If there was one piece of communication that hit the highs on public imagination in the past week, and had everyone rolling on the ground, it was without doubt a cheeky little ad featuring the Royal crown and addressing the Dear Royal Family (of Windsor), who are making headlines once again for all the wrong reasons… Megxit, this time.
In all the hullabaloo surrounding Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s exit from royal titles and royal duties, our own #desifevicol had a quirky little message for the Britishers: Kohinoor nahi, Fevicol le jaanachahiyetha… atleast that would have created an indestructible bond (mazbootjod) within the Royal family
I loved the ad. I must have received more than ten forwards of it from friends and family on WhatsApp. The humour was just so wry. So witty. So tongue-in-cheek. Very British, in fact. And very timely too. Maximising the moment, maximising the available news aperture. No celebrity. No film. No long narrative. Just a well-aimed punch! Congratulations to the young team at digital agency Schbang that created this wonderful little ad; and of course, a big pat on the back to the Fevicol client for continuing to create advertising that is fun, and yet so product-focused.
Two car ads — the launch ads for the Tata Altroz and the Kia Carnival — were new creatives visible last week. The Altroz is a premium hatchback. The protagonist in the ad is shown sweating it out before finally achieving ‘gold’ in the sport of polo. That then is linked to the ‘Gold Standard’ in hatchbacks, the Tata Altroz. I am perhaps getting old because I completely missed the connect. In fact, the brand has gone on record to say that “we (the mother brand) want to be the most loved auto brand in India. According to a Net Promoter Score done by Millward Brown, we were not too long ago given a score of minus 1. Now, we’re at 23, so the love is going up everyday”. Oh, boy! If the Altroz advertising is anything to go by, Tata Motors better watch out! Getting back to a negative score may not take very much time again!
The Kia Carnival ad where a man is shown picking out precious gems to make a necklace for his furry black cat is even more obtuse. No connection whatsoever with the car, which otherwise looks like a more extravagant and richer version of the Innova. The Kia client must obviously have their reasons for not showing the contours, the space, the trims, the fits and finishes, the bells and whistles of its premium new offering. It is a beautiful looking vehicle … spacious and commodious; saying so in the advertising would surely have worked better than diamonds for a black cat.
The new ads for Tata Capital and Chhota Sub are cute though. Gen Z keeps talking of making every year ‘my year’. But distractions, gratifications and cravings overtake all such honourable resolves. The Tata Capital ad uses a ‘time travel’ concept to drive home the fact that even 30 years later, the young man in the ad is far from being ‘settled’ or financially secure. It is an interesting depiction, light-hearted, yet focused. Similarly, the Subway Chhota Sub ad shot inside a classroom is product-focused without losing its sense of humour. The tiny fan you can buy as a mobile attachment to woo your sweetheart from your Chhota Sub savings is hilarious. I somehow like such advertising: that is, ads that are product-centric, have direct messaging, is entertaining and engaging.
Masaba Gupta, the designer, rolled out a clothing line this week that pushes forward United Nations Environment Programme’s initiative to phase out single-use plastic. The films show how Masaba’s clothing line has detachable bags. The message to #BeatPlasticPollution is presented by a model who wears a black stallion short dress and its saree variant, a giraffe pop wrap outfit and a temple swan hi-low piece with the messaging that “I will wear out plastic” by wearing clothes that turn into bags! Innovative, for sure. And interesting too. Except that such hi-fi clothes are beyond the reach of ordinary pockets, and honestly, I would rather carry my humble cloth bag from home rather than unbutton or un-sew my dress in public! Wonder why UNEP would spend money on such expensive ideation and communication rather than just donate a few thousand sturdy and simple cloth bags! Perhaps the more practical options are not ‘sexy’ enough and don’t garner any PR mileage. Sad, but true.
Dhara, the good ole cooking oil guys put out a “Women of Change” campaign recently. A ‘true story’ of a lady who says, “All it took was one brief connect with my inner child” to rediscover that “the power to change, is within”. Laudable, for sure. But again, the brand connect to the inner discovery is missing in the ad. A lot of dancing, lots of mudras, but no cooking, no oil, no dhara. Wonder why.
(The author is an advertisement veteran)