By Malay Desai
From: Australia, by BMF Sydney
A montage of people doing various things involving physical effort is set against the background score of game commentary. These include school girls running to catch their bus, a suited man running to save himself a parking ticket, a group of men pushing a car in the mud, a mother trying to make her son wear a t-shirt, another trying to carry heavy shopping bags and a man trying to open a jar. The film picks up pace as it rolls out and concludes with every character achieving what they intended to. ‘Life is a sport, get the right fuel’, the copy reads in block letters.
Why we Like?
Once in a while, I get my timing as good as Rahul Dravid’s. (Please send bouquets and gifts to the magazine’s office.)
In a continent far away from Maharashtra where the beef ban is a simmering issue, the meat and livestock department is promoting the consumption of beef. Why, the holy cow is after all a good source of B vitamins, zinc and selenium – stuff that boosts our antioxidant defence system. The better part is, the dept. is doing so in a pretty exciting way.
Nearly every shelf in the hypermarket is replete with products that want to position themselves as ‘sporty’, and there are half as many ads showing athletes and models we never see in real life. Taking the often used ‘sports commentary with conflicting visuals’ template and juicing it up to another level, this film shows the urban man, woman and teenager in a stressed environment.
The eventual message is simple – ‘You’re better on beef’, but the build-up of the film makes all the difference. The characters are not doing the clichéd things we often see them doing in healthy oil ads, they’re rather creating some comic relief even while being in tense chases. The mother chasing her child and the man opening the jar (latter only there to justify the end)are random characters, and they ease the tempo of the otherwise huffing and puffing film. Needless to mention, the fast cuts toward the end and a superb soundtrack make the film a multiple watch. Hard to believe it’s a PSA!
Fat and red meat consumption has a negative stigma, so associations that promote them have to keep prodding the consumer to disbelieve the daily health studies and try the stuff for themselves. By making beef the dynamo behind your power and reason for your win, this film does just that.
Launched a day after the World Cup began in Australia, there’s good timing there too. And talking of sporty World Cup ads, can someone please ban the ridiculously lame RanbirKapoor ‘Lays’ films instead?
(To watch this film, feed this easy link into your browser –‘bit.ly/Mar16ad’)
Social Newsfeed
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