Brand-aid needed for Sprite. Review on Sprite 'I don't want to do' commercial

This entire thing about ads, ad wars, corporate wars, brand positioning, price battles and legal shenanigans has got me thinking seriously about how the consumer fits into the scheme of things.

Having seen this ad many times on the idiot box, I've come to realise that ads can be very nice and at once very uninteresting. And Sprite has been a champion of this genre of ads for a long time now.

Though I'm no media expert or critic, I do understand as any tom-dick-harry kind of consumer that an ad ought to make a connection with the viewer. Its got to be in tune with peoples emotional wants and desires. So let me try to dissect the ad in question and let some stuff out of my little grey matter.

The Concepts & Themes

And this is where I have a problem. If you're an ad maker promoting a product that offers nothing but cold refreshing aerated caffeine, then a concept is your only friend. If you want a good reliable friend then your concept better be really good. Unfortunately, Sprite has only been living off other concepts and goofing off on it.

First it went about its business spoofing Pepsi by calling it Pappi. Now that its got a real hulk of a brand in its own category its shifted its sight from Pepsi to Mountain Dew.

The trouble with such concepts is that it is self defeating. So all while Sprite struggles to tickle your funny bone, its actually turning your mental focus away from itself. There can be no doubt that Sprite's ads are really funny sometimes. But the fun lasts only while the ad's running. After it closes, you and I get thinking. Who or what was it parodying? Was it Pepsi or was it Mountain Dew or what was it? All the while, we have been thinking and thinking away from Sprite. We are forced to recollect the ads of Mountain Dew. So what was really wrong with Mountain Dew's ad anyway? Ya, it was a bit corny, but couldn't Sprite come up with something original?

We all watched the Sprite spoof on the Amitabh Bachchan-Sachin Tendulkar ad. Yes, we enjoyed Sprite's spoof. But didn't we keep thinking about how dangerous it was for Sprite to make fun of such popular icons?

The viewer is no fool. The viewer is in fact very very alert. He's going to tell the brand manager that hes been watching the ads and enjoying it; and he's been indeed enjoying it. But he will never tell the manager that he's been cheating on Sprite and thinking about the original more. The viewer could very well have fun at Sprite's expense and drink Dew at his hang-out. There's no brand loyalty anymore. Theres no guarantee that a rolling-on-the-floor-laughing kind of funny ad is going to make the tele-zombie go out and ask for a Sprite.

I think that the only way that a brand can get more than 10 minutes of tele-memory-attention-span is when its concept and theme is original and from the heart. We may not like the jingle, we may not like the models, we may not even like the concept. But sincerity shows. Originality shows. People recognize originality and sincerity when they see it.

Spoofed ads are not worth the money it takes to air them.

Brand-aid for Sprite

We just read that Coke has posted its first profit in all its years of operating in India. Pepsi achieved it long ago. How long has it been since Coke started in India. And how much of Coke's losses were due to spoofed ads? Well we may never know the answer to that. But somebody inside Coke must have had a lot to answer, for lack of advertising imagination.

Sprite needs a brand ambassador in its ads. It needs a face that can communicate. Need not be a famous face. Could be any model that can emote. It needs an original concept. Something that connects with everybody's day-to-day living. It should connect with everybody - from the yuppie to the railway station 'coolie'. It should have a theme song or tune thats easy to hum. It should have a punch line thats easy to remember. In short, it should be like a normal ad. It should come down to earth.

We, the tele-idiots, like to watch down-to-earth ads that communicate. We don't like smart-ass one liners. We don't like over-smart copywriters who think the viewers are dumb idiots. The viewers can make up their minds very well, thank you.

Sprite, something original please.