I grew up in an era of rationing. There were three cars you could buy. One airline you could fly. Two scooters to choose from. One telephone company which put you on a seven-year waiting list. The list is long and tedious. I say this to explain how delighted I am to see a TVC of a taxi company. I could never imagine I would. And Meru has touched on a great insight in its TVC created by Enormous: The act of using your hand to flag a cab. Simple, yet enormously frustrating. Try flagging down a cab in peak hours and you will be given a lesson in humility, as driver after driver either slows down just enough to ask you where you want to go before pulling away with an incredulous look, or just cruising past you as if you belonged to some new class of people. The film shows you, in a lighter vein, the number of useful things you could have done with that “flagging action”. Dribble a ball, order tea and pakodas, act in a horror movie, to mention a few. But that gesture becomes an exercise in great futility and frustration. And so the film exhorts you to just download the Meru App, stab your smartphone and wait in peace for your cab to come and find you. I love the idea, and the execution.
TB and you
This time around, the Government seems to be approaching well-known agencies and getting good communication organised. I saw two public service messages about TB. We have Amitabh Bachchan playing the role of a shopkeeper in one and a taxi driver in another. Both TVCs have been made by Ogilvy and Mather for the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. The script is tight and to the point. Amitabh is his usual great self. His dialogue delivery could make every script sound so good. Here he communicates the fact that any cough that persists for more than 15 days should be taken seriously and the phlegm should be tested for TB. He also emphasises the important point that patients should stick to the complete course of medicine. Too many people stop midway and then develop multi-drug resistance. While communicating a serious message the tone is kept light and this enhances the effectiveness of the TVC. The film ends with a line that says TB will be defeated and the nation will win. I wondered how the national interest suddenly sprung up. I would have rather they stuck with the personal health message. I do believe that is more effective.
HDFC Life has been very brave in its approach to its advertising. When the target group for the life insurance market was straitjacketed in the “male, 24-40 years” segment, HDFC Life came out with this commercial where a young lady was the hero and it showed her doing the financial planning in the family. I am told this attempt to break the mould worked wonders for the brand and was followed up with other very sound advertising. Now they have this TVC where the young father is shown as a single parent, planning and caring for his daughter who needs a prosthetic leg. The accent is on the fact that the father has prudently planned for all eventualities and is able to bear the unforeseen expenditure that arises. It also shows the effort of urging the young girl to undertake classical dancing and overcome the physical and mental disability such a child would have. In any other creative effort the idea of alluding to “standing on one’s own feet” would have been either corny or a huge stretch. In this commercial by Leo Burnett, the accent is on the critical role the young father plays, and with the help of a beautiful song HDFC Life is able to keep up its winning streak in advertising. I’ve made the disclaimer before, but since I handled this company’s advertising about 10 years ago, and had nothing to do (unfortunately) with the Sar Uthake Jiyo concept, I can safely say I am an unbiased party now.
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.