The Great New AdVentures

Jingles are gone, campaigns are forgettable, and the magic feels lost. As advertising evolves from cinematic storytelling to campaigns shaped by technology and celebrity culture, one wonders whether it risks becoming just another form of digital noise, or will it find fresh ways to move hearts and minds

- By ANJANA VASWANI

The world's oldest advertisement dates back to the 1st century AD. Discovered in the Greek ruins of Ephesus in Turkey, is a carved left foot on a marble slab accompanied by the drawing of a woman's head wearing a crown and a coin-filled purse. It was the advertisement for a brothel on the left side of the town. Ads have always been a part of life. They have evolved with us, from stories and narratives woven in, to Insta ads where AI creates adverts a dime a dozen, literally. Earlier this year, travel vlogger Shafeek Hashim offered to turn his bald head into a billboard. Hashim's terms were simple: ₹50,000 for three months, where the vlogger would display a hair transplant company's advertisement-temporarily tattooed on his head while recording YouTube content during the period. The 36-year-old from Karoor, in Alappuzha district in Kerala signed with La Densitae, a Kochi-based company for the advertisement. "I expect better offers in the future," he claimed in a video on his YouTube channel '70mm vlogs' with more than 28,000 subscribers. In the neighbouring Karnataka, a 10-minute food delivery service in Bengaluru hired three men to act as 'walking advertisments'. And no, we aren't talking about distributing promotional pamphlets. The men acted as human billboards. In Noida, Uttar Pradesh, builders and developers too hit on this idea with youngsters walking down the busy streets with lit LED advertisements strapped on to them. When the posts went viral with their pictures, some netizens called it "extremely dehumanising", while others thought it was a creative way to attract consumers.