Critical Review: Tata Docomo advertisement theme “Open Up”

Recently saw the Tata Docomo commercial which has the theme “open up”.

Seeing the advertisement it was a bit difficult to reach on a conclusion whether it is a good one or not. The song used in the advertisement is a hit number by Salman Khan. How much brand elements were in sync with the song used as well as how well it is used let us ponder some thought on the same.

The theme of the advertisement is “open up” to laugh share and talk. One thing which can be noted very clearly is all the characters in the commercial are enjoying their feeling of happiness alone. All the children are happy dancing on their own tunes. Be it in the garden or the home all of them are happy in their own world. As the commercial proceeds towards the end the man in the office dances in front of everybody seeing the enjoyment of the children but again he is enjoying in himself. This becomes clear as despite so many colleagues in the office he did not invite anybody to dance with him.

The whole purpose of “Open up” is defeated when one sees that it implies open up within self. There is no interaction been shown up in the commercial. However, literally open up is seen in the advertisement as all the children (except few girls) are shown in their bare minimum. The theme open up could have been utilized in a more intelligent way in so many ways. Sometimes the catchy numbers are not sufficient to catch the attention. The product shot comes too late in the advertisement; however most of the Tata Docomo commercial follows the same trend. One good thing about the commercial is that they have taken children primarily as a means to show the expression of joy. The prime focus of the advertisement gets lost somewhere in order to show the expression of self enjoyment and not enjoyment with others. So the purpose of Laugh, Share and Talk gets subjugated. If someone argues that they have focused on the laugh or fun of the children; their video being shared by somebody and seen by some people in office which again reinforces the feeling of fun; then the talk aspect should also come into the picture as nobody was shown talking about it.

Though the advertisement can be said to catch your glance but still the misfit cannot be ignored.