Call me a sucker for emotional ads. OK, call me a sucker for good ads. Especially the ones that talk about making your life richer.
Astro rebranded itself for its 8th anniversary celebration. It's positioning itself as a way for you to make your life richer, through various sketches that closely resemble the main themes of the channels available. Play that against a backdrop of the cheerful sound of children (I think), and you've got an ad that makes you proud to be a customer. :P
To make our lives richer, we Astro customers draw upon the visuals of the likes of Discovery and the Travel Channel. We wake ourselves up to the chatter of CNN and come home to unwind in front of MTV. I'm not going to complain about how we don't get out much, because what's there to get out to? The smog, the noise of modified exhausts, dog poop - I'd rather create my own little heaven elsewhere.
So what if I lose myself in the muhibbah-ness of Coke ads? So what if I get inspired by Nike's call to just do it? And if the Travel Channel gives me the urge to visit Mexico if only to savour the taste of mole, it doesn't matter if I never get there.
There's nothing wrong in taking up rock-climbing after watching Tom Cruise do that impossible scene in the last Mission Impossible, just as there's nothing wrong in learning the hard choices in life in The Practice. It would make lots of stuffy people happier if we learned it from books, but hey, when our ancestors migrated from storytellers to movable type, I'm sure there were heaps of people who thought the medium was evil.
When I have kids, I'm going to let them watch TV. But they're going to watch things from the point of view of inspiration. I would love it if they read books too, but I'd be more ecstatic if they decided to write some of their own stories. The point is, it's great to have dreams, no matter where you derive the ingredients to fuel that mind of yours. The difficult bit is how to keep those dreams alive long enough for you to get there...
Posted by Najah Nasseri at 2003年08月01日 01:24 | TrackBackWhen u have kids send them to visit their uncle Bob, they can dream all day long! Just Doo weeeettt!
Posted by: fawaz at 2003年08月01日 01:48Grace: You've got this style when leaving comments, i've noticed. Quick words. Then a couple of line breaks, then a few more quick words.
Cool.
Like this.
Posted by: Aizuddin Danian at 2003年08月01日 09:15Najah, you are such a kindred spirit as Anne of Green Gables would say.
Yes, I get inspired by TV too. Especially Globe Trekker. My friends think I am sad.
Plus, I never fail to cry at every heart warming Petronas ad.
Sigh.
Posted by: meesh at 2003年08月01日 09:48well, what can I say, najah....
when I was fresh out of school, I wanted to do advertising,...I was very inspired by those ads, esp by Leo Burnet's Petronas....wonderful...
Advertising was my first love..
I guess we can look forward to more of those ads when National Day comes. Like the ones from Petronas, yeah.. (sniff).
I particularly like the song which comes with the Sentul West commercial. Kinda.. green.
Posted by: Strizzt at 2003年08月01日 12:14i LOVE the coke ad!
:)
...makes you all warm and fuzzy inside doesn't it?
hugs
I am such a sucker for the new Astro ad. The angles, detail and colour were simply flawless. And I couldn't help but admire the concept of the Coke ad, it was quite a brainstorm.
Posted by: feirith at 2003年08月01日 15:00talking about emotional and making life richer.. check out my poem at my site i made for a friend i will be parting with.. :(
Posted by: faren at 2003年08月02日 01:04I have always been fascinated by advertisements - Chinese New Year, Hari Raya and National Day adverts, especially. Remember the Kancil advert - the Volvo and the Kancil going through the narrow lane, and the Kancil 'lipat' the side mirror?
On Astro - it was quite weird for TV3 to actually advertise Astro (for me, at least) since that will mean that less viewers for TV3 in case the advert's highly successful.
Weird.
Posted by: Fina at 2003年08月03日 02:44I hate Astro the ad. You should too (but you don't have too). They're manipulative. The ads in this country are pure lies. Thet're so far from the actual fact. The corporate practice of Astro is appalling.
Posted by: Tok Pa at 2003年08月05日 13:59Clearly advertisements are often manipulative and stretching the truth, and I don't think that's just in our country either.
In the case of Astro you could say the ad's blatantly tugging at heart-strings, since there isn't a TV with Astro on it anywhere in there.
But the way I see it, ads like theirs rarely get a chance to be made. What other products would suit it? So if Astro can afford to advertise as gorgeously as they can, I say go for it. It may be many things, but it's undoubtedly very well-shot, with effort and aesthetic value. Can't say that about all the ads we have these days.
Posted by: feirith at 2003年08月05日 17:24I love the song used in the Astro ad. It just goes with the flow of the visuals of the adso well and it just makes my spirit soar and never fails to perk me up. Not many commercials do this. Practically all commercials on tee vee are annoying and therefore making me despise the product just as much. I hate the carlsberg commercial, ditto most beer commercials. Exept the guiness "got it" commercials a long while back.
So, does anyone here knoww whats the song played on the astro commercial and how can i get hold of it?
Oh, and the coke commercial is a real triumph of creative advertising.
Posted by: Ken at 2003年08月10日 02:22What is the song title for the new astro ad ? the music that really inspires it is the narration and the background music that really captures the heart of people. Reply to me.
Posted by: Raymond at 2003年10月11日 12:47