From my previous post of “Please Help Me Decipher This Code“, I’ve quote that an ad suppose to capture the audience intention and convey the benefit of the product. Now let me humbly provides another full of hidden codes advertisement.

This is a billboard of Indosat latest advertisement oddity, because lots of people misinterpret the meaning of the ad which mentions about free talk, zero money, and a pretty lady which I don’t really care who she is. The billboard ad means that if you spend Rp. 5000 on a conversation, then you will be given another free talk of Rp. 5000. What the billboard mentions about free talk /zero money in particular is that the second Rp. 5000 call is free. But here’s the catch, that second Rp. 5000 is applicable to one condition only in that when the free Rp. 5000 is used up for the day, you pay for regular charge, and that Rp. 5000 free talk use the same call rate of (around) Rp. 1700/minute, therefore only giving you a free talk time of around 3 minutes…

Come on… That’s just stupid and misleading. Furthermore, the writings “Ada yang lebih murah?” literally means in English: “Is there anything cheaper?” Off course there is, there’s Esia, and Telkom Flexi, although both are CDMA base wireless service, it has the same function of telecommunication. After all, the billboard ad doesn’t mention anything about the specifics, ain’t it? Is it the cheapest in CDMA or GSM base wireless service? Is it the cheapest prepaid wireless service, is it the cheapest lie ever in an advertising? Well, you decide. Just for comparison, the half Malaysian owned XL tariff is Rp. 25/second or roughly Rp. 1500/minute to call other operators, while Mentari users pays Rp. 17ooish/minute to call other operators… Now is that the cheapest? I don’t know, perhaps I’m the dumb one.

This Indosat billboard ad further strentghened my opinion about marketing people goes to hell.

By the way, I use Mentari, and there’s a free SMS promo in which you buy Rp. 50000 voucher you’ll get 50 free sms and 150 free sms if you buy Rp 100000 voucher (free sms applicable to own network). For me that SMS promo is more valuable than the trashy Rp. 5000 free talk ad.