Royal Enfield launched a new campaign #MyBullet last week highlighting its full range of six new paint shades for the iconic Bullet 350 in the market. The Bullet is the oldest motorcycle in India, being in production non-stop since 1932, well back into the pre-Independence era.
The new Enfield campaign comprises three film stories that celebrate values of the motorcycle and its riders over the decades, and try to showcase the legacy of Bullet. There is even one with a girl who rides the legendary bike and from whom roadside Romeos slink away.
Parallelly, the #MyBullet campaign in social media asks Royal Enfield owners to share their most loved and cherished memories with the Bullet. The Enfield owner community is supposed to be 6 million strong across social media, so the brand should get a reasonable response considering it always had deep reservoirs of customer loyalty.
In fact, its MD Siddhartha Lal kick-started the social media campaign with a post on Instagram.
The Bullet is such a phenomenal brand that one expects that its advertising too would be deeply impactful and memorable. Back in the 80s, the Black Bullet stood solid for the all-macho muscular male, with an engine sound uniquely its own. That is what ignited the brand cult. The current campaign somehow doesn’t recreate the same magic.
Bajaj Avenger too launched a campaign promising a ride that would make you Feel Like God. The story revolves around how doing the mundane everyday things, the tedium of daily routine, all that is ‘right makes you rot’. Hence, you need to #RideToReboot. It is a nice campaign, but nothing extraordinary. The ad seems the literal visual translation of the brief with no creative leap or brand energy. Bikes are such an exciting ad category.
Full of adrenalin, speed, muscle and fun! When bike brands fall short and put out an ad that is tepid, worse insipid, I think both the ad agency and the brand managers need to be censured. In both Enfield’s and Bajaj’s case the ad is punching well below potential. Which is such a pity!
In contrast, a new campaign by designer Ritu Kumar, featuring Radhika Apte, oozes womanhood, class, style, and oomph. The film is pure poetry, featuring a voiceover narration by Apte of Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling’s poem. Inspiring and motivating, the lyrics convey Kipling’s advice on how to win life. The ethos and essence of the campaign is the portrayal of a woman who is ready take on the world fearlessly, but with humility.
The fabric and dresses have a dreamy rhythm to them. Featured is a palette of earthy tones, blazing burgundys and sap greens, but the depiction and presentation is a combination of global sensitivities combined with Indian aesthetics. Wish more brands would show the kind of artistic finesse this one-minuter does.
The lemon of the week by miles is an Anushka Sharma commercial for Kerovit, a sub-brand of Kajaria. I have not seen anything quite as mindless or stupid as this. Sharma, playing a lady cop raids an affluent home but she and her dog get charmed by the bathroom fittings and fixtures. Sharma makes a complete fool of herself (in uniform) while she gyrates, dances and romances the tap, the faucet and the shower. I wonder why brands create such thoughtless ad and actually pay a celebrity to feature in it.
(The writer is a media and advertising veteran)