I saw two ads today. Both using children. One with a good insight, sound on thinking, simple execution. The other...well...had a child who was trying to be cute.....was mouthing the full brand name.....was reeling out all product benefits and....well that's it.
This reminded me of some of my clients who in the past would suddenly in creative meetings would say "lets look at some ideas with children in them" or would try and pass off "use cute children" as insights. And this is not only in India but also in other parts of the world.
There is no doubt that done well and with a sound strategy children in ads work wonders. There is a universal appeal and likeability about them. And in India one cannot forget campaigns like I love you Rasna, Maggi two minutes, Petrol khatam hi nahi hota, Daag acche hain, Flipkart......
Almost all these ads had a sound strategy, most of them had relevant insights and the execution therefore made a lot of sense. But advertisers sometimes conveniently forget that. They do not look for insights, there is no strategy but just an executional element. In short everyone becomes lazy and looks for quick, safe solutions.
So lets evaluate the two ads I saw today. The first one was for Tata Sky. http://youtube.com/watch?v=A9bErWRuglk It had an interesting insight. Parents usually think TV is not good for children. I am one of the many parents who think the same. Therefore when I saw a series of ad from Tata Sky which used that insight to show children talking naturally about little interesting pieces of information (must confess some of these I didn't know myself) that they had picked up on the TV then the penny dropped. And to keep the whole scenario believeable the kids never said I learnt this on Tata Sky. As kids would, they said I learnt this on TV.
And then it had the kids saying something more believeable but cute, par mummy kahti hai TV dekhna acha nahin. That's a normal kid talking. Not a model spouting lines written by a brand manager who is in love with his product features.
And that exactly is the problem with the Fortune cooking oil ad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFrQrrwW5x0 I cant for my dear life understand what is the strategy behind the ad. Was there an insight that I missed? Of course it featured a cute looking girl clutching the brand as if her life depended on it. But this girl was sprouting pearls of wisdom which would have put any brand manager to shame. She didn't mention the brand as Fortune cooking oil but as Fortune Rice bran cooking oil (what exactly is that?), she even corrected the other lady when she mentioned just one feature of the brand and rattled out the complete laundry list of features (on second thoughts, no. She didn't mention that it was VFM!). And of course she had the customary one tooth less smile and giggle along with a smart kid look and feel. So all tick boxes marked. Client happy, agency releievd and the consumer be damned.
A good way to judge if the ad had a strategy is to work out what the next ad could be. For Fortune Rice Bran cooking oil (phew! I hope I got it right) the next ad will be again execution lead. Maybe it will be about a jingle or maybe it will be about a superman dad. Contrast that with the Tata Sky ad. It already has three ads in the series. That's the power of insight.
Cooking oil ads do fall into stereotype. Happy family, tasty food...this ad did break that stereotype but immediately fell into another. Compare this ad to the recently released ad for the parent brand Fortune oil. It offers a generic benefit of taste, but a powerful insight raises the ad to a different level. And the insight of Ghar Ka Khana has been consistent too. Funny how the same brand, same client can produce two diametrically opposite ads. Is it also the same agency? Also do you remember the Saffola ads? All based on strong insights.
Children have been the centrepiece of lots of ads through the ages. Brands where children are consumers have used children effectively. But this practice of using children just because they are cute and adorable makes no sense. I am not at all suggesting not to use children in categories where they are not the consumers. I am suggesting to use them if there presence is due to sound thinking, due to a relevant insight. Petrol khatam hi nahi hota is a classic example of the same. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P4DNiXcidQ Oh and do you remember that ad for Maruti had spawned quite a few ads with a sardarji child!!!
This reminded me of some of my clients who in the past would suddenly in creative meetings would say "lets look at some ideas with children in them" or would try and pass off "use cute children" as insights. And this is not only in India but also in other parts of the world.
There is no doubt that done well and with a sound strategy children in ads work wonders. There is a universal appeal and likeability about them. And in India one cannot forget campaigns like I love you Rasna, Maggi two minutes, Petrol khatam hi nahi hota, Daag acche hain, Flipkart......
Almost all these ads had a sound strategy, most of them had relevant insights and the execution therefore made a lot of sense. But advertisers sometimes conveniently forget that. They do not look for insights, there is no strategy but just an executional element. In short everyone becomes lazy and looks for quick, safe solutions.
So lets evaluate the two ads I saw today. The first one was for Tata Sky. http://youtube.com/watch?v=A9bErWRuglk It had an interesting insight. Parents usually think TV is not good for children. I am one of the many parents who think the same. Therefore when I saw a series of ad from Tata Sky which used that insight to show children talking naturally about little interesting pieces of information (must confess some of these I didn't know myself) that they had picked up on the TV then the penny dropped. And to keep the whole scenario believeable the kids never said I learnt this on Tata Sky. As kids would, they said I learnt this on TV.
And then it had the kids saying something more believeable but cute, par mummy kahti hai TV dekhna acha nahin. That's a normal kid talking. Not a model spouting lines written by a brand manager who is in love with his product features.
And that exactly is the problem with the Fortune cooking oil ad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFrQrrwW5x0 I cant for my dear life understand what is the strategy behind the ad. Was there an insight that I missed? Of course it featured a cute looking girl clutching the brand as if her life depended on it. But this girl was sprouting pearls of wisdom which would have put any brand manager to shame. She didn't mention the brand as Fortune cooking oil but as Fortune Rice bran cooking oil (what exactly is that?), she even corrected the other lady when she mentioned just one feature of the brand and rattled out the complete laundry list of features (on second thoughts, no. She didn't mention that it was VFM!). And of course she had the customary one tooth less smile and giggle along with a smart kid look and feel. So all tick boxes marked. Client happy, agency releievd and the consumer be damned.
A good way to judge if the ad had a strategy is to work out what the next ad could be. For Fortune Rice Bran cooking oil (phew! I hope I got it right) the next ad will be again execution lead. Maybe it will be about a jingle or maybe it will be about a superman dad. Contrast that with the Tata Sky ad. It already has three ads in the series. That's the power of insight.
Cooking oil ads do fall into stereotype. Happy family, tasty food...this ad did break that stereotype but immediately fell into another. Compare this ad to the recently released ad for the parent brand Fortune oil. It offers a generic benefit of taste, but a powerful insight raises the ad to a different level. And the insight of Ghar Ka Khana has been consistent too. Funny how the same brand, same client can produce two diametrically opposite ads. Is it also the same agency? Also do you remember the Saffola ads? All based on strong insights.
Children have been the centrepiece of lots of ads through the ages. Brands where children are consumers have used children effectively. But this practice of using children just because they are cute and adorable makes no sense. I am not at all suggesting not to use children in categories where they are not the consumers. I am suggesting to use them if there presence is due to sound thinking, due to a relevant insight. Petrol khatam hi nahi hota is a classic example of the same. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P4DNiXcidQ Oh and do you remember that ad for Maruti had spawned quite a few ads with a sardarji child!!!
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