By Malay Desai
By: Ogilvy India
The latest film for Cadbury India’s choco-caramel bar 5 Staropens with the claim that babies of the yore used to be born happy, until a disease called ‘seriousness’ changed history. The ‘serious’ babies are then shown popping out of their mothers and growing up to be grumpy, fastidious men. In the latter half of the ad, a comical doctor is shown administering a bar of the chocolate to one such victim, followed by graphics of how it attacks causes of seriousness in one’s brain. The cranky boss is then shown chuckling and the film winds up with its tagline, ‘5 Star andar, seriousness bahar.’
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Goodbye Ramesh and Suresh, hello Mr Manu Anand. It is an important year for Cadbury India and its newish head Anand – the company faces slow consumption in the rural areas and has entered a new segment... let’s just call it the Snickers segment. This film carries the the weight of taking forward the spunk given to brand 5 Star by its predecessors, the memorable twins Ramesh and Suresh.
The one-minute effort is a sprint in the crazy lane, and although it doesn’t have a lead character or his twin, it leaves behind many chuckles. The core idea is to drill in that the product is anything but serious, in fact it’s the perfect antidote to seriousness. Yes, quite the route a Kurkure or a Mirinda has taken in the past but the treatment here is the differentiator.
Beginning with a tiny ‘history chapter’ with a narrator, the ad keeps the viewer wondering where it’s going. The ‘insight’ that babies of the yore were normal until the ‘seriousness’ epidemic got to mankind is brilliant, stuff Ogilvy’s creative folk are known for. Then on, building a storyboard seems to have been easy, and the spot ends up saying enough about the product itself. (Look around closely, we’re sure you’ll find folks who are incorrigibly serious at the happiest of events.)
The production here is top-class, reminding us of McCann’s epic spots for HappyDent White (human lanterns, remember?) and Ogilvy’s own legendary works for Fevicol. The ‘period’ sets in some shots, one of them being pointlessly black-andwhite, the ‘pichuk’ sounds to denote popping out of babies and the bizarre styling of the characters (especially the doctor) are standout elements that contribute to the hilarity of the film.
The concluding moments, a chocolate being administered like an injection would be, is bound to be a hit among the biggest target audience, children. And finally, a take on clichéd cough syrup visuals to show 5 Star going in your system and curing you are a production masterstroke. (One question though - why only show men to be khadoos?) Time to ask Cadbury’s rivals, ‘why so serious?’
(To watch this film, feed this easy-link into your browser: bit.ly/Feb17ad ~ and to know of its buzz on social media, search with the hashtag ‘#conditionserioushai’)
SOCIAL NEWSFEED
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Obama doesn’t want @HouseofCardsspoilers
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