By Malay Desai
By: Y&R Argentina
A spot for an Argentine sports channel begins with a dejected-looking girl writing a break-up letter to her boyfriend. Her voiceover reads out the reasons why she’s taking the decision, while the visuals show contrasting behaviours of the boy, with regards to football. These range from showing him wildly celebrating in a pub while she’s talking of his inexpressiveness, him streaking nude on the field while she’s mentioning surprises and so on. The spot ends with slow-motion of him celebrating, she ending the letter and the channel logo on screen.
Why we like
Earlier this year in Argentina, O&M launched a TVC for Schneider Beer which showed grown men doing near-obnoxious behaviours such as peeing on lawns and dancing outrageously. ‘Forgive us’, it said, almost with pride. We don’t know if there’s something with guys from the South American country but here’s another spot that flaunts ‘incorrect’ dude behaviour to sell a brand.
Creating communication that only appeases one gender has its own risks; one does not want to alienate the other gender nor appear arrogant. Like alcohol brands, sports channels too can afford to take this route, and this one-minuter from one of the most passionate footballing countries does exactly that. Official broadcasters of the 2014 World Cup, the influential channel seems like its going all out to win over its loyal male viewers. Only recently, it used footage of the Pope’s speech in Brazil to twist it to sound like a football pep talk.
The letter itself is a novel way to unfold a narrative, one that holds attention till the end. We have a lovelorn lady here, complaining about not-so-uncommon behaviours of her man such as inability to express, surprise and spend fun times. By total contrast and her ignorance, the man is shown doing exactly what she wants, but for football. This juxtaposition is hilarious, and peeking into someone’s break-up is amusing anyway.
The shots of the man’s wild behaviours — kissing a guy at a pub, streaking out in a stadium and so on, have been shot in black-and-white; which one would associate with the girl as she’s the one dejected. But the treatment works, largely aided by ultra-slow-motion visuals, and it conveys his passion for the game.
Being ‘unabashedly yourself’ is something dozens of brands propagate, but few have the liberty to use bold thoughts and visuals. As our films are getting more ‘kaminey’ and ‘besharam’ every passing year, there’s still scope for our ads to follow suit and not worry about offending one or the other gender.Sounds ‘mantastic’ to us.
To watch this film, feed this link into your browser: bit.ly/TYCletter
