addendum

Addendum is a fortnightly column that takes a sometimes hard, sometimes casual, sometimes irreverent yet never malicious look at some of the new or recent advertisements and comments on them.

Baring its teeth

There’s a war on for the space occupied by your teeth and gums in your mouth. It was clearly COM (Colgate Occupied Mouth) till now. But with the strategic incursions being made by Patanjali across the Line of actual Control, the air is thick with claims and counter-claims, quite like the Northern border of our country. Patanjali’s chief brand endorser and spokesperson Baba Ramdev stars in the latest TVC for Dant Kanti and he fires a broadside aimed at the MNCs (to be read as Colgate) where he says the same companies advertising that traditional herbs and natural produce such as salt, charcoal and neem were harmful for your teeth, are now touting the goodness of these very ingredients again, and that they created great harm to your teeth and gums with their chemical-laden products. He cautions the viewer against falling for these convenient flip-flop claims and plugs Dant Kanti instead. Honestly, Colgate has been caught with its pants down in this particular skirmish. There are print and TV ads doing the rounds where Colgate had scoffed at ingredients such as salt and charcoal. And now, feeling the heat from Dabur first and Patanjali now, it has Lara Dutta unabashedly promoting the same ingredients in Colgate products. Colgate, of course, is launching its ayurvedic range under the name of Cibaca, a brand it acquired, but this really doesn’t help too much in this no-holds-barred assault from the Baba. Seen alongside one another, Colgate does appear in a rather poor light and the glib social media explanation from their spokesperson really doesn’t cut any ice. Of course, its deep pockets will help it under-cut the market players on price and its awesome distribution power will be cranked up smartly to get over this new version of “Coalgate”. But Round 1 to Patanjali! This space is really hotting up. Watch your mouth!

Tough paint

There’s this new TVC for Nerolac Excel Mica Marble exterior paint (wonder how you ask for paints with such a long name) made by Bobby Pawar and his merry men at Publicis Ambience. It shows the Gujarat Lions who are sponsored by Nerolac going on the rampage, using unsuspecting buildings as their target practice. And as each shot from the willow of a master-batsman hurtles like a missile into these homes painted with inferior products, they cause deadly damage. There’s a nice catchy song playing in the background as these home-owners scurry for cover, all lining up (a little bit of creative licence is always welcome) behind the house of one gentleman who is watching this mayhem nonchalantly, sipping his masala tea (my interpretation of the contents of his cup). And so you have Raina smashing his best shot directly at this home only to see it ricochet harmlessly off the tough and beautiful wall and into the waiting hand of the owner. There you have it, the marvel of mica that makes for toughness and the beauty of marble all in one mouthful-of-a-name paint from Nerolac. Wonder why Shah Jahan didn’t think of this! Nice one, Bobby!

All-weather conditions

If Bobby Pawar powered his houses with some ingenious engineering, Taproot Dentsu has taken the house to an all new level. Yes, they have mounted it on a big trailer truck and have Farhan Akhtar promising to show us how this house stands up to the challenges of all kinds of weather. That’s all there was, so I’m looking forward to a nice Bharat Darshan, and waiting to exhale. Oh, this one has an equally big name: Dulux Weathershield Powerflexx.

As good as new

And to complete the hat trick there’s a TVC for Asian Paints Tractor Emulsion Paints that is not for tractors. I’m not even going to discuss why a home décor paint would be branded Tractor. These paint companies have something about names! Anyway, Contract has a nice little film for this product which shows an interesting banter on a cycle-rickshaw between an elder parent and his son-in-law (hope that was not the son) over whether the house had been re-painted in time for the grandson’s tonsure ceremony. And the young parent is trying to explain that there really was no need to paint interiors every year if you use a good paint. A good script, nice direction and casting (love the elder gent with the grating voice and sitar) and the message comes through loud and clear.

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Mail your comments to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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