#BlastFromThePast is Storyboard18’s weekly column where we ask young creative professionals to pick old ads that they replay time and again, spots that give them writing inspiration, and commercials that never get old. This week, Sai Karthik, strategy at Talented picked his three favourite ads and spoke about the values he learnt and the inspiration he derived from them.
Read on
WorldSpace Radio
I have always been fascinated with AR Rahman as an artist and when advertising happened in my life, this love only grew. WorldSpace – when it launched was a great piece of an ad campaign that used music well. This inspired me to think of communication as not just AV (audio-visual) and not just V (video).
Also, what I learnt from this campaign was how beautifully the core of the brand and values can co-exist with a celebrity without losing its authenticity and credibility. The brand was short-lived but the sound/music has outlived the brand.
Sundrop Oil
Food has always been my favourite subject and perhaps this is the only ad that amplified my love for it. I remember constantly asking my mom to make the same food that was shown in the ad but my needs were never met.
I believe this was the early days of my life where I fell in love with food. The love persists but the food has now become healthy. Many years after this ad, when I was researching for a local spice brand, kids became a source of good insight for household food decisions.
Suzuki Samurai
This was a great example of how a brand can be recalled with just one phrase. The simplicity of this ad made it more memorable. When I worked on my first auto account, I used this ad as a reference in a briefing to convey how to create a memory structure through a phrase.