Moviegoers are familiar with sequels, from Spiderman and Speed in Hollywood to Dhoom and Munnabhai in Bollywood. Now, what if someone says Batman 2 is a sequel of Superman 1? It can't happen even in reel life, but it can, and does, happen in the nothing-is-impossible world of television advertising .
The latest case in point is a commercial released by mobile handset maker Airfone, which is direct sequel of a recent Cadbury commercial, featuring the same actors in the same costume. The Cadbury commercial, which is still being aired as part of its new 'shubh aarambh' campaign, has a boy asking for a piece of Cadbury Dairy Milk bar from a girl at a bus stop before doing the 'shubh kaam' of offering to drop her home.
The Airfone advertisement for its dual handsfree music phone shows the same couple in the same costume travelling together in a bus. "This phone has innovation of two audio jacks so that two people can share music playing on the phone. Love is an important aspect of sharing and this (the Cadbury commercial) was one of the rare ads based on love and we worked out our campaign on it," said Vishal Chitkara, director at Airfone.
With half the story already told by Cadbury, Airfone also saved on costly airtime as its commercial is just 20 seconds long, half of Cadbury's 41-second advertisement.
But the point worth considering is that people at large still associate the brand ambassadors with Cadbury's ad and not with the ad of Airfone. So what do you feel should companies follow this new trend of advertising or it's just a fad to go off in thin air soon
