It’s the fag end of the last quarter of FY 2016-17 and there’s no getting away from it. The real estate market in Pune, indeed, across urban India, is depressed. From Wakad to Wagholi, uber-rich residences and one-room apartments alike gather dust as unsold inventory piles higher. Home-buying decisions have been deferred or shelved for the nonce as builders scramble to offer ever more imaginative discounts and schemes to a public that couldn’t care less. But the average developer’s faith in the power of done-to-death real estate advertising remains touchingly alive—if naïf.
Having fought the good fight against clichedom for longer than one cares to remember, the time is ripe to check whether property sold because of the advertising or despite it.
Here then for your edification and entertainment is a collection of the most popular (copied?) headlines and visuals. Rank according to recall, i.e. the one you remember most clearly gets the highest rank and let the truth prevail.
Creatively blocked developers and marketing types are welcome to mix and match to create their own campaign/s.
Headlines
This is/was/will be IT
Dream/homes to reality/realty
Stop dreaming start living
Unbelievable/Never before / Never-before-never-again/
Right time right place/right time, right place, right price
Life/Style/Happiness/Appreciation just got Better/Bigger/Easier
Life above the ordinary/higher than the rest/
A landmark to call your home/Pune/Aurangabad/Nashik… has a new landmark/ Landmark for all, home for you
0% Downpayment/Vat/Registration… 100% Happiness/Appreciation
Visuals (for proprietary reasons–and prudence, visuals are only described here)
Man/woman/child/all of the above… with expressions of disbelief
Elevation with smiling woman
Elevation with smiling woman and child
Elevation with happy family
Elevation without happy family
Elevation with pirouetting female
Elevation in the midst of a taiga forest
Woman in yoga pose contemplating rising/setting sun
Happy man/woman/child in plush living/dining/bedroom
N.B: In defence of every banality you’ve been assaulted with—and the agencies that crafted it–if it was clichéd, the client wanted it so.