The FIFA World Cup 2022 has kicked off in Qatar and people across the world are gearing up to cheer for their favourite teams. While the players battle it out on the field at the greatest sporting spectacle on the planet, we thought we’d kick off a tournament of our own to decide which iconic Indian ad will take the Advertising World Cup home.
But this is not a regular ad battle. It is, in fact, a match between four decades’ best ad contenders and you decide who lifts the cup ultimately.
The Great Indian Ad Battle will take place on Twitter and Instagram. Our in-house editorial teams and adficionados created a list of 32 television commercials made after the advent of colour TV in India. If we missed any personal favorites, we apologize. The competition is super tough and we’re glad it’s not us who has to pick the GOAT.
Vote for the ads you think deserve a shot to be the best ad of all time, representing its decade.
How it will work
1) Our editorial teams have shortlisted 32 television commercials from the past four decades (made after the advent of colour TV in India and after our legendary 1983 World Cup win.) A qualitative selection based on a combination of factors like popularity, memorability, creativity and cultural impact. There are 8 ads from each decade forming 4 groups –
1980 to 1989 – 8 (Group A)
1990 to 1999 – 8 (Group B)
2000 to 2009 – 8 (Group C)
2010 to 2019 – 8 (Group D)
2) Through a random selection, ads in each group will be pitted against each other.
3) These “matches” will be presented to you all for votes through polls on Twitter Polls & Instagram Story Polls.
4) The ad with the maximum total votes (total of Twitter + Instagram) wins the fixture.
5) In each group, ads play against each other in a knockout manner to advance to the next stages.
6) Two platforms mean that you can actually vote for your favourite ad twice in the same fixture!
7) The Decade’s winning contender will emerge in each group. These winners will play out the Semi-Finals.
Semi-final matches:
Group A (80s) winning contender vs Group B (90s) winning contender
Group C (2000-2009) winning contender vs Group D (2010 – 2019) winning contender.
8) Audience votes will decide the final match winner.
FINAL – GroupA/B winner vs Group C/D winner
Let the games begin.