Rotary Polio Ad: Hits the right chords!

Reviewing this ad feels like a double whammy - a double reason to celebrate. A good cause, a great ad - could it get any better?

Rotary International used the medium of advertising spots to declare that India is now polio-free - and proudly so. A boy shackled with ropes against a background of fine lines, is struggling to break out of his tied feet; just when he spots a playful football nudging him. He decides to not give up, wrestles with the ropes, frees his feet, finally jumps on to the next set of fine lines, and kicks the football victoriously. Needless to say, the ropes here denoting polio, the fine lines are the 'fate lines' of human hands and the final kick is the victorious glee - a celebration of breaking free.

The 1:30 second Rotary Ad for Polio-free India

Why the hands? Because eradicating polio has proven that polio is no fate to be lived, Senthil Kumar, JWT's National Creative Director believes. "Logic says you can't change fate as it is sealed in the fate lines on your palm even before you are born. But the magic of two hands coming together can change fate and make miracles happen. This was how we came up with the idea of bringing these fate lines to life; just like the new lease of lifelines on a newborn."

While we normally don't yap about the client/brand of an ad, in this case we can't help but swell with pride. Polio is a huge handicap for any child in their most special and growing years and Rotary International has shown tremendous determination in making anti-polio drops a household vaccine that every mother knows of. Retrospectively, in January 2011, the last case of polio was discovered in West Bengal. Three years later, we haven't discovered a single case, which will now compel World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) to officially remove India from its list of polio-endemic countries (leaving just Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria in that category).

JWT Kolkata does complete justice in transforming this deep sentiment onto screen in those 60 seconds. The use of animation (wonderfully put together by Team Eeksaurus) keeps the ad simple and lets the idea stand out - the hands signifying the mutual group effort that has led to this international success unitedly, and using simple elements to highlight the plight of the polio-struck kids help in instant connect without getting too layered, confusing or preachy.

The brilliance of this simplicity gets its soul from the background score that is the sail for any wordless advertisement. And that is somehow the most exciting part, when we got to know of HOW the music for this one came to birth. Senior Creative Director Arjun Mukherjee reminisces, "The idea for the music came after several rounds of brainstorming between Rajat Dholakia (National award winning Music director), Suresh Eriyat, Senthil and myself. As the metaphor for polio was demonstrated through the usage of creepers or vines, the idea was to use various single stringed instruments to bring alive the drama. So when Rajat played the Ektara / Gopichand, it was master percussionist Taufiq Qureshi who brought the ethos alive by playing the Berimbau - a single stringed, bow-shaped brazilian instrument that evolved several centuries ago. But it was an idea from Senthil, which really gave the film its lump-in-the-throat moment musically. Instead of using trained singers for the background vocals, the children of Pratham Music School were approached to lend their voices. These kids stay in the slum area of Mumbai's Govandi. Some of them were rescued from child labour while some work in the surrounding garbage dump. As they stepped inside a recording studio for the first time and sang their hearts out, the boy caught in the creepers suddenly found the strength to break out."

Magic.

Arjun puts the story of this music piece so beautifully that we refrain from editing it one bit. Hence, we quote. Cherry on the cake here? Rotary's brand ambassador's Amitabh Bachchan's rich baritone concluding the victory at the end, "When we join hands, miracle happen."

Well sometimes, there are brilliant ideas and some times, those ideas manage to wonderfully translate on screen and retain their paper-perfection even after execution. This ad is one of them.

Additional Credits :
Raji Ramaswamy - Senior Vice President, JWT Kolkata
Deepa Sridhar - Director, Corporate Communications - JWT South Asia

Blue Star: The dancing boss is far from blue!

The ads amplifying the cooling AC's of Blue Star have most times managed to attract attention. This time it goes a whackier step further, with a dancing boss jiving ludicrously to Daddy Cool.

Blue Star's latest ad, Daddy Cool

You know it is a striking ad when you un-mute in between programs only to watch an ad that you get intrigued by. So while by habit I hit mute when the news program goes on a break, I am instantly caught up by this extremely grim looking man, in suit and tie, acting absolutely unlike a man in suit and tie! He dances weirdly with a straight face, jives, shimmies in his office (don't miss the funny step with the xerox machine), all to the beats of Boney M's famous number Daddy Cool. The interesting part is when abruptly stops dancing on exiting the office and regains his crazy dance when he reaches home. What is the message here? Get office like cooling at home. Bang on.

The dancing boss of Blue Star and Christopher Walken for Fatboy Slim video have stark similarities.

This ad very strongly reminds me of Christopher Walken's bizarre dance in Fatboy Slim's music video  Weapon Of Choice (directed by the unconventional Michael Gondry) which is quite a rage online. Executed by Interface Communications, Blue Star's ads have always been quirky and National Creative Director For Interface asserts that this one is going to be on the same track.

Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice music video

What's heartening is that carving a niche for Blue Star's unique quirkiness in the advertising world may have taken its own sweet time, but they haven't given in to the over-information loaded, fast-editing format of most attention-seeking ads. It stays true to its genre and in the process, delivers content that makes it stand out from the rest. Haven't tried the AC yet but the ad cooled me instantly.

A previous ad from the same team for this product that tickled me was the one were the 'boss at office' and the 'boss at home' are instantly cooled amidst their arguments. Witty, besides being an ad with perfect music sense.

Update: The 'dancing boss' is played by actor Denzil Smith.

'Goodness' personified : Nestle's new campaign

It is not uncommon that food and drinks' ad campaign encourage sharing as a way of caring (Remember Coca-cola?). The latest campaign by Nestle banks on this initiative, terming it - 'Share Your Goodness'.

The  extended version ( Source: YouTube)

So while Nestle has taken the liberty of making two version of the films (the longer one - 3 min and the shorter on 1.30 min), each of it pretty much summarises how food can truly be a common point of contact and concern that humans share. A touching take on a family that newly adopts a daughter, it gives us a sensitive insight into the little initial hiccups that their son has to come to terms with - sharing his space, sharing his parents' love, sharing his books and so on. However it all falls into place when she sneaks into the kitchen and shares a cookie with her sibling with absolute innocence and purity - that is all that takes to bind them together.

With the advent of high-end editing softwares and camera technology,what still seems to have the maximum effect is a strong script and a simple, no-frills execution. Conceptualised by McCann Erickson and produced by Nirvana films, what sets the mood is the linear, non-dialogical story telling with an apt music score - nothing fancy, right to basics of human emotions. This will help the campaign not only cross language and cultural differences, but also gains widespread acclaim on the universal, ideological and relatable issue of adoption and sharing.

This ad serves an umbrella covering all the products by Nestle in India under the 'goodness' category.

The campaign originates from Nestle's belief that 'each of us has an element of goodness and it comes from the values, beliefs, strengths, ideas and understanding that we have learnt through others. I absolute agree with their observation that 'in our culture in India, consuming food goes beyond the pleasure of consumption and nutrition and is a natural opportunity to share our lives and build healthy relationships with our family and community.' Their research seems right on target and the ad wonderfully addresses and supports this observation.

This one is definitely one of the more deserving ads that stands by its tagline #ShareYourGoodness which it slowly wishes to sustain with the help of more campaigns that will follow on the same lines (the dabbawala ad, coming soon).

The Coca-Cola campaign that was on very similar ideology of 'sharing is caring' was their 2013 campaign with newbies Aalia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra. This campaign was carried worldwide with different regional stars and commoners with lot of success.

Other Credits for Nestle:

Chief Creative Officer: Prasoon Joshi
Creative Team: Prasoon Joshi, Pradyuman Chauhan, Rohit Devgun
Media Agency: ZenithOptimedia India