I wish I had made these

Nilesh Vaidya’s favourites are Sony Ericsson’s black coffee ad and Tanishq’s wedding jewelery commercial. He says, ?There are some films you remember for the quality of the idea, some for the grace of the craft. The two films I wish I had done have both in abundant measure. The first was the ?Surprisingly Small? film for Ericsson mobile phones (Enterprise Nexus). It?s been 15 years, and I can still recount every frame, every sound effect, even the glass breaking in the background, a second after the punchline.?

He adds, ?The second and more recent one is the ?Arranged Marriage? film for Tanishq Wedding Jewellery (by Lowe, I think). A simply huge insight, beautifully executed. Every word of the dialogue plays its part perfectly, and I have rarely seen a better performance by an actor in an ad, than the mother in this film. Even the father?s mispronunciation of ?San Jose? is a burr I?m not likely to stop smiling at too soon.?

My first ad

?A highly forgettable experience that nearly made me quit advertising. It was for a beer brand I won?t name, at an agency I won?t name either. A few days after presenting the script to my creative director, I called him just to inquire if the client had liked it. He said they had, and as a matter of fact, he was in Goa shooting the film! Needless to say, I got drunk on a competing brand of beer,? he says.

?As if that wasn?t bad enough, the first glimpse I had of the film was the offline edit. I didn?t have a clue what an offline was ? I assumed this was how the film would finally look. Like any offline, it looked incredibly lousy. I still remember lying awake all night wondering how I?d ever get a job again. But even the most tragic stories have happy endings, and the film turned out to be rather cute.?

Vaidya began his career in 1995 with Spear Advertising. He initially tried his hand at space-selling in a magazine and also tried to show some of his writings to editors to get into journalism. He finally decided to go for copywriting. ? The temptation of writing 30 words versus 3000 was too much to resist,? he says. He has worked with agencies like Triton and Lowe Lintas. He has also had a few stints at Network Advertising earlier.

Before joining Network recently as its executive creative director, Vaidya was with Euro RSCG India for five years. He was promoted in 2009 to lead the creative team in Mumbai. At Euro RSCG, he worked on campaigns for brands such as Dainik Bhaskar (Zidd Karo campaign), HDFC Bank and Bharat Petroleum. His overall portfolio includes brands such as Reckitt Benckiser, Johnson & Johnson, Aquaguard, Jet Airways, Thomas Cook and Cipla. ?Each agency taught me a lot, each one was so completely different from any of the others. It?s made me realize that there is a place given in this world for every kind of creature, and every type of agency,? he says.

Thank god,it isn?t me

?This is so unfair. Bad ads happen to all of us, even the best of us. I?ve made my share, I?d venture to say that even the Balkis, Piyushes and Prasoons amongst us have those skeletons lying in there somewhere,? he says.

?So why not just celebrate the good? There are, of course, a lot of films I wish I hadn?t done. But hey, I?m sure no agency writer or art director sat at his keyboard and said, ?Let me crack a really bad film.? It happens, sometimes because of bad judgement, sometimes because the odds are stacked against you.?

He adds, ?What I find really funny is watching bad ads in the company of non-advertising friends, or even relatives. They all look at you with an expression that says, ?You guys get paid to do this rubbish?? It?s no use explaining to them that you didn?t know the brand in question even existed, you have no idea which agency did it, you would never?oh, forget it!?