There are some ads that make you wince every time they are aired. The new MTS ad is the case in point. I reach for the remote every time it starts. And if I cannot find it in time, I wince every time I watch that computer generated baby cut its own umbilical cord in two. Ouch! Another ad that makes me wonder about the IQ of the person who conceptualized it is of Cadbury 5 Star chocolate. I get the tagline but I find the way the babies' birth is depicted highly offensive. To add insult to injury, the ad has a popping sound every time the baby is born. Really guys, you couldn't think of anything better to convey the message?

Then there are some ads that have a good storyline but when the ad ends you wonder what it had to do with the product or company in question. The new Nestle ad falls in this category. The story of how a boy, who is jealous of the sister adopted by his parents, comes to grow fond of her is truly heart-warming but I simply couldn't connect it to Nestle products.

And then there is the Vodafone M-pesa ad which asks a husband who wants to transfer some money to his mom to relax in a chair, ask his wife for a hot cuppa tea, switch on the TV and then use the service on his phone. I am not saying the ad should have talked about a wife asking her husband to make a cuppa while she transferred money to her mom. I am saying that they would have helped make a small dent in the century-old patriarchal stereotype of a relaxing husband and his slogging wife if they had just left out the part about the tea altogether.

Sometimes that task seems just too hopeless!