TVCs: Disney India–Shanivaar Ravivaar for Parivaar
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. Do we Like? 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) Social Newsfeed Your regular dose on the shifts in the social media universe AIB a Knockout on YouTube & Twitter Comedy collective All India Bakchodhelped India reach a new level of comic tolerance in December end when they hosted ‘Knockout’, i.e. what the West calls a ‘Roast’ in which celebrities are called and insulted by their friends and colleagues. The live even in Mumbai featuring the very sporting Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh was a hit, but the real frontier was breached when AIB put up an edited version of the evening, albeit replete with abuses, filthy words and obscene material, on YouTube last week. The three videos reached a million hits in under 12 hours, were acclaimed by most and debated upon by the usual rabble rousers who took to India’s latest new profession, taking offence. The presence of Karan Johar (as roastmaster) and many Bollywood A-listers at the event meant many famous celebs endorse this sense of humour, which only means more power to AIB. If you’re new to this, check out Comedy Central’s roast of James Franco and that of Pamela Anderson. Rahul Gandhi likes this FB outage now affects Tinder, Insta too It’s usually not news when Facebook’s servers go down for an hour or so – the usual memes and jokes go up later but as we experienced last week, we now have many other networks going simultaneously down, because well, they’re either connected with or owned by Facebook. Last Tuesday, FB’s systems went down and rumours such as it being a hacker attack went up. The real trouble however was for Instagram, which is wholly owned by Facebook as well as Tinder, which depends on Facebook for its feed. As many of us know, logging into various sites and even services is now doable through Facebook, which means that those will be inaccessible on a day when FB is down. A handy tip – keep all your other social and online connections independent of FB, so you don’t behave like a first-world citizen whenever FB goes down. If you do, go take a walk. Twitter likes this Tinder’s success spawning new dating apps If you feel you’re done swiping away on Tinder and your whole neighbourhood and their uncles are on the dating app, there’s more simmering in the app market. The success of Tinder coupled with the fact that India’s young population with smartphones is only going to multiple over the coming decade, has resulted in more apps which nudge you toward your love/lust companion. One four-year-old firm U2opia Mobile has put forth ‘Woo’, which pairs you with your potential Facebook lover based on not proximity but tastes. Funnily, it says ‘Woo Hoo’ when you match with someone and its swiping interface bears a resemblance with cough, Tinder. Another, called Truly Madly, is close to a matrimony app without calling itself one and yet another, Thrill, is in the matchmaking business too. Go play! Singles from your area like this
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