We often put ourselves in situations where everyone struggles to make conversation – Networking events, information sessions and super-extended family weddings. In our lives, we have all come across a lot of ‘professionally’ awesome people but ‘humanly’ boring people.

You know your conversation has come to a painful end when you start talking about the weather and criticizing the food. While you pretend to care more about the content of your conversation, you find yourself scanning through the room to identify that happy Aladdin whose laugh seems to be quite contagious. It seems he took his magic carpet and travelled to places you didn’t know existed.

Expedia, the travel company tapped into the one emotion we all feel but never confess to – Jealousy. While their competitors barked about how people need a ‘rejuvenating break’, Expedia abra-ca-dabra’ed itself by urging people to become more interesting people by travelling.

My favourite ad from the campaign is the one about Bulgaria:

‘Genie’us? Well, I am sitting on my magic carpet and travelling to Thailand next week. It so happens that I did book my trip through Expedia. So +1 for advertising effectiveness.