The Hindu Business Line : Papa? Appa? Acha? ... Oh God!

Have you seen the movie Chak De India? It is odd that I found a Hindi movie interesting, more so when the person writing is a cricket tragic whose association with hockey at best has been fleeting and also someone who grew up in Ta mil Nadu chanting “Hindi down, down!” The movie to me was not so much about team spirit and the power of the ‘coach’ (which, incidentally is a bad word in India and in cricket thanks to the Greg Chappells of the world) but about the differences within India and the people who speak its numerous languages.

Do you remember the scene in the film where a girl comes and introduces herself as “Telugu” to which the administrator nods knowingly and says, “Ah, Tamil!” even as the girl fumes? I too have been there, seen that as every year my friends from Mumbai call me to wish me on Onam! I admire their concern and yet wish they would know the difference between a Tamilian and a Malayalee and hope that before I die I can explain to them that a Malayalee is a person and not a language! People in the communication business are better at this and understand and appreciate the nuances of languages and their differences. They create different language versions and adaptations of the same commercial with great effect. But once in a while they give me scope for articles like the present one.

Oh papa!

One of the nicest commercials that I have seen recently is for HDFC Standard Life Insurance. I am sure if you have seen the commercial you would remember it too. In any case, let me describe it to you. A girl receives a letter from a US college offering admission but only “half aid.” Naturally she seems crestfallen. But then her father reassures her by saying that there has been someone who has been saving for her future ever since she was a small child and the twist to the tale is that the person who has been saving for her future is her “papa”. The daughter is delighted, there is a happy ending and the commercial ends with an excellent response device – by asking people to sms “Papa”, a great reminder of the key thought in the commercial which is the importance of Papa not only to the film but to the girl in the commercial who wishes to study abroad. So what is the problem?

Sorry we are Tamil, we are like that only!

Tamilians as a race are unique, or so we would like to believe. We are proud of our language, which, one is reasonably sure will stump most other Indians who might wish to learn it. Not that there are too many rushing to sign up for it! Yet, we are an important market for goods and services as brands and companies have discovered over the years whether it was Asian Paints in the mid-Eighties or countless other brands who have discovered the value of this region and the race. Most, however, like HDFC Standard Life use the same commercial with translations that are usually effective. The finest example of that would be the Sunil Babu commercial which in Tamil became “Kalakkarey Chandru” and actually a way of speaking in the region. I am not sure if this commercial that I am writing about at length will make the same waves for its translations but it has a problem. The girl keeps referring to “Appa” in the commercial in Tamil unlike the “Papa” in Hindi which is fine, but the problem is in the response device as like the Hindi commercial you have to sms “papa”. Now I am not a technowizard, but is it such a big problem to ask people to sms “appa” in Tamil Nadu instead of using the version in the Hindi film which is meant for a different language and a different audience? Could it not be “Acha” for Kerala? I do not know what the versions are, but I suspect that the right word would be introduced in the language versions of the commercial but what about the SMS? ‘Papa’ in Tamil means baby and means sin in Kannada … you get the picture! This, perhaps, is indicative of our problem of not paying as much attention to detail as we should. Is it because it goes beyond advertising and needs a technology interface? Is it because we believe only commercials need translations? Is it because we do not pay enough attention to local conditions and the differences? Or are we operating mechanically?

Are we protesting too loudly?

I suppose you are saying that my reaction is over the top. It probably is. But I have a reason. I believe that the HDFC commercial is an excellent commercial. It is warm, gets attention and is a good example of integration. In fact I have written about it earlier. But I have a problem with the language renditions, more specifically with the response device. It, more than anything else, demonstrates a missed opportunity thanks to lack of attention to detail and an absence of sensitivity to local conditions and the problems with the local language.

To translate or not?

India is a diverse country driven and divided by languages, religions and customs. Yet brands need consumers from all over the country, however diverse they may be. Very rarely do brands have communication that works across languages and regions that do not need any adaptations. Commercials like the Coke [red] commercial done in 1996 for the Cricket World Cup are few and far between as they do not require multiple executions or language adaptations. But that is rare.

Today, with costs being the way they are the challenge is to come up with communication that has a powerful idea that does not rely on the power of the idiom or the nuance of a particular language. Today lots of commercials are created for an audience that speaks Hindi, thinks in Hindi and is extremely comfortable with Hindi, unlike the Eighties where most advertising was created for an audience comfortable with English. I have no quarrel with that but the audience does not often share the same propensity for the language, at least not in my home state. To my mind it is an ongoing challenge and great communicators and brands manage it all the time. Is your brand one of those fortunate ones?

Oye Uncle, step out of the way!

From insurance to cola. For a long time, cola advertising represented the creative health of the Indian advertising industry. Pepsi initially produced great advertising that made the consumer want more! Editorials in newspapers and magazines cheerfully borrowed from the clever, cheeky Pepsi lines that were part of our lives. The brand used Sachin, Shah Rukh, Amitabh and Kajol to set advertising benchmarks. Coke in advertising terms at least was way behind till it got its India act right with Aamir Khan and “Thanda matlab Coca- Cola”. The cola wars truly started in India then, in my view.

Then Pepsi lost its way. Its advertising, which had such great campaigns like ‘Yeh dil mange more’ and ‘Nothing official about it’ somehow became more pedestrian, or did our advertising expectations increase? Did other categories strive to emulate this and even improve on this? We had far more interesting advertising that was being created for detergents, suitings, mobile phones and watches, to name just a few. I think the last Pepsi advertising was so insipid that I could barely remember it. Finally, a better Pepsi commercial, which incidentally has enough translations, has hit the screen. It has Shah Rukh and John Abraham addressing two different sets of audiences, maybe. It is a striking commercial because it shows Shah Rukh poking fun at himself, where with his corny hair style et al he looks an “uncle” that the kid asks to just step out of the way! Hope for the cola world! And about time too! Now let’s hope that Co ke produces a better commercial too!

Be aware

Creating advertising in India is not easy. We are a different people. We are all reared on our native tongue and on occasion are passionate about it. We are not the lowest common denominator. We like simple, powerful ideas. We do not want clever ideas that are built on turn of phrase that are driven by a particular language. So how good is your commercial? Does it talk to papa while the person who is watching it is appa?

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds).

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