By Malay Desai
By: JWT India
Pepsi’s new ‘pressure is good’ film features Indian cricket team vice-captain Virat Kohli chatting with a TV journalist in a dressing room about ‘pressure’. He then proceeds to walk out to bat, the reporter in tow, and mentions the ‘free ka pressure’ that the world gives him, followed by the South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis starting his run-up. Kohli halts him before he bowls, opens a bottle of Pepsi (its crown going for ‘six’), chugs down the cola and resumes batting. ‘Yeh hi hai moment, live it abhi’ the voiceover sings.
Do we Like?
What’s common between Virat Kohli, South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis and actor Vijay Raaz? There wasn’t much, until someone at JWT, Pepsi’s long-time agency in-charge of its youngistaan-friendly communication,thought of this ad.Their idea was one-third right, of picking the unofficial president of the nation’s collective machismo/swear words, the 25-year-old Kohli.
Having repeatedly failed of late, Kohli has been under scrutiny from the media. Riding on his low days is a safe bet, for the batsmanwon't be dropped anytime soon, but is rather likely to return to form in the ongoing series.
Little did Kohli know though, that he will be used to flaunt the ergonomics of a new cola bottle and talk about the brand’s amazing carbon dioxide. He’s assigned to deliver something promising about ‘flourishing under pressure’ but is accompanied by the second-worst journalistof Indian advertising (top honour being the girls asking ‘Kya apke toothpaste mein namak hai?’). Why is Vijay’s English broken, or why is he gaudy/lazy, is a Raaz.
To ensure the film looks like a tribute to Rohit Shetty’s mindless comedy, Kohli halts Kallis in his action (in a direct lift from Kapil’s ‘Deewana Bana De’ film for Max), then magically produces a Pepsi bottle, uncorks it with gloves on and tosses the crown for a six. Somewhere in South India, a few B-grade film-makers applaud.
The only salvaging moment is the line ‘Yeh sports quota toh philosophy honours nikla’, penned possibly by Anuja Chauhan, who’s been behind Pepsi’fizz from its ‘Yeh dil maange more’ days.But among Pepsi’s illustrious taglines,‘Live it Abhi’ ranks somewhere near the bottom.
For me, the best use of a cricketer’s misfortunes was by Birla SunLife in the ‘Jab tak balla chalta hai’series and the worst was Ganguly’s unintentionally hilarious question in 2007, ‘Bhoole toh nahin?’, by surprise surprise, Pepsi again!
Let's hope others in the PepsiCo stable aren’t thinking on these lines, else they’d cast Saifto connect the ‘gas’ in his movies to the air in Lays packets.
Relieve the pressure Virat, have an Eno.
(To watch this film abhi,feed this link in your browser - bit.ly/liveitabhi)
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