Noticed the Reliance mobile ads? They’ve taken forward the Idea of Sachin, Zaheer and Harbhajan Singh speaking to fans with Hritik Roshan calling up long lost pals. Then there is the new Virgin mobile series which seems inspired by the success of the Vodafone Zoozoos. Here, a couple of caricatures in black and red, play games with each other — eg., lady in red lifts the dinner dish and finds a black head awaiting her on the platter — and screams. Not nearly as funny as Zoozoos.

TV commercials are perfect barometers of popularity. Remember when the only male model in the country was Amitabh Bachchan who made way for Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan while Sachin Tendulkar came and went — coming more often than going? If you watch cricket on Star Cricket, you’ll see there’s only man having a field day off the pitch. He’s in every other commercial, having completely eliminated the competition. M.S Dhoni is selling everything from Aircel mobile services to Lays wafers. Now if he’d just chewed up the opposition instead.

TV commercials are also an advertisement for out-of-work actors. Consider Smriti ‘Tulsi’ Irani who has only just returned to the small screen with Maniben.com (Sab TV). Meanwhile, she’s been seen selling no, not soaps, but water from Aqua Sure water purifier.

And then there are some ads that simply cannot be quantified. Take the advertisement featuring a pair of eyes, beautiful, luminous, almond-shaped, but eyes nevertheless, beneath a pair of perfectly shaped eyebrows. Together they perform calisthenics and you’re cross-eyed simply watching the performance. Look deeply enough and you enter the iris (what else?) and the magical world of Incredible India. Don’t ask how, just watch it. You might have missed many of these ads if you were watching the South Africa-West Indies encounter or New Zealand-Pakistan — the wickets fell faster than leaves in a storm, so that for once, we had to take a break from the ads and return hastily to the game.

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