Madvertising

I remember reading somewhere that only sex and Shah Rukh Khan sell in India, and not necessarily in that order. I know of at least one marketer in recent times who must have read the same article and put it into practice as well. Maybe SRK was unaffordable or out of the country at the time, so our marketer opts for the next best choice to hawk his wares.

The brief to the ad agency must have been rather brief, something to the effect of ‘Make my brand stand out in the clutter and use sex to drive home the main message'

Not a bad thought, considering the target audience is cricket watching Indian male. At the same time it is one that throws out all the conventional lessons on communication strategy, brand promise, creative cut through etc. learnt in b-school and the early years in marketing. All of these suddenly blur into irrelevance.

Product category in question : Cement (going by the execution, the ad could have been for anything ranging from sun-block cream to cars to deodorant)

Brand name : Fails to get cemented to my mind in the first few attempts, despite best intentions at staying focussed.

Execution : Simple and direct . In fact it was so direct that it hit me like a moving train the first time I saw it. It still has the same effect, except now I choose to turn away whenever the ad is aired. Being a  non-cricket-watching non-male, it doesn’t take me too much will-power to do so.

Storyline : A red swim suit clad anorexic and/or bulimic model who bears a striking resemblance to every other anorexic/bulimic beauty pageant aspirant/participant /winner, emerges out of a beautiful but non-descript body of water that could have been Mauritius, Phukhet, Bali or our very own Andaman islands. Not that it matters. The defining elements here are water, girl and swimsuit.

As the camera pans in for a close up of said model, the voice over mutters something like‘there is something special about this one’.

If you dont focus (difficult under current circumstances for target audience) you will never realise they are referring to the cement here.

REACTIONS FROM THE CRICKET WATCHING TARGET AUDIENCE

Post ad : Tsk-Tsk! How objectionable! How could they undervalue women thus? Why do women allow themselves to be reduced to passive beings and mere objects of sexual fantasy? Did the cement maker expect us (men) to fall for this?

During ad : Silent, open mouthed state of suspended wonderment

MOOT POINTS

1.  Will they watch the ad again :  Definitely
(every time it is aired, which is once every 15 minutes, or once every wicket/four/six/over change whichever is sooner.)

2. Will they remember the brand name : Probably not

3. Will they buy the brand when the family is in need of cement :  Quite unlikely, unless the civil contractor found an emotional connect with either model or brand; and

MOST DEFINITELY NOT if the wife has any say in the brand of cement!