Khali’s new
ad is cemented in history
Picture this- a bikini clad girl, sea shore, water dripping
from her wet hair, sultry looks, what imagery does it draw? While you would try
to think of some brand to fit this ad, shooing away the song running in your head,
“samandar mein naha kar aur bhi, namkeen ho gayi ho..” when the end slate rolls
with some cement brand, you feel trolled.
The point to ponder over is that how baked were the thinking
heads who conceptualized and cemented the bizarre ad with some poor brand
forever. Some research to find out the
agency turned futile but the sweet search, “bikini cement” led me to some answers.
Check out the link below (some fan has recorded this from TV, so ignore the
poor quality)
A minute of silence for the brand here! Still curious, was
it a B-roll? Anyways, I rest my cat here.
Let us look into the category of cement. With more than 500
cement plants in India, it becomes difficult for a cement brand to stand out on
the same USP that every other 499 cement brands possess. The single point functionality
of cement is to act as the binding force behind the preparation of concrete
mixture when added with sand, gravel and water. One can only imagine the
boundaries it creates in conveying the same.
While most cement ads get trapped in the regular tough
unbreakable walls, some use celebrities, one took a spin and showed hot avant
-garde models as construction laborers who had cement smeared on their hot
bodies, more than the wall in the backdrop. Just when I was done with bikini
cement ad, one more ad pops up. (See the pic below)
ASCI (The Advertising Standards council of India), once
more, does not object to the objectifying of women and men both, well in one
more ad! I found my answer on their site- vying for fairness in advertising
must be keeping them really busy (we will look into the dark side of fairness
creams someday). (See pic below)
Without digressing further, let us participate in the talk
of the ad world, Khali ad, the brand comes only later. We see this funny and
yet pleasant ad which has Khali talking about the woes of being Khali and not
being able to live a normal life. Why just cement bro, furniture, car,
footwear, clothing, and many more brands can follow a similar pursuit with you.
This ad clicks because of humor, the plain and innocent depiction by Khali
where he recalls his childhood. The ad can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByoKOG3Y-bI
Without getting into the details of who are the heads and
arms behind the ad (those details have been doing the rounds), this ad makes a
mark because the brand tells a human story without any gimmick. The known face
of Khali is a bonus but the fact that he is not a seasoned professional when in
front of camera, helps in making the story credible. The story makes an impact by not showing the cement
strength but by highlighting the strength of Khali, a point well established.
This just led me to look into my repertoire of good ads and
I stumbled upon the Mr. W ad (I had of course forgotten the brand, but
personifying wind and using the metaphor was a beautiful way of depicting an
otherwise technical wind energy.
Those who want to see the ad can click below:
All in all, we can say that in the history of cement ads,
Khali’s ad is set in cement now. Let there be more ads coming our way to be
cast in stone.
Amen!
