It?s been a long time since I have written something and I hope if not much, I was being missed just a little bit here. So I thought why not come back to where I love being the most, the ad mod world. It feels good to be strolling back on the advert lane, the lane that doesn?t fail to fascinate me ever, so here I am with yet another advert and yet another story to tell.
Pidilite Industries Limited has become synonymous to adhesives and bonding agents. The company proudly owns the punch line Building bonds what with most of its offerings becoming eponymous to the product family they belong to. Remember fevicol, feviquick, M-Seal, Dr. Fixit just to name a few. It takes a lot to earn such a tag, from projecting the right image in all forms of public attention a la? media to making products which live up to the expectations that have been conjured.
Fevicol, the flagship product of Pidilite is a case in point. Consider this for starters during the marriage the pundit recites the mantra.... ~ YEH FEVICOL KA MAZBOOTH JOD HAI TOOTEGA NAHIor for that matter Cricket hi to hai desh ka Fevicol.
Both these humor logs are pointers to the image that fevicol has been able to build over the years due to sustained brand building campaign. If it sticks it has to fevicol, in bollywood style toote dilo ke alawa sab kuch jode fevicol. Lets just do a little dissection of these adverts and find out why does fevicol binds like none other.
Fevicol as a portfolio has been handled by O&M for a number of years now, infact I don?t remember anything to do with fevicol without the O&M seal on it. The bonding has been a wonderfully rewarding one for both O&M and Pidilite read fevicol.
So much so that O&M won the Campaign of the Century Silver at the 2000 Abby Awards for their fevicol adverts. Fevicol also won them a Lion at the Cannes, which is as good as the Oscars for the moviemakers.
The Idea of all the fevicol adverts is very simple and straightforward, fevicol aise jod lagaye acche se accha na tod paaye which is fevicol binds so good that no one can break it. I remember seeing a wonderful print advert of fevicol, the god of death Yama is trying to pull out life from a person whose ordained time has come, but is unable to do so, the reason, the body is lying next to a tin of fevicol.
And the best thing is the tagline which says fevicol aise jod lagaye yamraj bhi tod na paaye. The theme and the idea have been brilliantly blended in all the fevicol ads and they have been woven in a simple yet very effective way of story telling.
The genesis of the idea is from day to day observations. Prasoon Pandey of Corcoise Films, who shot the Cannes Lion winning rickety bus Fevicol ad, says, ''The campaign was a true representation of observation method delivering consumer insights.
When in school, we used to travel through Jaisalmer in the bus crushed between people and their trunks, and at times even their poultry. The insight was this strange human bonding. The ad clicked and the rest is history,''. The ads have showcased the wonderful human bonding in different forms, be it the rickety bus ad, or the shadow ad or the pakde rehna chodna nahiseries ads.
Fevicol ads have underlined time and again the axiom in advertising, which says that the core theme and idea should remain intact as the adverts, grows with time.
The execution of the idea and the theme has resulted in a series of wonderful adverts, some of which have become case studies in themselves of how to make an idea click in the form of an advert that sells.
The adverts transcend the barriers of geographies and language et al as the viewer can relate to it without any problems of deciphering the language being spoken or the settings of the adverts.
The overcrowded rickety bus on a bumpy road with people precariously perched from every nook and corner of the bus, has no dialogues or anything just fevicol advertised on the back of the bus saying fevicol ka jodh hai, tutuga, chootega nahi or it?s the bond of fevicol wont break and it wont separate.
This hits the nail on the head with pleasant surprise and without any barriers of language or of any other sort. No wonder this ad went on to win the Lion at Cannes.
The ad series of fevicol have always had something innovative and comical about them, this gives them a high repeat value and even when they are shown again and again they don?t seem to suffer from the so called F(atigue) Factor in the world of advertising.
Be it the pakde rehna ads which has carpenters working in their shop while a movie is playing on the TV showing a couple hanging perilously from a rope, with a can of fevicol kept on top of the TV, an amused carpenter looks at the can and then at the couple, while the heroine keeps shouting pakde rehna chodna nahi, as the carpenter picks up the can, the couple falls down.
Now that?s what I call originality and creativity, O&M have always come up with catchy ways to sell fevicol. The train advert for instance showing the sultry Katrina Kaif and a man who has just got married, as he falls off to dream, he tries to run after Kaif, but to his utter disgust he just cant seem to move despite of all his efforts. He wakes up only to find that his head was resting on fevicol carton.
Its different is what comes to mind when I think of the adverts for fevicol for they have always treaded on grounds which others can only emulate. The schematization, the execution and the unique way of showcasing the product are indeed a lesson to any aspiring ad maker.
The adverts have always essayed the costumer insights and what they feel about the product. For instance what would any prospective buyer look for in any adhesive, something which gels so good that no one can dare think of breaking or separating it and that?s precisely which all the ads talk about.
Despite of carrying on with the same theme, it is to O&M?s credit that the ads don?t seem rusted and oft repeated, they always a freshness and originality about them, something which is very tough to keep maintaining over a long period of time.
Re-inventing the wheel is the name of the game and fevicol has always been one step ahead when it comes to doing something new and different.
This was showcased brilliantly in the Jashn Manao Haisha, or a festival of all the fevicol ads on Zee TV sometime back. The names and content of their programs were most ingenious, check it out Hum Dil Jod Chuke Sanamand Sticky Situations, Haisha Scenes,.
Zor lagake haisha the good old punch line of fevicol still rankles in our minds the moment we think about fevicol or the logo of two elephants trying to pull apart a piece of wood stuck by fevicol will always remain eponymous to an adhesive which binds for life.
I would like to sign out on a note on all the oh so in love people, don?t leave the love of your life pakde rehna chodna nahi coz it?s a bond of life aise jod lagae acche se accha na tod paaye and keep daring others by saying dam lagake haisha jor lagake haisha.
