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.
So do you have a penchant for clinging to all the old material objects you have collected over the years? A well-off friend of mine in the US insists on chugging along in his 15-year-old Honda City while his wife cruises in a BMW X5. “I’m sentimental about my first car,” he says. Insights like this and a zillion others in real life have inspired Lowe Lintas to come with a fresh set of multi-lingual TVCs for OLX. Let me hasten to add that these are not commercials conceived in Hindi and translated into 16 languages with a desperately failing voice-sync in the dubbing. The Hindi commercial has Kapil Sharma, the Tamil film has Dhanush, the Telugu film has Allu Arjun and the Kannada film has Sudeep. Each a star in his own galaxy. The theme: You need to get rid of the old to get the new. Or, if you want something new, get rid of the old. On OLX, of course. I liked all the films. The Kannada film was probably the weakest link only because the scripts seemed a little contrived. However, all four stars deliver a polished and unique performance. The TVCs are tightly edited and have considerable repeat value.
Sushant Singh Rajput walks into a deserted car park (why do people without cars walk in car parks where the only car parked is not theirs?), sees a Nissan Terrano parked there, is attracted to it by the sound of a remote key, and begins some natty dance steps. The car imitates his steps. Rajput gets more inventive, the car matches him in a dance jugalbandi. A young lady walks up, smiles as he is almost stuck in some pose, gets into the car and drives off. Rajput smiles and walks off. So? So nothing. Welcome to the new age of advertising. You can make any film that amuses you. What about the brief? Maybe the brand manager wanted to position the vehicle as a dancing car? Maybe he didn’t care. So you have a film with a dancing celeb and a dancing car. I doff my hat to the client servicing team at TBWA who sold this film. What about the marketing team at Nissan? No comment.
2-minute problem?
Problems, unlike Maggi Noodles, take more than just two minutes to get resolved.
Maggi is a much loved brand and a leader in its segment. It has used the power of advertising effectively over many years and been a case study for how a brand should be built. Systematically, consistently and creatively.
Now it is in the eye of a storm. It is not the mandate of this column to pass judgement on what (if anything) was wrong with the product. Nor are we commenting on the results of this problem. Other brands have faced challenges. Remember Cadbury’s chocolates and the worms? Or the colas and the pesticides? Well, all these brands have come out of the woods and are doing better than ever. And there are lessons to learn from all of them.
Yet, while some like Cadbury’s used a celebrity (Amitabh Bachchan) to lead the comeback charge, never before have celebrity endorsers been in the line of fire. So we want to ask you readers, do you think celebrities should be held responsible if something was found wrong with the brands their endorse? Would you hold Shah Rukh Khan responsible if a little Hyundai car had some terrible problem? Do you even think he actually drives one? Let’s hear it from you.
Vox Pop: Friend and regular reader V. Kalidas wrote in about the Kalyan Jewellers communication tsunami which was unleashed in regional channels to mark the inauguration of their Chennai showroom. Even though it is dated, I must comment on the sheer level of firepower this advertiser has used. The likes of Amitabh, Aishwarya and Prabhu all come together with a liberal dose of Tamil, and Shivaji Ganesan nostalgia thrown in to make what is a memorable campaign. Fans, a look at YouTube is called for.
Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Mail your comments to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in