India, July 2 -- Oh! Those days. When watching a TV-soap was also about waiting for a favourite jingle. When sitting down for a cricket match in front of our screen was so much about wondering what new ads will be played this season. From Doordarshan to Superbowl, ads (wait, let me rephrase that) well-made ads were not the interruption but the protagonist too. A good ad was the cameo of the day that we loved to see after the film was over. We would eat it up devouringly with our eyes, then discuss for days, and then wait again to catch a glimpse of while we had their music and lines memorised by heart and etched in our brains.

Alas! Something happened in the last decade. Every ad now seems a replica of another one. Creative bankruptcy or...