'Guess, what this is about' - has to be the best ad of 2016
Ads can be a real nuisance (especially on YouTube), but there are some ads on which you cannot click "Skip Ad" that easily.
The 1990s saw many iconic ads like the Dhara oil commercial ("Ghar mai mummy ne jalebi..."), Cadbury ("Kuch khaas hai zindagi mai"), Bajaj ("Humara Bajaj"), to name a few.
What made these ads unique was that they didn't oversell the product they were advertising, they had a narrative, featured good actors and so on.
With more and more stars advertising a gamut of products, most Indian ads now use the tried and tested formula of roping in celebrities - from pan masala to cement to perfume.
However, not everything is lost. For instance, this wonderfully made Finolex Fans ad.
The story goes like this: An Indian astronaut, Babloo, in space is facing the quintessential Indian problem - he wants to eat a parantha but is out of achaar (pickle)!
This lack of spice is relayed to the earth via satelite communication and soon turn into a national emergency. Unsurprisingly, the media picks on this Breaking News ("Astronaut lachaar, Khatam hua Achaar") in its usual noisy fashion. The puns are delicious.
At the end, Babloo the astronaut is saved by his mother's ingenious solution - she uses a Finolex Fan to transport Ramu Kaka with a bottle of achaar. What's best is that the ad keeps you guessing what it's trying to sell till the very end.
The production quality and special effects used in the ad can put any high-budget Bollywood film to shame.
Simple, engaging, visually appealing - is this the best Indian ad of 2016?