ZOOZOO

There were days when Lalitaji used to tell us why Surf gives a better shade of white and housewives used to vouch for her suggestion n the Kirani used to laugh all the way to the bank. He would hate those "TWAAIIING Nirma Nirma washing powder Nirma" ads because for the obvious price factor. Lalita ji though is laughed off today was the single biggest icon on TV who could sway away all the target market. This she did in the era of Chitrahaar n Rangoli. When there was only a single Doordarshan to cater to the huge audience and yes a less demanding one at that. She was catering to an audience who had loads of patience, who could stare onto the monitor showing color patterns and an obnoxious TTTTTTUUUUUNNNNNNNNN... So an odd commercial in between for them was another chance to oogle upon a sexy bimbo. So here she was swaying the whole nation with her preachings.

But gone are the days, with the advent of some hundreds of channels on TV the ever decreasing attention span of the audience the commercials in between are a big pain in the ass. A Shahrukh in a bathtub, Big B becoming a priest, dont help the scene either.But then sometimes u c a small kid talking on his toy fone, a cute Pug running around, an Aamir Khan drinking only coke, , a girl burying her tooth and u think well creativity isnt dead yet. To think of it, A 30 yr old Amul girl campaign still gets more eyeballs than 10-15 Shahrukhs sharing da screen space trying to sell a ball pen. A rustic fevicol ad still glues the couch potatoes onto their seats. So creativity was never dated but comes forth in small bursts so that we could appreciate the good works n loathe the hideous 1s. As they say there would have been no Raam but for Raavana or there would have been no Sholay but for Gabbar Singh. Just like that a Priyanka Chopra crying over Saif or a Ranbir sheding his clothes to get his can of Pepsi are always required to understand what can a good chemistry between Gul n Aamir or Vidya n Madhavan do for a brand. Ad campaigns come n go but only a few stay in the minds, some are kept alive by Orkut n Facebook communities and some just by the sheer amount of impact they had, so much so that they stole the thunder of the very event they had sought to give their brand more visibility.

So in came something which even overcame all the brouhaha surrounding IPL in a cricket mad nation. The ZOOZOOS they were. White creatures, a grey background with all the colors of our lives in their antics. N boy are they amusing or not. Such is the confidence of the agency that each match has a new Vodafone ad and they know each would be equally liked by the masses n the classes alike. You cant help a hearty laughter at the plight of the terrified husband after the accident, scared kids n wife of the sleeping man, the angry girl and his prankster boyfriend, the band party, the poor crickters, the croc...well too be precise,all of them. Its just not the antics of the characters but the main motive of the ad,brand presentation, is served very well as well. Coz the icing on the cake for that final laughter is in guessing the product that is being advertised and always it takes the piece with the cherry on top. An absurdly boring pre match discussion and not so engrossing cricket actually working bigtime in promotion of the commercials and with all the strategy breaks timeouts n constant fall of wickets u have nothing else on TV which is more intresting than the spate of Vodafone ads.

Come to think of it what I learnt from the news channels is these characters are not animated these are really people wearing balloons. Amazing or what??? I mean how on earth can someone think of such a wonderful concept, because as is norm generally animated characters are made trying to make dem as close to reality as possible n here we are looking at people wearing balloons in sets making it all appear so Disney Worldish. Hats off!!!

Here are some details about the zoozoo ads of Vodafone straight from the horse's mouth.

Rajiv Rao, creative director of the agency that handles Vodafone advertisements, said: “We wanted to make real people look as animated as possible. Our actors were small-bodied, thin women covered in layers of white fabric. Each facial expression was made of rubber and pasted on the actors.” A film shot at 20 frames per second made the Zoozoo’s movements hurried and comical. Of the 29 different Zoozoo ads created for the IPL, there will be a new one everyday .

Isnt it a wow news we got many more to go even when we thought its gonna be over anytime soon. The average cricket and pathetic pre match discussions notwithstanding I am really looking forward to the next half of IPL. A big Thank you to the Vodafone for tis fresh lease of life bestowed upon us byb the sweet lilttle ZOOZOOs.

Personal favourite: The crocodile wala ad.