By Malay Desai
By: Mullen Lintas
Dabur India has launched a campaign to announce its range of health drinks, Yoodley. In the TV fi lm, a young politician is shown giving a speech to a large crowd at a rally, exhorting them to take action, i.e., a pledge. He, along with his cronies behind him on the stage proceed to take a pledge over a bottle of the product and mouths, ‘Shararat hamari duty hai.’ His pledge is then followed by mock CCTV footage of people pranking others in places such as malls, bedrooms and parking lots. When at the end, he poses to gulp down the drink, his audience too follows, but fi nds their bottles empty. The campaign’s site lists its fl avours and corresponding characters.
We had been listening to ‘Dabur is planning a range of health drinks’, ‘Dabur to venture into beverage sector’ from the past year, but as if on cue from my last column about rival Paper Boat, the FMCG giant decided to announce the Yoodley range of desi drinks. To do this in a market and mindspace already captured beautifully by fi rst mover Hector Beverages, Dabur had a big task and I like the beginning.
With golgappa, aam panna, shikanji and the likes, the obvious recall in consumers’ minds is Paper Boat, whose distribution in key markets has been terrifi c too. I don’t know what’s gone into the making of Dabur’s rival drinks, but one thing’s for sure, as they say in the massive Indian market, there is always room for more. The launch of the fi lm and the microsite comes late, in May, but the summer is long and arduous.
First up, let’s get potential outrages out of the way. It is possible that the makers have modelled the young neta on the lines of Kanhaiya. If they have, there’s nothing wrong, as advertising does imitate real-life. Even the Yatra fi lm which was more obvious, was simply taking on the pulse of the conversation.
This is only a healthy habit, one which shows our marketers are tuned in to the front pages of newspapers and not ostriches. The core of the campaign, as explained through caricatures on its packaging and the website, is bringing ‘pranking’ back. We self-serious Indians only seem to enjoy pranks on Whatsapp forwards while our popular culture is dead boring. Yoodley, with its uber-cool name, wants to be mischievous and the neta here is the voice who instigates us all to prank, using a great tagline. The staged pranks in the TVC are hints at what we can do, and we must, to enjoy routine life. And in-between, grab a funloving drink.
After long, I see a site that fl eshes out the campaign and explains its characters and elements. I don’t know if that will have an impact, but I’d love if the brand actually carries out pranks in public for social media traction. Finally, the neta in question, actor Namit Das, seems to be having a great summer, his third fun TVC after the hilarious Flipkart ads.
(To watch the fi lm and the campaign, visit hajmolayoodley.com)
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