Radio ads

When Times FM was launched some 11 years back it was the rebirth of the radio as a happening medium. Till then Radio to people of my age was all about vividh bharati in the mornings with its corny ads and cornier sponsored programs. Phatte kamania ads and Modi continental programs were the order of the day not to forget Simco hair fixer for the hirsute. The trendier guys like us listened to Yuvavani and the late night English music programs like Forces request and Date with you. Those were the time when being gay was being happy.
Times FM changed all that and I was lucky to be part of that revolution. Trendy stereophonic music and peppy RJ's made the station rock. We were a group of people who were selling radio spots and were very conscious of ensuring that the quality of the ads were good. We had people like Roshan Abbas, Shamshir Luthra, Sameep Nanda and Gaurav Kapoor as the voices to ensure that the ads were 'cool'.
In between all these guys and their modulated deep voices we used to do some quick and dirty ones too. Mainly these were for the retail clients ( 'Bongerie') and the inhouse ads. I remember one time distinctly where Mr Akash Verma and your truly were asked to create a quick and dirty radio spot about some new supplement which targeted the Saadi Dilli types. And we created one spot which was true to the tradition of Phatte kamania of Vividh bharati. It was so bad that we all loved it. In that we created this punju character called Teetu. And for some weird reason Mr Ajay Arora ( a true blue son of saadi dilli and punju to the core ) got christened as Teetu. Till date ole Times FM hands will call him 'Teetu' or 'kinky'. Now you know of Teetu someday I will tell the Kinky story too.
With Radio Mirchi and One and fever and HITZ there are channels galore now but the ads are still the same. In between of course there are some real gems but mostly they are crap. I mean having a deep/sweet voice saying 'Haridwar mein Baba Ramdev ashram ke paas.. is not exactly great creative. But I guess it has recall value.
The ones I really like nowadays are the current Cadbury ads ( shero shairi ) and the Maruti Swift ad ( take off on Saadi Dilli teh ode punjus). More on Dilli and its Punjus later.