First of all, i would like to say sorry for writing in after a long hiatus. I was, as the Englishmen would say, ‘under the weather’. I hope to write more regularly going forward.
This post is going to be a short, sweet and a bitter one.
Two commercials during the last one month caught my attention every time they played on the TV. Both have kids as the central character. But that’s where the similarity ends.
The surf excel commercial should rank as one of the darkest ‘daag’ in the annals of HUL advertising. Forget grown ups, my five year old daughter was miffed by it. The TVC shows a boy trying to make her teacher happy whose dog had died. Nothing wrong with the intention but what was shocking was the boy actually tying the collar belt and imitating the dog. And the shocker comes when the teacher encourages the act and therefore becomes happy by throwing the ball at the ‘dog’. Disgusting!
Surf excel will take a long time to get this ‘daag out of it.
The bitter after taste of the Surf Excel was more than made up by the sweet and its-about- time-somebody-did-it commercial of Nestle Milky bar.
One of the overlooked insights of the new age society has been the fact that kids today do not have open spaces to play. And on the other hand the Idiot box and the gaming consoles have made sure the kids remain indoors. Its funny that no brand associated with Kids have actually encouraged Kids to play and enjoy the outdoor. Mind you, the outdoor will always be in the script for most of the scripts but not used as a motive to drive home the point.
And that’s where Nestle Milky Bar scores. It dares, it challenges today’s kids to shun the TV and computer and play in the outdoor. Executed skillyfully (i loved the frame where the kid on cycle shows off his band aid proudly), the commercial strikes the right chord.
My only wish was this was for a malted food drink (healthy) than a chocolate (perceived unhealthy)
This commercial reminded me of a popular cartoon network (forget the name) which went off air for one full day in US. The screen showed a message which said go out and play! That’s a classic example of truly caring for your audience!
Well said. and I had never seen Surf Excel in the light you presented. Now that you have mentioned my new found enlightenment has suddenly got the brand down by a few notches. This bring me to another thought .. is the social message that has become the basis of almost all communication of LOWE is a farce?
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