Uber Eats recreates Cadbury, Dhara, Nirma ads from 90s, but why?

'Uber Eats wants to be seen as a better option because it offers flat 50 per cent off on the first five orders booked from its app, reminding customers of 90s ka nostalgia and 90s ke prices.'
Uber Eats delivery. (File Photo)
Uber Eats delivery. (File Photo)

I here are campaigns created sometimes by advertising folks for other advertising folks to gush over. Such campaigns are created to win acclaim and accolades from one’s peer group, with scant concern for actual consumers of the brand. The new three-ad digital campaign for Uber Eats is one such campaign. I don’t know who inspired the idea; I don’t know who approved the idea; I don’t know who the campaign targets; worse I don’t know why Uber Eats is wasting money on the campaign. 

One of the first questions I was taught to ask in the advertising was, “Who are we talking to?” The inevitable next questions, when writing an advertising brief, was to answer, “Where are we in their minds?” and “Where do we want to be?” Uber Eats is surely talking to millennials in whose mind it is a new food service app competing with Swiggy and Zomato. Uber Eats wants to be seen as a better option because it offers flat 50 per cent off on the first five orders booked from its app, reminding customers of 90s ka nostalgia and 90s ke prices. Basically, a promise of Purane Prices, Naya App. 

So far so good. But it is from here that Uber Eats loses the plot. And that too, horribly. In an advertising brief, the next question always asked after figuring out where you are in the customer’s mind and where do you want to be is, “How do we get there?” This is intended to answer what creative route to follow. Uber Eats has chosen to recreate the Cadbury, Dhara and Nirma ads of the 90s to ‘get there’. My fundamental disconnect with the entire creative approach is with the fact that the millennials being targeted have never ever seen the original creatives that have been copied to create the new commercials.

So, the target audience has no knowledge, no past exposure, no memory, no recall, no nostalgia whatsoever of the 90s commercials and hence cannot be expected to be stirred or excited into any action by the communication. The Flatmates video of Uber Eats features the original Jalebi boy of Dhara, Parzaan Dastur. In the new rendition, Dastur, now all grown up, leaves his apartment with bags packed as he feels hassled by his flatmates. However, he promptly returns when he finds out they’ve ordered biryani through Uber Eats. 

The Classroom ad pays homage to the famous Cadbury Dairy Milk TVC complete with the famous Kuch Khaas Hain tune and corresponding wild dance routine that became wildly famous. In Uber Eats, the girl is shown as a student who celebrates a successful food order placed on Uber Eats while still in class. 
The Office TVC shows us a new-age office-going ‘Deepikaji’, but one who shares the same paar ki nazar (a keen eye) just like her counterpart from the ‘90s ad. While the Deepika from the original TVC chooses the cheaper and better Nirma Super, the new one opts for the newer, more affordable Uber Eats option over other alternatives.

The Uber Eats campaign actually reminds me of the old Hindi song Kahin Pe Nigahen Kahin Pe Nishana! The campaign is actually the recreation of a favourite old dream for somebody in the creative team at Uber Eats (I am told the creatives are done by an in-house team at the clients office … and it shows!) who wanted to be part of some of the best ads of his or her youth. That dream is now being lived through this completely wonky campaign by force-fitting these old commercials into a new communication. Only God knows why. 

I normally try not to be rude in ad reviews. In the case of this new Uber Eats campaign too, I shall not run down the creatives. All I would tell Uber is to sack the creative geniuses on their in-house team before they indulge in any more flights of fancy and destroy the goodness of Uber Eats. Also, perhaps it may not be a bad idea for Uber to hire a regular, good advertising agency. It would surely help the brand in the long run. 
(Sandeep Goyal is an advertising veteran)

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