No Laughter Please, we are Bangladeshi

Sometimes I wonder why humour hasn’t caught on in Bangaldeshi advertising. We (the advertising fraternity) are actually a very funny. Most of the creative directors (or aspirants) I know have a rib-tickling capability to lift one’s spirits. This coupled with the fact that life and reality around us is so overwhelmingly serious I would have thought humour would be the natural aphrodisiac of life.

Over the last half-year we attempted to inject humour in some of the Mojo advertising we are doing. Our “Hamba” ad where we gave away a cow for Qurbani and the “Abdul Quddus Bond” series for the Cricket World Cup used humour to make our carbonated beverage advertising stand apart viz a viz the song and dance routines of rest of our competitors. The result I think has been largely positive. The talented actor in the TVC, Noyan has turned out to be quite a celebrity. And I think it is a surprise for all of us on how he is hounded for autographs wherever he goes.

I do hope other advertisers pick up on this experiment and turn it into a trend.


On a lighter note (pun of course intended!) I thought I’d tell you readers of this marvellous young Bangladeshi talent - Naveed Mahbub. An engineer from BUET by training he is now trying break out in America as a stand up comic. I kid you not! Recently to conquer his fear of public speaking he went through one of those life changing experience. Now he is on a reality show [www.Famecast.com] competing to be the best comic in the US. And guess what, he has made it to the top 10!

To take him to the next level he needs us to vote for him. It won’t take too much time for you to register on to Famecast.com and vote for him on the Comedy Stage. Go on make us proud…

Websites:
FameCast site : http://www.FameCast.com
FameCast Comedy Stage http://www.famecast.com/contest/centerstage.php?stage_id=6&round_id=59
Naveed Mahbub’s webpage: www.naveedmahbub.com

Unfortunately the voting closes on 14th July - so hurry!

PS I’ll try and see how to master YouTube so that I can upload the TVCs for everyone to see.