I think I don’t understand much of advertising. That’s because I always find myself with an opinion that runs counter to what Economic Times’ Brand Equity team has when it comes to rating the TV ads.

Take for example, that sweet-as-honey Airtel ad in which a bored-looking Vidya Balan takes call from Madhawan for the umpteenth time. The ET panel found the ad good while I roll my eyes heavenward each time this Karan Johar inspired ad airs. The Virgin Mobile ad - in which a teenage girl wrings permission to go on a vacation to Goa with her friends from her reluctant parents by pretending that she is lesbian – didn’t curry favor with the ET panel but I found the ad witty and refreshing down to the last sound byte.

Of course I am not a zero-emotion robot or else I wouldn’t have liked the new Maruti ad. Right from the couple with their newborn meeting the grandparents and the kids running out of a car through the rains in the arms of their mom waiting outside the home to the teenager asking for a lift with the board “need to be home for diwali”, every frame in this collage rings true to the song that plays in the background “Ghar aa gaya Hindustan” (Indian comes home in a Maruti). But again I am a hopeless sucker for all the ads that use words like “Hindustan”, “Bharat” and “India”. What to do? Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani ;-)

Oh, and did anyone see that ad of Parle Milk Shakti? The frail looking granny who bends the pan in one stroke is cute as a button but MS Dhoni surprisingly does a fine imitation of someone who has just witnessed something totally impossible.