Have you seen the recent Coca
Cola campaign ‘Ummeedon waali dhoop, sunshine wali assha’?
It is one of those ads which
leave you feeling all warm inside. It talks about everything negative that
everyone thinks/talks about while highlighting the positive that people do not know
(possibly) or think/talk about. And, I don’t care whether the facts and numbers
mentioned in the ad are correct. It always leaves a smile on my face.
It is one of the few ads I see to
the very end, every time. After watching it one evening, I changed the channel and chanced upon
the millionth broadcast of the 7 Up ad featuring Sharman Joshi and a set of
grumpy penguins.
Each time I watch this ad right
through to the end as well. And not because I love the creation. It simply boggles my mind.
For those lucky few who haven’t
had the misfortune to be subjected to this ad, let me just take a minute to
brief you.
Set up : People have come to see penguins
(am guessing in a zoo or some sort of park) but the penguins look rather
sullen. So Sharman Joshi, sips his 7 Up and does an extremely silly dance
sequence and lo and behold – the penguins are now happy!
Am thinking the penguins wanted
him to stop and hence pretended to look happy. They were suffering enough
considering they were captive.
Maybe it is the MBA gyaan in my
head which makes me look for the message and the consumer cues (and loads of
other such jargon) in every advert. But each time I see this ad, I want to
really look for one sane moment which can explain it all.
You know how some ads just don’t
make sense? One wonders just how could they allow such ads to be made? Isn’t ad
making an expensive process? Where there are agencies, marketing teams,
branding teams and so on and so forth? How does such an ad make it through so
many people?
So possibly 7 up was trying to
say that you could ‘cheer someone up’ after drinking 7 Up. Ok, that would make
sense.
But why use penguins? Is it
because brands have started using animals in their advertisements? In the
recent past, I could think of Kitkat (with the squirrels first and now the
parrots) and Cadbury Gems (with the Pandas).
The Kitkat ads are cute. I love
the angle of the skirmish between the furry couple and how they make up by
singing a cheesy Bollywood number. The parrot ad is pretty much along the same
lines. Here, the theme of the ads was to ‘take a break’ and notice things
around you which you otherwise would miss. The use of animals in the storyline
makes perfect sense to me.
The Panda made sense since Gems
was possibly trying to talk about the different colors in their product. And the
Panda changing color was a good way to showcase the same.
But I yet can’t see why 7 Up used
penguins.
I agree, that all a cold drink
does is quench your thirst and you really cant just communicate that. So
I can understand the need for a beverage brand to latch on to an emotion:
- · Coke - when you want to be happy or hopeful
- · Sprite - when you meet a smart alec in your life and you want to best him
- · Mountain Dew - when you confront something you fear
If you consider the ads made by
these brands, they all talk about situations/circumstances which people
encounter in their life be it the ‘boy meets girl’ in a bus with Imran Khan by Coke
ad or the ‘boy meets oversmart boy’ campaign by Sprite. However over the top
the ads might seem, the situation is very believable.
Unlike, the 7 Up ad.
I cannot imagine anyone running
into penguins who would feel ‘cheerful’ after a mindless dance. Unless the penguins were set free
post the consumption of soft drink!
So, if this were my ad and I was forced to have penguins in the storyline – I would
have at least set the penguins free…!
