Airtel has entered the heated up DTH space. A bit late, but an entry nevertheless. It has launched an ad campaign, which runs for 10 seconds and tells the audience “See you at Home”. I could not guess what was happening and did not know it was for Airtel’s DTH. There was no logo or anything that can be related to Airtel except the red sofa. How do you expect me to guess it with a sofa? I could not guess but someone else did.
Watch the ad below:
Reliance guessed it. It used this as an opportunity and busted Airtel. It has used the same kind of ad and ended the ad with Reliance Big TV DTH service. What a way to bust Airtel ! Some call it cheap; some may even say, “How can Reliance stoop so low”. Reliance’s logic was there was no name to the ad and so no trademark’s associated with it. So why not capitalize on it. I agree. That’s a shame but its true.
I am not judging Reliance on what they have done. Either they are right or they are wrong. But what it has done is it has killed the teaser ads before it started (“shuru hote hi khatam ho gaya). This could as well be the death to teaser ads.
Airtel’s complete ad is much more interesting with celebrities like Saif Ali Khan, AR Rehman, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Kareena Kapoor, Madhavan and Vidya Balan.
Watch it below:
This is not the first time Reliance has done something like this. If you remember, Reliance has done the same thing with Big Bazaar. Note the name for the Big Bazaar of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group. Reliance ADAG has made it Reliance Big Bazar. In the Internet world it is called a typo. In the real world it is trademark infringement or any other fancy name you can come up with.
Leaving the niceties aside, one should appreciate the thinking of the Reliance ad campaign and the way Anil Ambani fights competition. Be it with elder brother Mukesh Ambani or any other rivals in any of the verticals he does business with. If Anil Ambani were a boxer India would have won more than one gold medal by now. I am just glad he is not a boxer and he is a shrewd businessman. India is winning much more.
Unfortunately, I could not get my hands on the Reliance buster video.
What do you think about Reliance’s bluffing Airtel? Do you think it was in the right spirt?