Hey! A lot of us were feeling that MouthShut was stagnating a wee bit, what with their staff not adding any new category. They took note (obviously after indulging in introspection and getting feedback from some loyal members) and added ‘Television Commercials’ to their list. Cool!

There’s something with the Sprite ad campaigners. They love to spite competitors. Remember, the Pepsi commercial featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar and how they tore it to shreds. Apart from invoking a few guffaws, that commercial with its punch line “All taste, no gyaan” did nothing to promote the product itself.

This time again the Sprite ad campaigners have gone ahead and parodied the Mountain Dew commercial. The punch line “All taste, no gyaan” remains intact and so does the pinch line.

In the Moutain Dew commercial we had four young men, ostensibly bored with their existence, finally attaining the much-required nirvana (read excitement) by drinking Mountain Dew. Not that I was a big fan of that bit of creative outburst (pun intended), but I still feel that the Sprite guys should not have tried to caricature it. Again, there is no harm in making parodies. However, the only motive of the Sprite ad campaigners seems to be making fun of their competitors.

So, if Mountain Dew had some young men screaming their lungs out – “I want to do”, the Sprite campaign has four buffoons falling from the roof of a country bar and hollering, “I want to do.” The bar owner (played by Virendra Saxena) asks a man who is peacefully sipping his Sprite as to what these guys exactly want. He tells him, “Yeh karna chahte hain.” At this the bar owner orders the lads to “do bahar.” The next shot is of the four guys piddling in a bush. Yuck! So much for good taste, and they claim “All taste ….”. The commercial ends with the shot of one of the buffoons saying, “I don’t want to do.”

Guys! This is not creativity but pure and simple mud slinging. Come on, do we have to throw dirt at each other every time one of our competitors comes up with an idea that is, if not praiseworthy, at least noteworthy?

Sprite is as of now, promoting a lot of Spite.