THERE was a time when mothers used to sing their small children to bed. Every small child would fervently wait for that moment, yyhen would his mother come, lean beside him and sing him a lullaby. Il seemed as if that was the child's only need for the moment. But now. along with time, everything has changed. Nowaday s a child's' major necessity seems to lx- watching the BTV advertisements. Just switch on the TV. he would watch It with profound enthusiasm even finish up his meal quite obediently. But is it true only for children? We have also become a lot interested In watching these ads. We have seen people in many occasions talking about the BTV ads — • the majority criticizing them and the minority praising. The main theme of their discussion is about the standard of the BTV ads. though.

The fact is acceptable that todays ads have improved and are move presentable than the ads which were made in the past. We have seen a lot of changes — good photography, good jingle, good editing, smart and pretty models with sophisticated technological backing. As Ironical it may seem, but we should thank these ad-makers of today who have taken the pain to be creative or rather say pharlsise. Some ads like the Azad Ball

local ads lack creativity. The ads have become stereotype.

Spectators want to see some changes, a sense of humour on BTV ads to be previse. Most of us must have seen the "Philips bulb" ads on Zee TV. where an astrologer tries to prophesize a man's future, and another, where an old man tries to watch his favourite cricket match on TV. Our |xx>-ple demand these type oi humorous ads on "our" TV screen.

"I don’t want to' see the same faces Jumping and hobbling without any specific reason in the idiot-box. playing a saxophone in the beach, the concept of the ad having no rational relationship with the product, whatsoever, "says Fatima, a regular viewer of BTV. A teenager. Parvez, thinks here models are being mis-casted. "How can a renowned model like Nobel sign up for the new Olympic Gold ad. The whole ad was hilarious. I used to like him so much. Well. I am no longer his fan." concludes the much depressed guy.

Would you comply with the highly debatable statement — "you need good money for good ads"? Nowadays, who doesn't watch Zee IV? Everyone has gone crazy over the Philips' ad — where the boy tries to act cool with a girl by playing guitar on her lawn — was that re-

Pen. Meril Fresh Gel. Peps Gel (come on welybody smile). Berger I’auii arc highly |x»pular all over the city. But still the sophisticated crowd thinks out

ally expensive to shoot? Or why don't we look at the Polo ads which are being televised regularly. Some of their ads don't have any models. The ads

are highly creative. In fact, the Polo ads are now being considered to be the best ads. You don't need a huge budget to make ads like the ones mentioned above. Cheap to make but yet so cute and • presentable to the onlookers. Yes. It is true that we do need celebrities. Suppose the whole script about an ad is solely concerned with a celebrity. In that case. It is obvious that a model should be of a very high calibre. For example, the new Coca-cola ad. The concept of the ad is about the Miss. Universe shooting for the cold drink. So. the product company has taken Susmita Sen. In this ad. if there were any other normal person, than the ad wouldn't be to the point.

We were just window shopping at Cat's Eye (the recognised gent's boutique) thal day and casually asked Rusho — the person-in-charge of the boutique on this account. He says. that, "glamour Is very essential to create a sensation. Here, people like what celebrities like to wear and use. Our market Is of that kind. Looking for good-looking people (the fact/ that models must be good-looking, according to him) is very difficult. So why not use celebrities, even if

it is expensive, to hire them." he quotes.

Many companies, unfortunately the renowned ones, go to the ad-makers with a script with them, bought from foreign ad-company and want a remake of that same ad; but this time using our local models. This is happening because they don't have any optimistic views about our ad-companies. They don’t have faith in our local ad-makers' potential.

And there are some ads which^re made for the lets say people without different taste. A teenager from Barldhara or Gulshan won't probably smear "Henolux Complexion Cream" on her face and go to a party. The standards of these ads are totally disgraceful. But. yet. unfortunately. we need these kinds to fulfil a definite class of people's satisfaction.

So. we can conclude with little emphasis, that our ad-makers and companies are dependent. though not wholly, on glamorous, popular, established models or celebrities, for their product to catch attention. And as for creativity, the word seems to be Greek or French to the Bangladeshi ad-makers they Just can’t think without help.