By Malay Desai
From: AMV BBDO, UK
Split into two for its whole length, this spot shows the actions, accessories and behaviours of two types people – those who do and those who don’t. While the ones on the left portray the negative and stressed ones, the ones on the right are shown doing the same things in exciting, new ways.
These include couch-potatoes v/s outdoor gamers, tree-philosophers v/s tree planters, even an animated mouse which simply looks v/s one which gets the cheese. The final copy too appears on a split-screen – ‘there are people who do’ ‘and those who don’t’, ‘Do you?’ before the BB logo.
Why we Like
We’d been so busy talking about exciting outdoor works and smart QR code campaigns that this good ol’ one-minute film seems refreshing. It’s conventional in its approach yet novel and funny in its execution, but surprise, it’s about a product that you might never buy again!
Like diptych photographs and art works, split-screen advertising carries that extra bit of ‘abstract’ in it. And besides, a TVC must also do that job of effectively turning a passive watcher into a potential customer. We’re indeed fans of this style, if you recall the fabulous ‘Luck is an attitude’ spot for Martini we featured here earlier this year. This one’s not as profound, has half as good a soundtrack but yet manages to wow us.
BB has gone on that oft-taken route of ‘can-do’ attitude that every brand from denims to automobiles (remember Tata Dicor’s Reclaim Your Life?) has taken but thanks to its uber-simple, appealing storyboard, it stands out. The elements of comparison – of the losers v/s winners – range from behaviours to accessories, metaphors such as empty v/s full glass, an animated clip and even animals! There is also a smart moment of product snapshot showing a BB phone’s text message against a non-BB one. The visuals build up an exciting climax using stark differences, and make the viewer want to be more and more like the people on the right. Eventually the ‘right’ folks have more fun, see more places, build and create new stuff and of course, use a Blackberry.
The copy at the end curtly asks, ‘Do you?’, to which most would say ‘No, we don’t, ’coz we’ve moved on to Samsung and iPhone!’ but that’s quite another matter! This ad after all is a neat attempt to make BB users look at themselves in a better light than what they’re doing so now.
In our giant phone market, the big players are more obvious, asking ‘Aap kab smart ban rahe ho?’ or showing the work v/s play modes of phones. But should a daring client approve such a split-screen approach, there could be a desi storyboard worth drooling over.
