By Malay Desai
From: Publicis Ambience
To create a people-powered anthem for cheering India’s sporting heroes, cough and cold brand Vicks asked its Facebook fans to chip in. Music composer Ranjit Barot created a two-minute long anthem, the video of which features cheering fans and common citizens. Without using any actual sportspersons, the video portrays hero-worship for cricketers, Olympic champions and stars from other sports. It ends with a copy and voice over assuring ‘we’ will take care of your throat.
Why we Like
We’re a people who love their sporting heroes (*cough, read: Sachin & Virat) more than the sports themselves, so an anthem or a cheering squad is always a safe brand campaign, especially if it coincides with a major sporting event. It was the T20 World Cup last August, and our leading menthol-ki-goli brand came up with this multi-faceted effort.
Yes, another ‘anthem’, there seems to be one for every Cricket World Cup these days, which in turn too occur more regularly than before. Last year, Hero MotoCorp annoyed the hell out of us during Cricket World Cup commercial breaks with their giant ‘Billion voices’ campaign, with AR Rahman. Later, in perhaps a new low, Boost jumped upon Kolaveri star Dhanush’s wave to make an anthem for Sachin’s 100 tons which nobody recalled after some days.
Taking the Hero route (send in your cheers, we’ll use the best ones for our anthem), Vicks went the Facebook way and created a comprehensive app. With the only chant most of us know is ‘India… India! Clap-clap-clap!’ our sympathies lie with the agency looking hard for decent entries. Or entries at all. Thankfully, ace composer Ranjit Barot who was helming the composing affairs seems to have junked them all and come up with a new tune.
The video has been tastefully shot, capturing our irrational attitudes and imbibes non-cricket sports too. (Good to see someone cheering for Olympic heroes at least in an ad). And though we spotted the terrible cliché of ‘random aunty kicking football’, the video still packs quite a punch. The crux of the campaign – ‘Vicks will take care of your throat, you can carry on shouting hoarse’ is an ace. But it surely deserved more focus, we didn’t see much of that line of messaging in other media.
We’re sceptical of this anthem route already, mainly because it takes much effort, all for a time-bound tournament. And should the heroes you’re cheering for fail, the anthem becomes a joke. Although this generic looking-sounding anthem won’t, we’re going to forget it like we’ve forgotten all the past ones. *Cough!
Watch the anthem on Goo.gl/vRtk3
