I picked-up the newspaper today morning after what seems like ages and what did I immediately see? An advertisement from Pond’s. While looking at the ad, am thinking to myself, “hmm.. not bad. A half page ad about some Facebook contest”.

Then, horror strikes. I read the Call-to-Action line that says, ‘To know more follow us on Pond’s India (Facebook & twitter icons)’. If you interact with me online, you might already know how much I hate these social media call-to-action scripts.

There are few things that are wrong with this line:

• I still don’t know what the Facebook & Twitter URLs are. There is a lot of guess-work involved.
• This line works online where the Facebook and Twitter icons are hyperlinked.
• The term ‘follow us’ in the print platform is almost a negative connotation. ‘Join us’ or ‘Talk to us’ could be better.

You know which brand does this brilliantly on electronic media and in print?

The Pond’s ad however, does not tell me anything about the contest, or its results to interest me. Also, if I do happen to get interested, it does not tell me where exactly to go, leaving all the guesswork to me!

All in all, its a terrible ad. Why O&M, why?