Surf -- Daag Ache hain ???

Surf "Daag Ache Hai” is remembered (should be remembered rather) in the history of advertising to have broken a cliché. A boring stereotype where countless detergent commercials through years of unabashed creative barrenness showcased unhappy housewives toil tough with stain on clothes. And then would appear the detergent brand bringing happiness along with it by removing all the dirt in a flash! Voila.. so predictive so very formulaic and so very boring…

Surf with its Daag Ache Hain (stain is good) campaign changed it and for the better… I loved the ads from 2005 and have felt and shared wherever I talk and write, the path breaking success that Balki and his team at Lowe have got for themselves and for the age old Brand surf which has really stood all the marketing tests that times have posed on it....…

A brother and sister duo returning home from school dressed in their maroon and white uniforms. The girl is, 4 or 5 while the boy around 7. The girl accidentally falling into a puddle of rain water and gets soiled with stain. Her sob making her brother to take ‘revenge’ on the puddle. The big brother soaring in exact filmi style and starting to punch the BAD GUY…. And finally leaving the scene with a warning ‘’Phir mat karna!’’

I know for sure that anyone who have seen this ad would have loved it for its newness, its simplicity and its clutter breaking ability… then the idea went on….. in a striking campaign the country was told in length and breadth that actually Stains are Good…a good case of 360 degree communication…. Its all fine, were fine rather, till recently when a Surf Excel commercial featuring a teacher and her student and a dead dog, stared at us from the TV scenes, trying to be a worthy successor of its predecessors and trying to tow the same line that one need not stop living life to the fullest fearing dirt and grime on clothes; in short –”Daag Ache Hain“.

I feel that all the trying shows, I mean only the trying shows, trying to drag on the idea, the good idea dragged on to such a disastrous point that anyone who have seen the first ads would feel that this one is a mock ad done by some rival agency… one shudders to think that Lowe (who made the first ads) can ever think of such an Ill conceived ,depraved ad….It shows that a lot of trying is done to stand on par with the first ads but the connect is missing, even the insight is getting ridiculed in the process.. I am sure no teacher ( I am one and a dog lover at that) would want his/her student to come and dance/howl, hop and urinate like a dog to make him or her happy unless he/she is a pervert.. Miss Rossy is sad at her dog’s death but she isn’t sad that her innocent student is at her door doing the Doggy things..

Come one guys !!! Take a walk and get back but next time give us some thing worth the name… and a prayer from my side( to Lowe and HUL)…’’Phir mat karna!’’ ........Puhleesss.. !!!!!!!!


Tail piece: - "Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're going to catch you in next". ~Franklin P. Jones

Below the line and below the belt...the P&G vs Lever saga....

An optometrist was instructing a new employee on how to charge a customer:

"As you are fitting his glasses, if he asks how much they cost, you say '$75.' ...

If his eyes don't flutter, say, 'For the frames. The lenses will be $50.'...

If his eyes still don't flutter, you add ...'Each.'

Its about how u say it...properly said, you can do it!!!!!

Tide has created India's Longest Clothesline to illustrate the superior value that Tide offers consumers. A first ever, Tide India's longest clothesline ran around the famous Necklace Road on the perimeter of the historical Hussein Sagar Lake...... says a news item, which I ran a cross, this morning.....

I have got amused ever since I saw this in NDTV profit some days back and was interested by the developments. Not that I am afraid that "The end of advertising as we know it" is atlast happening, but am amazed by the scale at which it is..... It has entered the records as a unique Limca Book Record but it also has raised the level ,tone and the importance of the 'below the line promotion' stuff as they call it. Arc Worldwide, Leo Burnett’s integrated marketing division have done it excellently well and with an ease that made others awestruck. Celebrity Homemaker and Actor Ramya Krishnan, as they describe the endorser , appeared in the streets along with the Tide team and scores of onlookers and could pull a large crowd who gathered to see more of the film star and her spotlessly white attire and less of course of the packet of tide and "how much" one packet can wash....

Ms. Vidya Murthy, Brand Manager, Home and Personal Care, P&G India said, "Our Consumer Research indicated that the homemaker's primary concern is her family's well-being, and thus she believes that one of the ways she can contribute to the family is by making the most of her budget. She wants maximal value from her brands and the Tide India's Longest Clothesline is proof of the economic efficiency that Tide offers."

Very true, even though its not much a great revelation... we all knew it long back right???? still Ms Murthy is genuine compared to what the endorser had to say......

Ramya Krishnan said, "The Tide India's Longest Clothesline brings to life what I as a consumer experience everyday. As a homemaker, I find Tide a great fit for my budget. I urge homemakers across Andhra Pradesh to experience the great savings by using Tide daily."

Oh !!! come on Ramyaji...You seriously think that we are gonna beleive that? Where you and the average home maker...?

Still the attempt is simply stupendous and the charm that its has created is all marvellous...

Below the line, well thought about and executed is all about getting more for spending less !!!

And what is the competition doing?

Well they are not simply hanging their fate in the clothline and getting dried off.. INFACT the whole thing started with Lowe lintas and Surf excel taking the now famous time tested Dhabba walla route campaign...Yes the same Dhabba walas, who formed a case in Harward on Logistics , whom the Prince of wales came and marvelled at, whom Sumantra Ghoshal is supposed to have asked Fedex to learn a lesson or two from, and whom in the past, radio mirchi and ICICI bank among others have creatively used in their below the line promotion efforts....

Branded table mats which said... ‘Kuch Khana, Kuch Girana… Surf Excel Hai Na' , an extention of the‘Jaise Bhi Daag Ho… Surf Excel Hai Na' campaign, which they had unleashed in response to Tide's attempts to position itself as the only stain remover kinda..... this time they had the RK Laxman touch, the cartoonist made the pics for the mat and signed on it, so that it would be hard for you to throw it away and for a sum of 1.50 rupees per mat the dhabbawalla was all too willing to deliver it to the lunch rooms where staining do happen quite often........

Its heartening to me to see this street fight.... because it is creativity, it simply is innovation and innovation brings challenges..to reach more people and more eyeballs and stay there and percolate into the brains.... Marketing communication is supposed to do it and supposed to do it first..... The problem that today we have, is that, its all addressing the eyes and nothing for the brains... the next generation, will end up, I am afraid with bean sized brains and baloon sized eyes, looking like antellopes......

Well done my beloved industry !!!! simply superb.....!!!

Tail piece :-"If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks."

- Leo Burnett, quoted in Denis Higgins, The Art of Writing Advertising: Conversations with Masters of the Craft (1990), Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books, p. 26.