Blunder by Cadbury

There was this show on the telly - The Apprentice and a particular incident which happened on the show stuck to me. Donald Trump, the main host of the show fired the group leader in a particular project because the leader had carelessly printed incorrect contact numbers on Donald Trump's Sales Brochure. That was just a show but I am amazed a company like Cadbury's has pulled off something a stunner like that.

You guys must be aware about the premium chocolate brand - SILK which was launched recently by Cadburys, just before it was taken over by Kraft. Well, Cadbury products are generally great so I was naturally tempted to try it out. The packaging is actually most appealing and looks pretty even while sitting in a "kirana" shop. (I have a separate grouse about its packaging and you can read a little bit about it here http://bit.ly/9QcVJa on CrankyWriter's blog, but lets not digress!)

So, I buy this huge piece of chocolate and open it. Standard quality stuff and to my surprise I see a message on the white wrapper of the chocolate. It said something like - write to us at ilovesilk@cadbury.com about your experience with this product of ours. I was most impressed...Nice way to connect to customers, so I write to cadburys about my experience and guess what! The damn email id does not exist! I get a mail bounceback!!! Wow...! May be the managers at Cadbury's dont realize what kind of message they are sending to their customers when they pull off stunts like these ! They are saying - "We dont care about you guys as long as you keep buying our stuff".

I hope some one at their posh Cadbury House office on Peddar road, Mumbai has taken some heat for this and is scurrying to setup an email account...

Ad nuisance

Whenever I go watch a movie in Fun Cinemas (Andheri W), Fame Ad Labs (Andheri W) or Cinemax (Versova) I inevitably end up watching the ad of Axis Bank Priority Banking. I am sure a bunch of you guys have also seen this monstrosity. If I were not forced to view this ad innumerable times, I would'nt have cared much about it but since it has been force fed to me, I cannot help but list out the flaws in the execution :

1. The guy gets information from his relationship manager like a "khabari" doles out tips...Ouch!
2. To indicate foreign travel, they place cut outs of destinations. This reminds me of cheap photo booths, where you can get yourself pictured with famous people / in famous destinations.
3. Instead of talking new age banking methods - like net and phone banking, the guy relies on paper based stuff...Sad.
4. This one is my favourite: Take pain to notice the cheque on which the hero of the ad is signing away to glory...Look harder and you will see that the cheque says-SPECIMEN. Oh my God! They have used a dummy cheque in the advertisement and have not bothered to even airbrush it out......

To prove my last point, I tried looking for the advertisement on YouTube but no one has put up the ad yet...So next time you go to the theatre and you are force fed this ad lookout for the specimen copy!