By Malay Desai
From: Grey Worldwide
A group of street protesters are demonstrating over a water issue. They face a police troop, armed with water cannons and led by a wicked-looking chief. As he orders the water to be sprayed, the protest dilutes, but for one man, who first kneels down to fold his denim and then walks toward the chief.
He withstands the liquid offensive till the water runs out, gathers one of the last drops from a hose and walks back triumphantly. ‘Jeans that save water’, the copy reads over the following logo.
Why we Like
It is Cannes time, and we’re talking about work from an agency we’re sure won’t return empty handed! And even though the destiny of this spot in the ‘Film Lions’ and ‘Film Craft Lions’ categories would’ve been sealed by the time you read this, it’s worth talking about while looking for outstanding local work.
‘Young rebels’ is the oldest route jeans brands have taken and while some have reinvented their treatment, some have stuck to classic ways; this TVC belongs to the latter. A group of good-looking, jeans-wearing people in an angry protest is something we only see in ads, but what the heck, it works. The ‘issue’ here is as old as advertising too, ‘water’, but that’s only a background, the key characteristics of this spot are standing up for something and flaunting it (while of course, flaunting your jeans in definitive ways).
The production per se features goras, just as Killer’s past ads have. The antagonist in the one-minuter too, is a cliche - a bald cop ordering his troops, something Bollywood has shown umpteen times.
What is it that we like, then? For one, the storyboard being a smart metaphor to the product’s eco-friendliness (Killer claims to save 100 litres of water while manufacturing each pair). Then, the ‘flaunting’ bit, a crucial emotion for every accessory communication, happens superbly when the hero kneels in dramatic slow-mo and folds up his jeans to reveal their inner green. ‘Show your green side’, the copy says toward the end, suddenly making eco-jeans sexy. Of course, wearing them won’t solve the world’s water problem but will help sell more denims. Client objective - check.
The homegrown jeans brand has been around for three decades now and has dished out memorable work (remember the ‘guy wearing low-rise to class’ TVC?) but has somehow stuck to ‘gora’ appeal. We don’t mind if it works but must we suggest that we’ve found many Fastrack campaigns more relatable to?
