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Business News/ Industry / Advertising/  Spot Light | Snickers
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Spot Light | Snickers

Featuring Rekha and Urmila Matondkar in the commercial scores for Snickers

This Snickers ad should hold its ground on distinctiveness.Premium
This Snickers ad should hold its ground on distinctiveness.

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?

View Full Image
First impressions: Kumar.

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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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Suneera Tandon
Suneera Tandon is a New Delhi based reporter covering consumer goods for Mint. Suneera reports on fast moving consumer goods makers, retailers as well as other consumer-facing businesses such as restaurants and malls. She is deeply interested in what consumers across urban and rural India buy, wear and eat. Suneera holds a masters degree in English Literature from the University of Delhi.
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Published: 04 Jan 2013, 08:17 PM IST
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