Baidu became the leading site of choice for the Chinese web users because it lets users to search mp3 or wav files. Baidu doesn’t keep the music on its servers and merely gives the link to the website that contains the particular music file. Baidu has recently branched out to provide more web services and it has launched a portal for Japanese markets as well where Yahoo is the leading search engine.

The today’s cool ad I am going to talk about is that of a bread. Yes, Bread. I personally have never seen a bread commercial before on Indian TV but that’s because our mothers think that chapatis have more nutrients and energy than a bread. That also happens to be one reason why we don’t have many good bread brands over here either. There’s one called Britannia and one more called Bonn but none of them pursue advertising on television.

Hovis a very big bread brand in UK. It’s in business since last century and their tagline is “As good today as it’s always been.” They have just launched a new tv advert to resurrect their position in the UK markets. Their TV commercial takes you back in the history of UK and chronicles the highlights of each decade from 1900 to 2000. The ad has been created by MCBD, London and they have done a brilliant job in reliving those images from the past. It briefly depicts events like the Titanic’s maiden voyage, World War 2, Olympics, 60s fashion and many other things which I might have missed because of my ‘un’english upbringing.

Take a look at the ad:

iPhone certainly has been launched in India and I can buy it if I so desire now but why in the world would I buy a mobile phone which has been priced like hell. The 16 GB Apple iPhone 3G is available at Rs 36,100 in India and it would be US $800 for those who understand in Dollar terms. I love iPhone and I understand completely that it’s not just a phone but seriously that is too much money. What is rather more interesting is that their ads are completely oblivious to this. Apple marketed the new iPhone 3G with the following ad where they made a statement which was quite antagonistic what they were offering. That is the magic of advertising, you can lie in the face of world and people still don’t realize it.

By the way, I covered the launch of Apple iPhone 3G live in India with my coworkers at Realgeek.

I will restart with this new AXE Shower Gel commercial which has been released in Argentinian market this month. The ad has been created by very creative agency called Vegaolmosponce and we have seen some really amazing stuff from them. This ad is no different in creativity and it has all the elements which you traditionally see in AXE ads. It has got more skin, one handsome guy and good music in background. Surprisingly there are no girls but the good thing is that you never miss those almost naked super models in this tv spot. I believe that this commercial is inspired from the lovemaking scene in “The Simpsons Movie” which also happened to have similar animals and all that lovey dovey feel to it. See for yourself what I mean.

Advertiser: Unilever
Agency: Vegaolmosponce
Creative General Directors: Hernan Ibarra/Walter Aregger/Hernan Ponce
Art Director: Ignacio Ferioli
Copywriter: Joaquin Cubria
Client Services Director: Vanina Rudaeff
Agency Production Manager: Roberto Carsillo
Agency Producer: Selva Dinelli
Production Company: Garlic Films Director: Marcelo Burgos
Executive Producer: Alvaro Gorospe
Assistant Director: Fernando Trullols
Director of Photography: Pancho Alcaine
Art Director: Luis Ramírez
Film Editor: Pablo Plant
Post Production: Miopía
Music: Swing Musica - adapted from Tchaikovski´s Sleeping Beauty

The first traffic jam happened because a flyover is being constructed there. The part of the road is under construction so the road width has decreased causing narrower exodus of vehicles than before. The Govt. is making significant investments to improve the infrastructure of Delhi and to equip the city to host Commonwealth Games in 2010.

The cause of the second jam was some rainfall last night which clogged the roads with rainwater. The same road is said to be one of the best in the capital and it’s a kind of shame when the movement of vehicles slows down because of something as mundane as drizzle. Has the govt. invested the money wisely in creating the highway? Didn’t engineers should have taken rain into account before making highway?

The third cause was the long(est) queue at a Toll bridge. The Govt. charge money from every single vehicle which enters Gurgaon from the capital so that they can have fuller treasury to invest on making more highways which clog down after some rain.

When you do something you advertise that you can do it. The govt. of India is advertising its inability to make smart investments in infrastructure because advertising doesn’t have to be loud every time.