The Chicken Rules

A conversation I had with Ravikiran on the new Indian Airlines commercial is the basis for this post.

I am of the opinion that the ad sucks big time. And I don’t think I will change it anytime soon. But then again, I ain’t no expert, and so take this post with a pinch of salt. Or Krystal.

Ravikiran began with an innocent enough a question.
“What do you think of that Indian Airlines ad?”

I think the commercial is a supposedly “happy” emotional one. But sucks big time. It doesn’t communicate anything at all about the airline.

But Ravikiran comes back with this

why would you want to communicate what an airline does?
I mean, everyone knows that you fly in an aeroplane to get where you want to. I think it does a reasonable job of (falsely) communicating to the viewer what kind of flying experience he’d get in IA.
I still think the ad will fail, not because of any problem with the
ad, but because everyone who has travelled IA knows that it is lying.
You don’t get pleasant smiling people on their planes. You get
wrinkled and grumpy airhostesses. But that is a problem with the
airline and not with the ad.

The thing is that I expect an airline to tell me they won’t
lose my baggage. I expect them to tell me that I get the best cabin
food. I expect them to tell me that I won’t have to dump all of my
handbaggage in a dark corner infested with rats.

I don’t mind them telling me that they smile and take care of kids,
(and what is the kid doing anyway, all alone without parents) who are
alone. But that doesn’t tell me much at all.

What the heck are they telling me? Who on good earth wants to know about the kind and fatherly nature of the pilot? For god’s sake, I don’t even see the pilot when I am flying.

I expect an airline to tell me they will fly me anywhere in the world.
I expect an airline to tell me, at-least, if they don’t fly everywhere, they can help me get anywhere with their partners.

I expect a commercial for an airline to tell me that the pilot is an expert. He can land the plane safely in any kind of weather. He has more flying hours than the crow. That I won’t be seeing 60 year old women serving me chocolates with a toothless grin.

All the ad says is that that particular flight is leaving from
“Bombay” and “on schedule”.

If that was bad, I absolutely hated the final voice over

You are amongst your own with Indian Airlines

WTF? Are they trying to play on our insecurities and our need to be in social groups that we are most comfortable in (our own people, our own race, our own city, our own language…the list goes on).

With a tag-line like “Let your heart fly”, they could have come with something a lot more mature, cleverer, and more communicative. Not this cutesy commercial that does nothing but mislead audiences.