'Happy to Help' Always.........

The ‘ready to help’ Pug in the new Vodafone ad has caught all our attentions in particular, the animal lovers who shouted abuse. One has to thank the Hutch Co. (orange and pink) for bringing the word pug into regular usage.

We were on our first trip back home from the university, a huge bunch of 20 to 30 would be masters in their subjects of specialization, barely six months out of college, bratty and noisy put into a ever so spacious university — the freedom (our then adult world, rocky, dark expanses of forests, wild animals, haunted houses and some scattered school and hostel buildings). One of the passengers had a dog with him, his Sona or was it Sonia, but it was something starting with the letter S. He kept her in a small cage, next to him, fed all that he bought for himself and baby talked her to sleep and not to bark. Gradually as the night fell, we all fell into talking. Sona (let’s name her Sona for now) was the second prize winner of the National Dog Competition in the city. We were shown all her silver medals, and the rare opportunity to pat her and play with her. She was a friendly dog, a small one, I forget her breed. The light talk took on the tone of bragging when dinner arrived and when it was time to sleep he took out a book full of dog pictures and was finding which dogs we resembled. Pug came as a savior to all of us. We discussed the Hutch dog and were given loads of information on how to maintain and rear one, the statistics, place of availability, so on and so forth. Thanks to our night prayers, he and Sona was gone when morning came, our luggage all intact of course. Pug has stayed with all of us since that day, because according to him, one among us resembled the dog.
It is a acute advertisement. The makers are experts in audience psychology. However, people react to according to their experience and comprehension. There is an article today in The New Indian Express about the ad, a comment on how the little girl wears her socks. Yes she puts them socks-shoe-socks-shoe not left sock-right sock-left shoe-right shoe. Many of us would have missed it.
Well, I think the time period of the ad is 2 days. Because she has her tie on when she searches for her socks and it is absent when she is in the bus…. Wonderful ad, between!!