Vodafone's 'parrot' ad wins PETA award

Vodafone has won People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India's Glitterbox Award for its parrot advertisement.

In Vodafone's latest series of advertisements promoting its offering of a bonus card of Rs4, the company chose to create an animated parrot with actor Boman Irani's voice over.

"Vodafone's talking 'parrot' ads are as kind as they are creative. It so great to see companies like Vodafone take advantage of Indian ingenuity while keeping birds in the wild where they belong and off the sets," PETA India's, chief functionary, Poorva Joshipura said.

The commercial shows the owner of an Irani café, an animated talking parrot, the voiceover of which has been given by Boman, cribbing about the fact that nothing can be purchased for a paltry Rs4 in today's day and age.

The parrot ends by asking, 'Aye bhai, kya mein tereko ulloo dikhta hai? (Do I look like a fool)?' to which the voiceover says, 'Trust us that Vodafone provides calls and messages at that price.'

"Birds and other animals should never be robbed of their precious freedom or abusively trained to do daft tricks when companies can make better, cheaper and more effective ads using today's technology," Joshipura said.

Glitterbox Awards are given to businesses that take advantage of humane alternatives to the use of real animals in their ads.