BUSY BODIES
Advertiser: Vodafone
Baseline: Power to you
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
4Ps B&M Take: Zoozoos are back. And they seem mightily busy this IPL season. In keeping with the Indian Premier League’s promise of giving India a hearty dose of its favourite celebrities and non-stop cricketing action, the Zoozoos too seems bent on making the Vodafone consumer’s life as exciting as possible. Busily trying to create relevance for using Internet on mobile phones and spread awareness about their Internet offers during the IPL season, the initial teaser ads were launched by Vodafone during the inaugural event. The teaser had the little white bloated egg-heads up to something big, recruiting and training an entire army, building anticipation about their next set of antics… And why not, as “official partner” and “on-air co-presenting sponsor” of IPL 6 they do need to plan something big. The follow-on ads – as many as 9 different spots either launched or to-be-launched – don’t disappoint either. Let’s talk about some of these spots – all designed to emphasize the relevance for mobile internet spanning videos, music, games, et al. One of the ads for instance has the little white creatures (complete with military green helmets) plan and carry out the abduction of a much-bigger musician Zoozoo. Once captured and brought back to their hiding place… his task is to continue singing but solely for the pleasure of the head Zoozoo – who is shown lying back in his bed and enjoying the music. Great idea and the white creatures are really quite adorable. Only drawback is that often one does not really understand the message in the storyboard at first go and has to have a couple of viewings of the spot to get the full picture. But hey, Zoozoos are now as firmly enmeshed with the Vodafone brand as the cute little pug, and combined with the big and bold ‘trial of Internet using the Rs.25 starter pack’ slogan emblazoned behind every ad, the bottomline is easy to get.
THREE’S A CROWD?
Advertiser: Amul Macho
Baseline: Bade Aram Se
Agency: Ogilvy India
4Ps B&M Take: One new thing we learn about Saif Ali Khan… that he speaks hen. Apart from that, the ad hardly utters a word about anything to do with the brand, the product, or even the category of men’s undergarments as a whole, which it is actually supposed to represent. For sure Amul Macho has come a long way from its obscenely tasteless ‘Yeh to bada toing hai’ campaign which rubbed the category on your face. From brazen in-your-face campaigning to blink-and-you-miss-it… that’s a fairly long way to travel. The storyboard goes something like this. Saif Ali Khan is making breakfast for his girl and realizes he is out of eggs. He tells the hen perched atop his kitchen counter to supply three eggs pronto. The hen promptly obeys but supplies only two eggs. An irritated Saif reprimands the hen for the oversight and the quickly lays the third egg – at which Saif says ‘Amul Macho: Bade Aaram Se’. Of course, by now most discerning TV audiences would know that Bade Aaram Se is the Amul Macho tagline, but what has a hen that lays eggs at will have to do with underwear is anybody’s guess. What’s the point of roping in a star brand ambassador, pay him the big bucks and then get a hen to play the lead role in your TVC instead. Lacking in imagination, we say!
AN ERRONEOUS COMEDY
Advertiser: JUMPIN
Baseline: Bade Kaam Ki Masti!
Agency: JWT
4Ps B&M Take: What do robbers and cops have in common with a fruity drink? Just that they are all human, and who doesn’t enjoy a refreshing drink, right? Well, that’s perhaps what Hershey’s Jumpin and the agency tried to convey here and failed miserably. The film begins with a kid calling up the police to report the presence of burglars in his house. But in the same breath he adds that there is no reason for the cops to hurry. He and his granny then raise a toast to each other with Jumpin and resume watching the antics of burglars who are busy playing with Jumpin toys. The screen then displays all the toys that come free with the drink including Spiderman stuff. The bell rings. The cops arrive. The inspector asks the thieves whether he too can join the fun and games. The spot ends. Now it’s all very well to get all spoofy for the sake of grabbing viewer attention, but robbers dumping their plan and instead playing with Spiderman toys is stretching the imagination a bit too far. Guess even that would be cool… if the storyboard had been executed with a humorous punch. But this one does not even elicit a grin… leave alone a laugh. It’s an attempt at comedy with no takers. The worst is that with summers here, the fruity drink’s competitors such as Frooti have come out with innovative ads peddling Shahrukh drinking up on his mango drink on a football field with adults turning into kids. In the face of such stiff competition, Jumpin would do well to add some panache to its advertising arsenal. Because after all, what you see, is what you sell, right?
