Spot Light | Snickers
Featuring Rekha and Urmila Matondkar in the commercial scores for Snickers
Casting coup
Reviewer: Narayan Kumar
Narayan Kumar, co-founder, director and creative chief, Metal Communications, has over 25 years’ experience in advertising. He has in the past worked in agencies such as TBWA, Mudra, Lowe Lintas and JWT. Some of his clients include Platinum Guild International, ICICI Prudential and Axis Mutual Fund.
Campaign
An adaptation of the brand’s global campaign You’re Not You When You Are Hungry, the TV commercial (TVC) for Snickers bar tries to communicate the idea that hunger can change one’s personality. Four boys are in a car, on their way to a cricket game, when one of them starts acting like a “diva" (he turns into actor Rekha throwing a tantrum) because he is hungry. The ad by RK Swamy BBDO also features Urmila Matondkar. Globally, the campaign has featured personalities like actors Betty White and Joe Pesci, and singer Aretha Franklin.
Your first thoughts on the campaign?
It’s nice to see Rekha back! You didn’t associate her with any ads even during her prime. The immediate response to this TVC is one of nostalgia and warmth that old celebrities bring rather than something brand-specific. The choice of these leading ladies scores for Snickers.
How does this campaign stand out compared with others in the category?
This concept is borrowed from a global campaign...
Many global brands have their local versions of a common central idea and there is nothing innately wrong in that, unless you botch it up. In popular perception, actors are considered prissy, self-serving and given to tantrums. Given that universal belief, an Aretha Franklin or Rekha could equally serve the purpose. Rekha and Urmila are not known for any bitchy remarks or roles or some such real-life context which could have been exploited in the commercial. So the lines, which are scripted, do not spring from any memorable dialogues, which would have been even more enjoyable and effective.
Recently, chocolate brands have used adults as representative target groups. Does that say something about the category?
Chocolate brands, led by Cadbury, have been featuring adults from the 1990s onwards, if not earlier. It seems to be a conscious call, given that Indians like something sweet after a meal.
Any campaigns in this category that caught your attention?
A sort of unwritten standard for creative people in the category has been the work in the US for the brand Skittles. With its “impossible" brand of humour and hipness, it is a brand worthy of emulation, particularly for a younger audience.
As told to Suneera Tandon.
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