Well, Tata docomo seriously has some bad choices in the ads it has made. First they were received poorly because they did not attract the markets at all and were too bland in face of competition from Vodafone and Airtel.
Then vodafone came out with the stand up comedy ads of Ranbir Kapoor. Ranbir Kapoor gave his best short but even he could not put any spice in the ads. I hardly laughed for any of it.
And now finally to grab attention, Tata docomo came out with 13 different short ads each of which targets on the mobiles network availibility. The tagline being “No getting away”. The objective of the series was proper as people are not aware of the network capabilities of Tata Docomo. But the way the ads were implemented is really bad. Here are two ads of Tata Docomo.
Tata Docomo Doctor ad and Tata Docomo House servant ads (Both have received complaints from consumers, Hospitals, Doctors and NGOs)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWsGT63dAUU
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT7bRgNaVPQ
There have been 8 complaints so far against Tata docomo for releasing such ads. An NGO in Delhi focused on welfare of House servants is going a step ahead and threatening with parliamentary and Legal actions if Docomo does not take the house servant ad off the air.
The brand is seriously suffering some heavy hits in the ATL segment. Hope it gets the right ad agency to pitch for it further.
Get Daily Marketing Updates in your Inbox
About Hitesh Bhasin
I am not sure of why there is such a hullabaloo about these ads. Actually not sure of the number 13! (have seen only 3-4 on TV). I have been reading about the complaints being sent to Tata docomo but i am appalled at the hypocrisy of our ownselves. So its okay to show half naked body of women, treating them like sex-objects…what about the bai ads that were run by one of the e-commerce portals / yellow pages portals few months ago? So do the ads become bad because an NGO is appealing against them? Journalism in my days used to be a lot of ‘brain work’, not using information to drive ‘planted agendas’…I am not sure, but as a media professional I know how to separate chaff from the wheat…this article clearly falls in the first bucket.
Nothing wrong with these ads.
Well, personally speaking the house servant ad was a bit over the top. The doctor one was ok because its creative and we have to allow some space for creativity. However the house servant one directly attacks the integrity of servants as they are thieving. Thus that comes off in a bad manner. If yellow pages is doing that, its fine. They need that kind of cheap attention. I dont think a brand like Tata docomo needs to use these cheap tricks. Look at Airtel and Vodafone in the telecom segment and the way they are building their brand. Only on the basis of values!!!
Well… I felt one more ad in the series which generates negative feeling about the brand in viewers.. the one where a agricultural labour is claimbing a coconut tree in all seriousness and because of the ‘NO GETTING AWAY’ network?!? poor guy is shown getting down… Actually it may be a @#$$ marketing call from the service provider ?!?
Really BAD from almost every standpoint, and up against such slick work from Airtel and Idea camps. The squeaky DoCoMo intonation is irritating, to say the least. It is a better fit for pushing collectibles to preschoolers than to targeting an intel audience with a new-age product. Even a pedestrian ad-man could use the very same Do-Co-Mo to infuse a fast, upbeat, assertive and energetic note, while holding together themes of urgency, criticality and achievement. It is sad to see a Tata group company endorsing such crap when other parts of the empire, like Tata-Sky and Tanishq put out such superlative ads.