MENTOS’ WHODUNIT QUIZ
Advertiser: Perfetti Van Melle India
Baseline: “Dimag Ki Batti Jala De”
Agency: Ogilvy India
4Ps B&M Take: Mints and murders seldom go together. Rarely would you even see the two strung together in a single sentence. So for a mint brand to adopt such an unimaginable proposition for promotions is preposterous, right? Wrong. Confectionary major Perfetti Van Melle and Oglivy India team up to carry off this imaginable feat and with great aplomb. With the insight that people have a natural and sometimes morbid fascination with mysteries, Mentos has come up with a riddle, stringing together unrelated instances. Viewers have to come up with answers to their bizarre murder mystery. The teaser ad poses unrelated questions. ‘’If a girl is walking on grass, if balloons were a life form, if harmonium was not invented in India, if Raju’s mom plugs in a mosquito repellant, if a guy doesn’t know English, then – who is the killer?” And there are handsome cash prizes for the right answers. If the campaign ended there… it would have been an anti-climax. But no, these guys built it up with subsequent spots of a young girl, a math-obsessed boy, a group of eunuchs, et al, giving their respective hilarious takes on the possible murderer. By doing so, Perfetti simply stuck to the essence of humour, keeping the Mentos brand imagery intact. Going by the huge buzz that the campaign has garnered on social media, mobile apps, et al, Perfetti may just have landed themselves with another winner. Witty, humorous and Mentos-style Batti Jala De campaign.
MY ROACH, MY PET
Advertiser: GODREJ
Baseline: “AAYENGE, KHAYENGE, MAR JAYENGE”
Agency: LOWE LINTAS
Advertiser: GODREJ
Baseline: “AAYENGE, KHAYENGE, MAR JAYENGE”
Agency: LOWE LINTAS
4Ps B&M Take: Have you ever heard or seen an anti-roach gel or for that matter even a mosquito repellent advert that would lend themselves to a hearty laugh? Well, here’s your chance. The storyboard goes something like this. Mr. X is sitting in the living room of Mr. and Mrs. Y with nothing better to do than keep an eye on the insects and roaches prowling the lovely home. And then he sees it, offs his shoe, and flings it at a cockroach climbing the wall… clearly expecting praise from his hosts for his pain. Imagine his surprise when the hosts instead yelp in agony and rush to the cockroache’s side as if a loved one had taken off from the planet. Thank god Mr. Y stopped short of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (eew!) in a bid to get their dear, departed roach to start breathing again. A puzzled (and clearly stumped) Mr. X wants to know what the brouhaha is all about. That’s when the point of the message really comes into play. Godrej Hit anti-roach gel not only draws roaches out, but if one of them (as was perhaps the case with Mr. Y’s deceased cockroach) tastes the gel, he makes sure he takes down countless other roaches in the vicinity. So Mr. & Mrs. Y were only bemoaning the death of a prized stallion, in a sense… This one scores high on levity. And stands out in its category purely for that reason.
UP, UP AND AWAY…
Advertiser: PEPSICO
Baseline: “JAB SAATH HO 7UP, I FEEL UP”
Agency: TAPROOT
4Ps B&M Take: A decisively stimulating advert from a soft drink major in a long long time… This one’s not about one-upmanship, youth power, being different, thirst quenching, refreshment, or even tasting the thunder. 7Up latest commercial talks only about how the drink can lift your spirits, whatever the situation. So there’s this girl impatiently waiting at a busy road intersection… waiting for a cab, bus or someone to pick her up, we don’t know. What we do know is that she is harassed, frequently glancing at her wrist watch and clearly not in one of her best moods. Suddenly, someone taps her back and offers her a 7Up. When she sees that the bottle is being offered by a man fancily dressed up for a Kathakali performance, she hesitates and then accepts the drink. The man is thrilled and breaks into an impromptu jig complete with his garishly painted face and dressed in fluorescent green Kathakali finery. At first, the girl is not amused… but when the man breaks into a western number wearing the elaborate Kathakali gear… she can’t help smile and laugh. A crowd gathers and onlookers cheer the odd pair, a girl holding a 7Up bottle and a Kathakali dancer gyrating and thrusting his hips suggestively to a hip pop number. The message: Jab saath ho 7Up, I feel up. Nice consumer insight we say, and far far away from the mad competitive rush visible in most soft drink ads these days. Visually so gripping, it will catch your attention… and probably stay there for a long time to come. Feel good advertising almost always pays, does it not?
