Oct 17, 2005 11:38 AM
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(Updated Oct 17, 2005 11:38 AM)
Sleepy eyes yearning for another ten minutes of nap and the morning slumber lingering on like the scent of that damsel who frequents you in your dreams, ah that sounds familiar. The dreaded morning is here again to wake you from the good night sleep that you just enjoyed. But then hey what better way to shake off that sloth then to start off with a cup of manna we call tea in this part of the world? Ah now that cup of tea has seen so many love stories read married one woven around it that it seriously threatens to displace the romantic moon or the red rose from their coveted slot as a lover’s best soul mates.
Nature seems to be dancing to a piper’s tune wearing her choicest green. Romance hangs heavy in the air like a moment in time loaded with feelings, nostalgia comes calling back with gusto to sweep you of your feet, and you long for those moments of love and togetherness. It’s that time of the year again, birds chose their choicest tunes to hum, everything seems fresh and vibrant and melancholy gives way to vibrancy. A poetry blossoms as love springs, ah now that’s some thought, isn’t it?
Having started on that poetic nay-romantic note let me introduce to you one of the latest buzzwords to hit the marketing world, “sell everything in the name of love and togetherness”. Ad makers have suddenly realized the marketing potential of tales of love and every day parlance. The sultry siren and the macho debonair are slowly but surely making way for the next-door uncles and also for you and me’s of this world. Suddenly it is chic to be in love and to sell anything and everything in the garb of love and romanticism. Our marketing world is suffering from thinking anorexia of sorts where one selling idea is latched on to and something like a bandwagon effect seems to happen leading ad nausea and a sense of dejavu building as one ad after the other tries to break free of the clutter and carve a recall for themselves.
Lets talk about one of the better ads to have come out of this clutter based on the theme of love and fantasy so to speak. Maruti Alto ads with their tagline let’s go rejigged with a honey dew feel to it. Through the creative, produced by Lowe, Alto aims to awaken the spirit in you, which propels you to do things at the spur of the moment. The ad captures the essence of monsoon, which has always been associated with freshness and new beginnings. The campaign depicts a playful interaction between a young couple. The ad opens on a rainy morning, where the still sleepy husband is greeted with a teacup with car keys inside instead of tea. Understanding that his wife is in the mood for going on a drive he obliges, albeit on a sulking note. As the car speeds through the picturesque terrain the mellifluous voice of Shubha Mudgal is heard in the background, expounding on the peculiarities of rain.
Boondon mein jaane kya hai…naachtee, balkhatee, lehratee, sehratee, nakhre dikhati boondein, tan man pighlati boondein, boondon mein jaane kya hai…(No one knows what these droplets of water contain, they come down dancing, twirling and swaying…they love to show themselves off and no one can figure out their magic.) The lyrics of the song describe rain as a metaphor for happiness, which comes and spreads freshness all around, and its magic that engulfs everyone. Slowly the discord is washed away and the couple is engaged in lighthearted banter. All through the ad, Alto's new features are subtly interwoven within the story and it doesn’t sound jarring in one bit unlike most of the other ads we see on the booby trap these days.
The ad has a fresh and contemporary feel to it in tune with the today’s times and moods of the target audience. The freshness of the ad comes across with a wonderful concept as it depicts the breaking of the set patterns and doing things differently. A conventionally dressed obedient wife serving him bed tea does not quench the husbands desire for tea; rather he is dragged out of bed and taken on a drive straight to the tea gardens where the wife teasingly offers him his tea. An ad of this nature would not have gone down well with the masses say pre- liberalization, but in today’s world of “designer love” and ‘I want to break free’ ambience it gels wonderfully well and would be loved by the populace. The ad goes well with the image of the brand it endorses, since the new Alto is packed with new attitude and of course, fresh new features, what better way to start a new day than a journey in the rains? And, that too with two women – one with a sense of humor, and the other with an inspired voice, Shubha Mudgal.
The ad has a certain joie de vivre feeling to it and has been well received by the target audience. The biggest challenge for any ad makers lies in the art of talking to the niche market he wants to cater to and more often then not that’s where they are undone. The alto is placed as a car for the young executive say in the age group of 25-30, just married and settling down, and hence the youthful look to the ad with a just married, no kids barred couple having a nice romantic time together. If love had a language it would be the language of teasing I say, for what is love without a bit of teasing and bantering and leg pulling. All of which have come in wonderfully together to fit in this ad. Today’s generation lives for the moment and yearns to enjoy the present and is not overzealous about ‘plan for the future’ syndrome and most of their decisions are spur of the moment, on the spot ones and this is precisely what is depicted in this ad as well.
This review goes out specially for some of my best buddies on mouthshut, folks who have loved the ad reviews I have done and who have pushed me to write more of them , anuj_bhatnagar22, jrangoon and nishanu34 , thanks buddies!
My next review is going to be on the latest Coke ad, looking forward to seeing you all then, till then keep visiting me in the comments section.
