FEB 12, 2024
NimishAndAkriti
The new Ranveer Singh and Johnny Sins ad has been the talk of the town today. And in that sentence is the basic problem with it - almost everyone we have spoken to or interacted with about the ad has referred to it as the Ranveer Singh ad (some have also mentioned Johnny Sins, but not too many). The ad has grabbed a truckload of attention - it has been tweeted, shared, forwarded hundreds of times already - but the big question is: for whom in what regard?
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For those who have not seen the ad - you can see it here: https://youtu.be/wHQcuVnmi58?s…. The 1 minute, 45 second ad is a parody of the typical Indian saas-bahu serial, and has a simple storyline - a wife is leaving her husband because he does not - ahem - perform in the sexual sense. Husband pops performance pill at the end and all is well. All this with trademark colourful garish settings that mark such serials.
There are eye-hurting brightly coloured settings, relatives aplenty, over the top theatrics, rapid zoom in and zoom outs of character’s faces, dramatic music galore, sentences and exclamations that end with multiple exclamation marks, lots of slow motion and a general defiance of the laws of physics. There are some slightly x-rated witty exchanges and while it might offend some with its innuendo laden humour, many are going to find it very entertaining.
There is just one catch - in al the excitement about entertainment, Ranveer and Sins, hardly anyone has talked about the product that the ad was pushing - Bold Care sexual health care products! It is true that the ad has drawn attention to a product segment that is often taboo to discuss and that too by spoofing the very settings in which it is least talked about - a conservative, “traditional” family - but the brand itself has been seemingly lost.
Now, iff this was a generic ad about a concept, it would have been perfect. But this was an ad selling a specific brand. And that brand, unfortunately, is totally lost in all the laughter. In many ways, the ad has fallen into the classic trap that many ads that try to be different and creative - it has ended up being more about entertainment and creativity than about the product, Yes, people will remember the ad. But we are not so sure about the product,
Legendary ad writer David Ogilvy had summed it up in his masterly book, Ogilvy on Advertising:
"Advertising is not an art form, it’s a medium for information, a message for a single purpose: to sell...When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product."
We bet people will watch the ad again and again, but will they buy the product? We would not bet on it.
Of course, there have been instances of ads which entertained while barely talking of the products they were about - a number of Pepsi ads have been like that. But ads like that work only if the product is extremely well-known or is generic enough. Bold Care sexual health products does not quite fall into either category.
Yes, we think it is a creative ad . Yes, we think it will go viral and will be remembered, But is it a good ad? This comic is our answer,
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