A TVC viral ?

Some of you might remember this ad of Bajaj for their 125 cc bike .

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gydm0ndfUQA

It had 2 guys comparing their bikes at a traffic junction, and shows how the Bajaj bike scores on many parameters for a lesser price. Decent, but nothing spectacular.

What caught my attention though was this Sun Direct ad that i caught on TV a couple of days back. After having seen some earlier ads of the service in a few inhouse channels, I was thankful that they had started acknowledging advertising as a profession. So this work, which did a cool take on the Bajaj ad, took me by surprise. Take a look.

httpv://in.youtube.com/watch?v=NZAoP1C3Y-A

As you’d have noticed, this time the roles have been reversed. I thought it was a good tactic – to piggy back on a much aired and (decently) identified ad and more specifically, its characters. After all, the intent was the same- compare the product with existing players in the market, and show its superior qualities.

The good part is that these are just characters, and nameless ones at that, so I don’t think they can be copyrighted (correct me if I’m wrong) I’m wondering if other brands will have fun with these two, if so, we’ll have a good TVC viral; and different stories like Krack and Jack, only with multiple brands. I don’t think Bajaj will mind. After all, its a completely different category, and moreover, it adds to the recall for their brand. Maybe Sun can give Bajaj XCD 125 customers a free set top box?

Zatak and Axe, though, are a completely different story altogether.

until next time, ad value

5 Comments

  1. Interesting post! The two-person comparator motif reminds me of Mitchell-Webb Mac ads.

    The two ads however make me wonder about the IP ownership of the said motif, the ‘creative’ if you will. is that not the client’s privilege? In other words – I wonder who thought of the extension of the motif to other product categories. The agency or the client(s)? If the latter, then is it a possible precursor to a joint promotion between unrelated categories which are unlikely to cannibalise each other’s sales?

    PS: The Sun TV placeholder says ‘Hindi with cylinder’ – I wonder what that means.

  2. Nice one. I only wish the ‘parasite’ TVC had explored extending the conversation between the two, rather than just copying it almost verbatim. That way they could have added to the characters and created an ecosystem where both brands benefited. Here it’s just the lazy one that’s piggybacking on someone else’s idea.

    The less said about the Zapak ad the better, of course.

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