addendum. KISS

Addendum is a weekly 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.

Remember the old marketing principle? KISS. Keep it simple, stupid! Well, one must agree that simplicity has its unique advantage. No clutter, nothing complex, nothing unnecessary. Just what you need to know. Well, Aegon Life Insurance and DDB Mudra have decided to take the simple route to highlight Aegon’s life insurance policies.

Strategy-wise, one can hardly fault them. Insurance is a complicated business made even more complex by the reams of fine print that every policy necessarily needs, and is seldom read by, and never explained to, the customer.

So DDB Mudra has this one-minute long film that shows complex visuals that look forbiddingly sci-fi-like, and even a maze to come to the point that “Simple says” that life and life insurance should not be needlessly confusing or intimidating. It’s a very compelling narrative made into a decent film.

By now you know when I use these polite words like “decent” or “competent” I’m not over the moon after watching the film.

Big Maharaja

We’ve travelled the world and bitten into (or tried to bite into) the Big Mac. This is the flagship burger beneath the golden arches. But what’s big for the world has to be something more for Indians.

So what’s bigger than big in India? Royalty! So we have the Maharaja Mac with twin patties and cheese and all the trappings including a special sesame seed bun which makes the offering look like a little high-rise. And as you begin demolishing this treat, well, storey by storey, it’s going to take a little time right?

And that’s the insight Leo Burnett has latched on to and created a series of three films for McDonald’s which emphasises the generous size of the Maharaja Mac by stressing on the time you will take to finish your meal, and what you could be doing while you do it.

So you have a group of kids planning their careers, a father and son bonding, and a young executive apple-polishing his boss.

What I found interesting about this series was that the product pitch was made first. So you had the voice-over talking about the burger, its size and its ingredients right in the beginning, and then the creative part of the film begins.

That’s really turning on its head all the other commercials which do precisely the opposite. Very interesting!

You have a choice

We’ve been through this. We walk into the service station with a swagger and insist that each and everything in the new car is checked and double-checked.

After all, it’s the free service! But when the time to service the car and pay for the service arrives, the shoe is on the other foot.

Suddenly there are things which seemed perfectly OK to you which the service mechanic feels must be checked or changed or at least topped up. And you always feel you are being gypped.

Well, when the swagger subsides you now have an alternative. Mahindra First Choice is a chain of multi-brand service stations across the country that offers professional honest service for your car, after the free services are over. And they have launched a TVC that explains just this. In a light-hearted manner.

So when you are in a slightly more sober mood and you want to service your car with someone who comes right out and says all the very things you wanted to hear all these years, you have a choice.

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

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