Message In A Bottle And Other Festivities

It’s raining new commercials. Last week saw the launch of a fair number of campaigns. But then the last quarter of the financial year always sees an ad blitz. It must be stressed though that among the older ads on air, Nissan Evalia’s 'Moves Like Music' commercial succeeds in cutting through the clutter and strike a chord. Directed by Shimit Amim, the TBWA ad features six well-known musicians, including Sunidhi Chauhan and Shantanu Moitra, who create music as they ride on the Evalia -- it’s a simple enough concept but tuned to perfection so that it grabs your attention and makes you want to watch it again and again.

 

Our picks for the week from the new releases:

 

The latest Maaza ad may not paint a picture of being the ‘coolest’ drink of the generation, but it sure has its heart in the right place. Crafted by Leo Burnett, New Delhi, the “Har Mausam Love, Har Mausam Aam”, Maaza ad has been directed by Jayant Rohtagi and has been stylised as a typically Bollywood courtship scene.

 

The ad stars the moustache-donning Imran Khan, with little change from his Matru avatar, and Bollywood newbie Parineeti Chopra. The ad film effectively portrays the mythological swayamvar in the modern context, with the lady asking her courtiers to prove their love by bringing her the object of her desire, a Mango. Of course, the one that wins her heart is in the form of a Maaza bottle.

 

The simplicity and innocence of the ad makes it pleasurable to watch while providing a solution for mango lovers to satiate their craving all year round.

 

Tangles’ new commercial created by Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore, manages to keep up with the comic pace of the previous Bingo advertisements. The new ad, directed by Joono Simon, shows us a bus poised on the edge of a bridge, barely balancing, while the passengers and bus driver yell out to the bus conductor not to move lest the shifting of weight should cause the bus to lose balance. As expected, the conductor is distracted by a packet of Tangles, and his urge to share it, makes him run towards his boss who is slowly disposing off items like his wife’s photo, his wig, etc., to make his side of the bus lighter.

 

Bingo has now come to be associated with quirky humour and slapstick comedy -- and it sustains this line with aplomb even in this new TVC. And with their classic BOING, Bingo steals the show.

 

The Bong connection between marriage and 'mishti' is well known completely justified by the splendid Bengali saying: "baro maashe tero parban" (roughly translated as 13 festivals in 12 months). An array of sweets serves as the best “shubh aarambh" for a potpourri of rituals in a marriage ceremony. To leverage the quintessential Bengali fondness for sweets, Cadbury had joined hands last year with Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph (Both owned by the ABP Group that also publishes Businessworld) to introduce "Cadbury Misthi shera shrishti" – where the chocolatier gets chocolates to wed sweets.

 

This year, the joint campaign that won three gold and a silver at Emvies and two Silvers at the Effies has got bigger and sweeter, reaching out to more shops. At least 60 outlets are being decked up in traditional wedding decoration finery and will play host to the chocolate-mishti marriage. To get consumer feedback, the company plans to host mishti camps where people will be given a chance to please their palates with delectable mishti concoctions and create their personalised flavour combinations. 

 

Cadbury also plans to launch a big mishti fair on the day of the Bengali New Year. And celebrities including Tollywood biggies will turn mishti’s relatives, blessing the mishti-chocolate marriage. Now this is called a sweet take on a sweet heritage.

 

Yet another ecommerce player turns to television. After Quikr, Jabong and a host of others, it is now the turn of online jewellery retailer Caratlane.com to debut with a television commercial. And it does so by turning the spotlight on the proposal. The storyline revolves around how important a proposal is –- even in the context of an arranged marriage -- and the role of the solitaire in it. Directed by Prakash Varma of Nirvana Films of ZooZoo fame (remember the Vodafone campaign), the ad, with its romantic mood is competent enough, and conveys the message that a private proposal is a must, but sadly it’s not likely to be a memorable ad that will linger in your memory.