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I had earlier written about Idea Cellular’s mobile education ad campaign in which an upmarket school is connected to satellite classrooms in the villages via mobile phones.

Now, Idea Cellular has come up with a mobile governance ad campaign (via Bhatnaturally). Like the mobile education idea, the idea is simple and utopian. A politician asks her constituents via mobile phones if she should allow the construction of a shopping mall on agricultural land, and rejects the proposal when her constituents say “no”.

Many observers are predicting that mobile phones will play an important role in the 2009 Indian general elections, both in campaigning and citizen journalism coverage.

With ad campaigns like these, such predictions may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I must be growing soft, but I love Idea Cellular’s (mobile) education for all ad campaign (via Russel Buckley) —

It seems that Idea has also tied up with NDTV Networks and Nanhi Kali, an NGO, to launch an initiative for the education of the girl child.

Here are the two follow-up ads (1 & 2) and here are more details on the campaign (MyBigMedia and Campaign India).

I searched for an hour, but couldn’t find the campaign microsite. If you have come across it, do leave a link in the comment section.

I stumbled onto Apple’s ‘Switch‘ ad campaign when I watched the Ellen Feiss commercial at Kiruba’s blog -

The campaign – which first aired in 2002 – featured what the company referred to as ‘real people’ who had ’switched’ from the PC to the Mac.

The commercial featuring Ellen Feiss became an internet phenomenon, partly because of speculation that Feiss was under the influence of illicit drugs during the filming of the commercial, due to her slurred speech and disoriented eyes. She denied these claims and ascribed the ‘drugged’ behaviour to the effect of the Benadryl cough syrup, together with exhaustion.

Feiss’s popularity grew to the point where she was offered appearances on both David Letterman’s and Jay Leno’s late night shows, both of which she turned down. In September 2005, Feiss made her movie acting debut in the French short film ‘Bed and Breakfast’. Ellen recently spoke about the making of the ad, and its effect on her life, in an interview.

Here is the 2002 Joy of Tech cartoon entitled ‘Mona Switcher’ that was based on Ellen –

Here’s the other Ellen Feiss commercial that was never aired –  Read More