10 ADVERTISEMENTS THAT REDEFINED INDIAN ADVERTISING
In 2003, a
telecommunications company approached an advertising agency, and asked them to
create an advertisement film that highlights their network availability in any
region. The campaign headed by two young guns, they created one of the most
original pieces of work in Indian advertising. But there was a problem. The
music. The young guns decided to buy the copyright to an existing song and use
it in the ad. The creative director of the agency upon hearing this was
furious, he stated, an original film like this deserves original music. They
decided to compose an original song for the film. But what about the lyrics? The
creative director asked one of the young guns to write the lyrics. The young
gun wasn’t confident about his writing abilities, but decided to give it a
shot. The words that came out of his pen were, “You and I in this beautiful
world’’. The company was Hutch, the agency was Ogilvy & Mather, you know
the ad. This is the world of advertising and it is incidents like this that
give birth to iconic works of advertising. There are many such advertisements
that has received cult status in our nation. Here are 10 advertisements that
redefined Indian advertising.
HUTCH: THE PUG
The film
stars a boy and a pug, the later following the former everywhere he goes. The
film uses symbolism to great effect, the pug symbolizing the network and the
boy a user, with clever copywriting that reads, ‘’ wherever you go, our network
follows’’, the main attraction to the film is the song. The song reached cult
status, and even today it is the ringtone in many people’s cellphone.
FEVIKWIK: FISHING
When
Pidilite approached Ogilvy & Mather (now Ogilvy) with their new product
Fewikwik, everyone in Ogilvy started brainstorming about how to market the
product. It was Piyush Panday who conceived the idea inside his cabin, he took
a pencil put some Fewikwik on the base of a pencil, dropped a coin in a glass
full of water, and dipped the pencil into the water, and magic, the coin got
stuck to the pencil and came out. When Pidilite heard the idea they were
amazed, they never knew their product worked under water as well.
UNICEF: POLIO IMMUNIZATION
This is
perhaps the most unconventional ad. to be produced in our nation. This is a government
ad. thus it doesn’t sell anything, but informs us. The film stars an ‘’angry
old man’’, who goes by the name Amitabh Bacchan, who is angry on the parents
that they are not giving their children the polio drops, and all he wants is a
Polio free India. Bacchan continued to do these ads over the years, pro bono.
On 27th March 2014, India was declared Polio free.
SBI LIFE INSURANCE: THE RING
Arguably one
of the most beautiful pieces of work that have been produced in Indian
advertising, the film shows an old man gifting his wife a diamond ring on the
eve of Valentine’s day. Thanks to SBI Life Insurance, a retired man can gift
his wife the diamond ring she has always longed for.
GOOGLE SEARCH: REUNION
This one is
a tear jerker. The film runs over three and a half minutes, and tells the story
of two childhood friends who got separated due to partition. It is now their
grandchildren who take it upon themselves to reunite them, with a little help
from Google. Directed by Amit Sharma, who later on forayed into feature
filmmaking with “Badhaai Ho’’, the film is written with great emotional effect
and directed to perfection.
BOURNVITA: READY FOR EXAM
This is the
ad. every parent should watch, every. Set inside a school staff room, where a
parent-teacher meeting is going on, the principle asks a parent how much she
scored in 9th standard, she doesn’t remember, the principle goes on
to explain to the parents the importance of learning, and marks are something
everyone will forget eventually. Beautifully directed by Vishwesh
Krishnamoorthy, a special shout out to the actor who plays the role of the
principal to such great effect.
FORTUNE COOKING OIL: HOMEMADE LOVE
Fortune
Foods are brave hearts. Why? Not many companies will buy an ad. that runs over
four and a half minutes, and doesn’t have a single shot of the product. The film
shows a patient who is completely bed ridden on a hospital bed, who is visited
by his grandmother daily, with a bowl of dal, her only wish is to feed her
grandson the dal, and she believes that it is her dal that is going to do the
magic, but the nurse refuses. The film was shot in a closed hospital in
Budapest, and directed by Vivek Kakkad, Star Plus agreed to run the entire
commercial, without any cuts, in prime time.
MARUTI SUZUKI: ENDLESS PETROL
This is a
real funny one. A young boy is seen “driving’’ his car all around, from the
drawing room floor to over the head of a sleeping person. When asked to stop he
cutely replies ‘’ Papa ki kara, petrol khatam hi nahi hunda’’, which basically
translates to ‘’ Dad, what can I do, the petrol doesn’t finish’’. Maruti with
great wit markets the fuel efficiency in their cars.
SAMSUNG: WE WILL TAKE CARE
Very rarely
an ad. has such impact on people like this one had. Samsung in order to market
its customer service, tells the story of a girl, who is eagerly waiting for the
Samsung service team to reach her home, to fix her television, as she has a
very important show to watch. The ad. runs close to four minutes, we wonder how
many people could hold their tears till the end.
ARIEL: SHARE THE LOAD
This is not
an ad. , this is a letter from a dad to his daughter, saying sorry. Ariel urges
all men to share the responsibilities of household work, it is not a favor but
sharing, the load. The ad. runs for two minutes, Star Sports India ran the complete
ad. during an Indian cricket match.
HONORABLE MENTION
VOGUE: BOYS DON’T CRY
This is
where all the feminists are going to go crazy. Vogue taps in superstar Madhuri
Dixit to convey a message that should have been conveyed a long time ago. The film
is directed by Vinil Mathew, to create awareness about domestic violence, and
that it is the boys who have to be taught the right things first.
Advertising is
storytelling, with an aim to sell a product. The product always is the hero of
the ad. , but sometimes the story becomes the hero, and fortunately people see
the story rather than the product. It is due to such great ads. that today
brands look for a great story to market their product. Storytelling has now
become such an integral part of marketing, that people are now buying stories
rather than the product. We wish and hope that Indian advertising continues to
tell great stories, so that we can write another article about Indian advertising.
More power to storytellers. More power to words.
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