By Malay Desai
From: Taproot India
Having changed its weekend programming approach to be more GEC-like, Disney India has unveiled new films promoting the shift.In one, a young man is shown leaving for the US at Mumbai’s airport, and is cranky doing another round of goodbyes to his family. Just after stepping in, he turns around and gives them emotional hugs. In another, a man’s family is meeting his fiancée for the first time, and they pull off a prank in which they bad-mouth him, before the girl says she’s in for the family. In the last one, a heartbroken young girl is cajoled by her family at the dinner table, her granddad taking the lead in recalling her dad’s, her uncle’s and eventually his own heart breaks. ‘Shanivaar Ravivaar, only for parivaar’ the ads say.
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Disney Channel turned 10 in India last month, and besides unveiling new packaging and other show-sha, they rolled out a new strategy – that they will entertain not only kids but also their families on weekends. Effectively, it is a half-step into the cluttered GEC space.
Disney seems to have five new shows up its sleeve for this coveted timeslot which begins at 7 pm, and all of them cater to the ‘light hearted humour’ seeking middle class Indian family, aka the SAB target audience. The films then rightly feature entire families, and dole out cute-sy everyday situations such as a dinner and a farewell where we Indians come together.
First thing, it’s a surprise coming from Agnello Dias’s Taproot stable, for theagency has made its name in angst-filled, sharply cut films and not really one-by-six family pizza fare. They’ve done well nevertheless, and the Disney account is a worthy addition to Taproot’s multi-faceted portfolio.
The biggest plus of the campaign is the actors. We don't know if the channel helped the deal as they feature in Disney’s upcoming shows as well, but all the three films have names that are revered not only in Indian television but Bollywood as well – RitaBhaduri, Mohan Agashe, Manoj Joshi, Zarina Wahab and Suhasini Mulay to name a few. The senior household names not only give a warm vibe to the commercials but alsolend credibility to Disney’s message.
The three films, of which we like the ‘family screening the fiancée’ one most, are comical in situations, have punchlines but aren’t downright hilarious. It’s a hint of the shows which are to follow; staple Indian GEC fare doesn't rely too much upon crafty lines and witty one-liners as it does on comical situations and a generally funny vibe that the family can watch while simultaneously talking, having dinner and in-between jumps to The Newshour.
Disney’s campaignplays on pre-startups on set top boxes, where there’s more likelihood a first-timer such as me will explore the channel,but on YouTube, it resorts to click-baiting titles such as ‘Best prank ever’.
Free advice for Disney though: with the channel named that, your shows better have spectacular content for my family to begin watching.
(Watch Disney India’s campaign on its official channel -Youtube.com/disneyindia)
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