Selling through appealing ads

The prime secret of my good health is that I don’t see Telugu channels. That keeps me agile and kicking. The tricky antics of our politicians anxiously trying to sell their honesty or lack of it for a price- the price of getting elected- are the most monotonous advertisements we see ad nauseam. They venture to sell their sops, miserably trying to impress the electorate that they are honest and sincere and we have to purchase their existence for better society. More often than not they fail, because their actions belie their promises. So much for the vulgarity of selling.

It always amuses me to watch TV whenever I go to United States to marvel at their ingenuity to sell things. It is an astounding specialisation, to be fair to them. For instance, if you want to scratch your back you have three types of handles: one that can stretch all the way down your spine, one that can travel across your back, one with a Sable fur to travel around. You can have all or one for a price. You can use them for three weeks and return them all with a proviso of getting back all the money. I know of a friend who always takes the offer, scratches his back several times and promptly returns them every three weeks, using a new brush each time.

Sometimes we don’t even envisage that there can be an article like this for our use. You will have a specially made sponge elbow rest when you sit on a sofa for more than three hours. You can have a neck rest on the top of the car seat, of course, with the usual concessions. It is utter madness in USA. And the clincher is people take it.

The other day I purchased two banians, but found them tight after wearing them. My friend said that I can return them, keeping the one I wore already!

This is the ultimate genius of traders who specialised in selling a product enticing you and catching your imagination and importantly your purse strings. After all, business is all about selling a product. But advertisement is all about selling an idea. It is the genius of the businessman who specialises in reaching the psyche of the customer and catches his imagination as also his purse to grab the product. I find several articles in American households that look silly and did not even make sense. I asked a friend’s son as to what a small funny looking fox, opening its mouth, looking up on the table for. The boy smiled and said, “If in the middle of your writing you have to keep your pen in an ‘open’ mode and go for any errand, the fox’s mouth will work as its rest!” How many times we ran out in the middle of writing without even bothering to close the pen? It is incredible even to think. But here is an apparatus to answer your lethargy. And a new invention hits your mind and amuses you even before you judge its functional value.

And, now to the point. I happened to come across an advertisement ‘spot’ on Indian TV when I was scanning through the channels. Four boys and three beautifully looking girls are standing at a bus stop. Naturally these boys are coyly looking at the girls, the hackneyed scene we see day in and day out in a bus stop or in a movie. I am about to press the remote to depart from the channel when something unusual happened. The bus arrived. Among the girls, one girl stretches a folding stick in her hand to move forward. My god, I told myself, this girl is blind! The same reaction was registered on one of the boys. He suddenly became alert. He surged forward even before this girl could take a stride. He did something which is absolutely touching, humane and great. He knelt down and squatted at the door step of the bus with a folded leg. The blind girl, surely unaware of the chivalry of the boy, put her leg on his extended thigh and got in. Cut. It was thrilling. My eyes became moist. What happened? The narrator took a very vulgar situation but made an altogether different interpretation which is very touching. An immediate shot of the footmark on his trousers followed. Another shot of the trouser being washed by a detergent soap. And the narrator tells us this is ‘XXX – detergent soap- soap with difference- soap with sanskar’ Nowadays I wait for this spot and stay to watch it all the 30 seconds.

A good and a decent idea must make your heart vibrant and should be able to haunt you. Selling is not goading. Not pleading. Not enticing. Not cajoling. Not luring. Not tricking. Not appealing to your meanness. But to reach your good sense and make you feel that it is wanted. A good idea, more often than not, doesn’t sell. But convey. It is your discretion that takes the decision.

The next morning I enquired my wife as to what detergent soap she uses. She was surprised for this unusual enquiry and asked me ‘what is the matter?’ I coolly prescribed to her, “next time, you go for xxx detergent soap!’’

(gmrsivani@gmail.com)