Attracting Tourists

Among the state tourism ad campaigns, in the last one year or so, advertisements of Madhya Pradesh (MP), Kerala and Gujarat Tourism drew my attention; the Gujarat Tourism ad campaign has been on television for close to three years. I also see a Maharashtra Tourism ad now and then on television but it is not as impactful as the first three mentioned above. Actor Shah Rukh Khan was been roped in by the West Bengal government to do an ad for the state, but I have not seen this ad in any TV channel so far, not even in travel related programmes; I finally saw it on YouTube; I wonder in which channels can one see the West Bengal Tourism ad?  

Before I begin commenting on these ad campaigns let us see as to why do people travel? Other than personal reasons, the other reasons or needs are:

My favourite 2010 ads

In this post I would like to recall and comment on five noteworthy ads which were released in 2010:

1.  LIC of India – Father & Daughter

Sometimes talking about death can be a tricky although it is inevitable, no one likes to be reminded that he will die. Here is an example; once I happened to witness a young man trying to sell life insurance to someone. The young insurance agent began his talk by saying “Suppose you suddenly die …” his prospective client looked unpleasantly surprised and jovially requested him not to remind him about his death. Once a gentleman told me that he always tried to avoid a certain insurance agent because he was reminded of death whenever he met him, such people are resistant to life insurance. In order to avoid the unpleasant topic of death some insurance agents try to sell life insurance as an alternate savings plan where risk is also covered, the word risk means ‘If you were to die suddenly’. Some agents prefer to use the phrase – ‘God forbid if something happens, life is uncertain’ or some such words to that effect.