Adil Najam
The Ads (commercials) we watch while growing up can sometimes have an amazingly profound an impact on us. When I look back at all my years of growing up with PTV (Pakistan Television) I remember as many ads as I do any other form of programming. The memories of some still bring back a smile on my face. This blog post shares a few of those ads which I was able to find on YouTube.
This first one (above) is the famous Binaca Ad with the, then, child singer Afshaan who used to appear in the Sohail Rana children music programs and later, when all grown up, also appeared often on PTV.
This famous Naurus Ad (Naurus, by the way, is the other Red Bull of Pakistan) was equally popular and the cute little girl featured here was a national sensation of her time. I wonder where she is now.
We have written aboutsome very striking old PIA Ads, print Ads from the 1950s, and also about credit card and bank advertising and telecom company advertising. But old PTV ads have a quality and power all their own (see some new TV ads here).
I am not sure if these ads are necessarily better than the ones we have now. Indeed, some of the new ads are truly amazing - programming quality or better. For example, the Tapal Tea Ads/songs that Shoaib Mansoor produced. And also many more. Mayb, I was younger then and the memories of those days seem more glorious in retrospect. Or, maybe, we only had one channel and much fewer ads and, therefore, whatever was on TV seemed more memorable.
But whatever the reason, for me at least, these ads and the memories of some others from the same era have a particular and special quality to them. I have enjoyed seeing them again, and I hope you will too.
I should confess that I always found this next Ad - of State Life Insurance - rather funny. I still do. The very cute child is praying for her father’s long life and celebrating the fact that he has bought a Life Insurance policy. I wonder why buying - or cashing - a Life Insurance Policy bring such happiness to any child? Anyhow, the ad was catchy and very very popular. In fact, I think it was remade twice or thrice.
By the way, in the realm of the funny were the old Metromillan Billi Marka Agarbatti Ads. Unfortunately, I could not find a video of them.
One of my all-time favorite Ads - and, unfortunately, I could not find a video of this one - was the old Peek Freens biscuit Ad with the Pied Piper luring all the kids away with Peek Freens biscuits. This is the one filmed on a beautiful hill-station location and produced, I believe, by Javed Jabbar.
Another memorable one was this Ad for Kiwi Show polish. Again, the theme is school children and teh classroom. Watch here if the video below does not work.
Do share with us what might be some of your favorite ads from the old PTV days. And why?
Oh wow
Finally a beautiful nostalgic post. I loved “Gul Ahmed ki Lawn” waali mashooris :)
I hated Gayee soap ki janab say tamam karam farmaon ki EEEEEEEEEEED Mubarak! But its somehow etched on our pshyches :)
I loved,
Piyaari Amma
Mano baat Hamari
Amma talo may pakao
hamay sehat mand banao ..
Thanks for a wonderful post Adil! Much appreciated.
Chai chahiaey;
kon si junab
Lipton umda hey
Lipton peejiye or leejiye
But there was a time when the PTV was blasted with these fertilizers ads showing sundis and all especially at dinner time me and my brother used to joke that even PTV had caught sundis and we need some fertilizers spray for PTV. The funny part was zooming in and flashing all different type of sundis one by one. We were kids and used to laugh while girls in the family used to leave the tv room all to us boys ;)))
But one jingle from that time is stuck in my mind and I kind of liked it.
Eda tikha teer tey kaman teray kol ee
Uth meray beliya Uth meray beliya
Padan teray kol ee
And the weirdest Pakistani Product, “Gayee Soap”
It is a bit of a blur but the most memorable “ads” if that is what you can call them were for things like the Police, Army etc. I don’t know how long they lasted but they were quite the rage in the late 70’s and early 80’s at least. How long did that “Police ka he farz madad aap ki” ad run? The jingle is, for better or for worse, burnt into my memory.
And and.. weired Muhammad farooq’s Textiles Ad which were based on Imran Khan.
Neelma Hasan’s dentonic Ad.
Ek Chutki Dentonic se Chutki bajatay he
tringggggggggggggggggggggg…..
Daant Sufaid aur Chamakdar. DEN-TO-NIC
naz Pan:
Jis ki Kushbo b pyari Jis k Lazzat b Pyari
Wo hay Sab ko Pasand
meri muthi me band hay kia…
Batadona!
Naz Pan Masala Naz Pan Masala
Bonanza.
The guy who used to read English news was the model
Fashion k Dunya Mey aya.. Bonanza Bonanza Bonanza..
And one of my Favorite:
Gas aur bloodpressure k Ilaj k liye.. Farzana Dawakahana Dastigir Number Nau(9) Karachi
Yes, I also used to find the Dentonic Ads really really annoying.
The other really annoying Ads were of Kisan Urea that came up right at dinner time and showed all these nasty pictures of pests and SUNDIs!
After a loooooong video… “Waseem bhai, aap thekte naheen?”… “Naheen mein cigarette naheen peeta” :)