In cricket-crazy India, securing a cricketer for an ad campaign is the ultimate aim. With this the ad agencies not only compensate for their lack of ideas but also end up financing the sportmen's penthouses, according to Pandey. Reviewing the ads of 1998 to a packed house of advertising professionals and students at the Nehru Centre on Tuesday, Pandey underlined the need for the Indian ad scene to go international.

It is time Indian ad agencies stop basking in the glory of stray awards and begin brand building for themselves if they have to be noticed globally, he asserted, screening a string of `uninspiring' ads that sustain themselves on ideas grabbed from Hindi movies and songs. ``AKya bolti tu or Ala re ala for Coke can be very popular but is certainly not original,'' he said.

Slamming agencies for using India as a backdrop, again to make up for their lack of creativity, Pandey said that `patriotic' ads like Ruf and Tuf and Sahara India may fill our hearts with pride but does nothing for the country. ``If songs and dances are going to be the main theme, our clients might as well approach choreographers for their product,'' he remarked.

Drawing up a list of the `extravaganzas of '98' including campaigns for Wills, Director's Special, Tuff shoes and MRF Zigma -- ads on which crores of rupees were spent -- Pandey emphasised that big ads were not necessarily goods ads and they would take us nowhere on the global scene.

Pandey complemented Trikaya Grey on being selected the international agency for Mauritus Tourism, urging others to spruce up their act if they did not want to be left behind. The 8 pm Whiskey, Fevikwik and the Mauritius Tourism ads were the only gems of'98 which he felt were original.

However, not everyone in audience agreed with him. Several ad professionals felt that the points raised by Pandey made good ad sense in India. ``The aim is to make the consumer buy the product. If you have to reach the people in towns and villages, what can be better than cricketers and songs and dance? This is what sells in India. Why do we always have to compare ourselves with the West?'' one of them asked.

Earlier, Police Commissioner Ronnie Mendonca distributed the prizes for the ads for Alert Citizens' Initiative campaign which was launched in May 1998 by the Mumbai police and the Advertising Club of Bombay.