Achint’s blog

I simply Love the new Incredible India ad campaign and I’m talking specifically of the latest TV ad (uploaded to YouTube by the guy in the ad it seems) viz.:

Having said this, I need to admit that I’ve had a problem with previous ads, an example being:

My problem is that the ads are just not real - there I said it.

They’re Way too glossy for their own good. The hyper-glossed, over-exposed, super-contracted pictures take away the reality of the places they depict. Now I’m not naïve. Off course ads are glossy. Not even Dove (which claims to always go au naturale) can pull off completely un-glossed ads. But there’s a line that advertisers should not cross because the damage can be irrecoverable. Consumers aren’t stupid. They can tell when an ad is misrepresenting the product and that can seriously damage the credibility of the company (the country of India in this case). But that’s not the worst that could happen.

Imagine when the hordes of tourists (who believed what they saw in the ads) come down expecting to take a boat ride on the Yamuna river by the Taj, only to discover the stinking polluted river water (if there is any), corroded boats and a million irritating street children hounding them for money. Or that they want to go north to the Himalayas and try authentic Indian food and maybe even try some Yoga in the mountains, only to encounter the thug like taxi drivers practically mauling the tourists, the dog meat being served as chicken, the con-artists posing as holy men and off course, lest I forget, the million irritating street children hounding them for money.

Ok, so am I exaggerating?  Yes (Thankfully). But it’s important to note that when these harrowed tourists, who spent their hard earned $s in a bad economy, suffered a long air trip, experience something even slightly close to the above mentioned horrors – the likes of which they’ve Never seen in the western hemisphere – they will remember it in the exaggerated form and probably never return. What’s worse is they’ll go back and ensure that their friends know the real story behind this Incredible India. And guess what, now with tools like Facebook and Twitter – doing this is easier than ever and it comes free with the ability to take anything viral.

To a certain degree, this is also true of the current ad (the first one above), but I submit that it’s at a very acceptable level. In fact, there are clips that I’d say are completely normal/natural – not sure if that was intentional though. The tourism department should make it an important guideline and try and display a more holistic picture. It’s a calculated risk that’ll pay for itself. Apart from the fact that it’ll avoid the above mentioned problems,  I believe the even the Real India has plenty of appeal for tourists. And funnily enough, this appeal also comes from the chaos, its mass of humanity and its poverty. Don’t believe me, just ask the by now bus loads of foreign tourists visiting Dharavi (home of the Slum dogs) and the plane loads visiting the Kumbh Mela.

So I know that the people of Dharavi benefitting from brand new tourist influx into their neighborhood (especially the local charities and small retail shops) would agree when I say, “Keep it Real, Tourism Board of India. You’ll be glad for it in the future.”

I sign off with some Incredible images from the Incredible India campaign, more specifically from the Incredible Taj campaign. They’re touched up images - often juxtaposing two different regions.