — Nimrat Kaur’s wife draws out her precoccupied husband, gets the better of him in a snow fight and then dupes him into parting with a bar of chocolate; Aditi Rao Hydari deliberately stalls a Ferris wheel and treats her unsuspecting husband to a chocolate treat on their anniversary; Vaani Kapoor makes off with the caramel oozing out of a piece of chocolate every time her co-worker sticks his tongue out to have it. You go, girls!
havells
Electronics major Havells came up with as many as five ads in its campaign called ‘Respect for women’, but the one we loved best focused on a young man based in the US who lands up with a marriage proposal, parents in tow, at the home of a girl. As the boy’s mother laments how she wants to see him “settled” because even having a cup of coffee for him in the US means going out to a cafe in the cold, the girl excuses herself and comes back with a Havells coffee-maker. “24 hours coffee... isi ke saath settle ho jaaiye. No visa problem. And... I am not a kitchen appliance,” she smiles. Killer!
SAFFOLA
Jis dil ne sabka itna khayal rakha hai... kaun rakhega uss dil ka khayal?
Saffola champions the cause of paying heed to the health of the heart of the mother who takes care of our every need. As the Raja Aur Runk number Tu kitni achhi hai... Maa plays out in singer Neha Kakkar’s voice, the two-minute ad shifts from one black-and-white image to another. The common theme: the woman as mother.
airtel smartphones
A young woman from a small town lands a job in the big city. She puts in a video call to her parents to give them a tour of her room in the star hotel where her company has put her up. As the daughter takes them virtually around her plush room and gives them a view of the sea outside her window, the joy and pride on their faces is indescribable.The tag line: ‘Sometimes smartphones can add a little magic to life’. Simple and significant.
aashirvaad atta
Aashirvaad Atta explores the unflinching trust a child has in her mother in this 50-second ad. A young girl, on the first day of school, extracts a promise from her mother that she will not leave the school premises till classes end for the day. The mother promises her little one and waits, braving heat and rain. School over, the daughter spies her mom in the crowd and goes running to hug her. The expression on both their faces is priceless as the jingle promises: ‘Chaand tak saath chalenge hum’.
WHISPER
Whisper sought to bust some Indian taboos associated with menstruation with its campaign “I touched the pickle”. The ad focused on a young girl, having her periods, who wears white, goes jogging, plays a game of tennis and also touches a bottle of pickle — to beat many superstitious no-nos attached to periods, including the age-old belief that a bottle of pickle, when touched by a woman having her periods, goes rotten. Women’s lib, simply and succinctly put.
titan raga
A woman meets her former boyfriend at an airport lounge. “How have you been?” she asks him. “Waise hi jaise tumne mujhe chhoda tha,” he says sarcastically. When he realises she still isn’t married, he says: “We could have made it work... only if you had quit working.” When she tells him he could have done the same, he says: “How can a man not work, yaar?” She smiles at him and lets it rip: “Actually you are right Akash... tum waise hi ho jaise maine chhoda tha!” The tag line? Khud se naya rishta...
titan enigma
Chitrangda Singh is stunning in this Titan Eye+ ad as a model who sports spectacles. Her manager tells her that she’s just landed an ad for a big chocolate brand to be shot in Paris, but there’s a rider: she needs to lose her spectacles. Chitrangda tells him to refuse the ad and asks: “Koi chashme ka ad nahin hai?” The line we eye-spy: Woman, be proud of who you are.
tata tea
In poll season, Tata Tea took forward its iconic ‘Jaago re’ campaign to come up with the message of ‘Power of 49’, encouraging women — who comprise 49 per cent of the electorate in India — to exercise their right to vote. This 45-seconder focuses on a group of well-heeled women at a beauty parlour. One whips out a can of pepper spray as the others agree that they all need one for their safety. They encourage a parlour worker to get one, but she says she has the power of the ‘kaala teeka’. As the women exchange sympathetic glances and sniggers, she shows off her index finger to indicate she — unlike them — has voted.
zivame
The online lingerie portal broke stereotypes with its first-ever television commercial focusing on Indian women of different ages, backgrounds and professions — and what they found on Zivame. From a middle-aged woman cop picking a pink thong to a grandmother buying a tummy tucker, this ad celebrated the woman, her body, her choices.
