addendum

Addendum is a weekly column that takes a sometimes hard, sometimes casual, sometimes irreverent yet never malicious look at some of the new or recent advertisements and comments on them.

Emotional connect

Insurance is a tricky subject to communicate. How do you position the communication? Do you shock? Offer financial benefits? The possibilities are many and getting it right is important. Birla Sun Life Insurance and Ajay Kakkar seem to be on a roll, as far as communication goes, at least. Their latest TVC is set in a hospital where a boss visits his secretary, laid low by a serious heart condition. The secretary is still thinking of scheduling the boss’ trip and tells his son to give boss the ticket he has organised from the hospital bed. Hmm. Mediclaim, I thought. How predictable. But no, suddenly I heard the patient’s wife saying doctors had advised the secretary not to work after this. And when the boss offers the father’s job to the young son, there is another surprise. The secretary proudly announces that the youngster is going overseas for an MBA. And his son will need to learn not how to fix appointments, but give appointments to others. The film ends with the exhortation that one can write one’s own life story. Good script, good performances, strong emotional tug (tissues recommended) and soft sell.

Then there is Coverfox.com, one of India’s fastest growing online insurance portals, and BBH presenting three TVCs, tongue firmly in cheek. The films show how easy it is to renew car insurance online and present situations where the driver is so shocked he takes his eyes off the road and each film ends with a crash. Morbid? Loosen up, guys! These are films for car insurance and I guarantee you will remember them with a smile. One example: A son is driving his mother around. She goes online, renews the car insurance in a jiffy, and when the son enquires where she has been, she pulls up the blouse sleeve and shows off a tattoo that reads “Baby Doll”. The son stares disbelievingly and… crash! Thank God for easy insurance renewals.

Emotion, not transaction

We’re sticking with insurance. When Sanjay Tripathi of HDFC Life says they are making a strategic shift from a transactional space to an emotional one, he isn’t kidding. The latest offering is a kind of a time capsule that enshrines what you want someone to listen to at a future date when you might not be there to say it. Memories of Life is a digital platform where you can leave your message to be played out to someone on a particular date in the future. This is truly path-breaking. The film shows a successful young man whose humdrum work is suddenly interrupted by the words of his long-departed father. The message makes him visit his mother, who lives in a small town, teaching some kids. Honestly, though the film is well made, the idea is what makes you look once more, pause, think and then marvel at a strategy that appears so different, it needs to be lauded. This film offers you not just the message of insurance. It offers you immortality.

Unending love

It was Valentine’s Day earlier this week, so love warrants a review, right? Take a look at what Amazon.in and Ogilvy created. It’s an around three-minute-long film you can see on YouTube about this young 100-year-old man called Felix. Felix takes you through the story of how it was love at first sight when he saw Cynthia, daughter of his hockey coach. And then the narrative, in Felix’s voice takes you through the album of their life, and you see this gift box arriving from Amazon. Felix unpacks it and places the ring he has ordered before the portrait of his dear departed Cynthia and sings, in a tremulous voice, the song he sang when they first met. A fine tribute to someone you loved and continue to love. A startlingly different take on Valentine’s Day where you anticipate young love filled with roses, chocolates and dreams of a lifetime of romance. How about a look back at a life filled with the commitment of love even after the Cynthias of this world have departed? But who says love has to depart? It lives in one’s memories. I bow to that love and to the thought of an ad made to that sentiment. Very bold. Very romantic.

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Mail your comments to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in