From Cadbury’s Diwali ad featuring Shah Rukh Khan to CRED’s Kapil Dev spot and Instagram’s first brand campaign in India, here are the commercials that Ritwika Gupta liked this week –

Brand: Cadbury

For Diwali this year, Cadbury India has come up with a meaningful campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan as the brand ambassador of small, local businesses that suffered due to the pandemic. Continuing the #NotJustaCadburyAd initiative, the brand is letting customers create an advertisement for their local stores for free with Khan in it. The ad begins with a voice-over and bytes of local businessmen telling viewers how much they were affected due to the pandemic. The 2-minute-17-seconds clip then focuses on Khan promoting a local clothing merchant, shoe store, online store, and a nearby Kirana store. On notjustacadburyad.com, users can create an ad for free by providing some information like name of store, pincode etc. The brand is using machine learning and AI technology to recreate the actor’s face and voice to take the names of different local stores in the ad. I think this is simply brilliant. Cadbury has made the best use of technology and creativity to come up with a thought-provoking way to help smaller businesses stand out. Just like last year’s Diwali campaign, this time too, the brand is supporting local businesses with customisable ads. But the only difference here is that this year, they’ve gone a step ahead and roped in India’s biggest brand ambassador to promote smaller and local stores. Realistically speaking, not every brand can afford to sign Shah Rukh Khan and for a kirana store that rarely has a marketing budget, getting Khan to endorse their business would have been close to a dream come true. And in this way, Cadbury continues to work towards their philosophy of generosity. From #PurpleHeart, #ThankYou bars to #KiseKhushKarenge, this one also tries to bring about a real change. It’s not just paying lip-service. And who better than Khan to reach out to the masses? Given these days how brands are quick to pulls ads due to social media boycotts and pressure, hats off to Cadbury for sticking their ground and releasing this Diwali campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan, amid his personal crisis. This one’s truly innovative that’s winning hearts for the right reasons.   

Campaign: #NotJustACadburyAd
Agency: Ogilvy India

Brand: CRED

Earlier this year, CRED turned Jackie Shroff into a zumba instructor and got the super calm and composed Rahul Dravid to lose his cool in the middle of a traffic jam screaming, “Indiranagar ka gunda hoon main.” And last week, Kapil Dev featured in the brand’s new hilarious ad imitating actor Ranveer Singh. Right from Singh’s quirky demeanour to outlandish style, Kapil Dev nailed the act perfectly. He imitated Singh’s flamboyant style, high energy attitude and even donned an all-pink cricketing outfit and a leopard print suit (both of which Singh has worn in real life for various public appearances). Interestingly, Ranveer is playing Kapil Dev in his next movie, titled 83. I have been a fan of CRED’s ads including the latest Neeraj Chopra one. Their ads are wacky and their strategy to leverage yesteryears’ stars and nostalgic appeal, grabs attention. The ads create awareness about the brand. However, while I remember the ads, I don’t necessarily remember what the product offerings and benefits are. I remember the celebrities who starred in the commercials but I don’t remember the message. The Kapil Dev spot is extremely funny (perhaps the funniest of the lot) but am I tempted to download the CRED app? Not quite. Hats off to the team for coming up with such out-of-the box concepts each time but perhaps it’s time they focus on driving the message better now.

Campaign: Great for the Good
Conceptualised by: Early Man Films Production

Brand: Instagram

Instagram has released a new campaign aimed at encouraging young people to express and explore their personal stories, on the platform. The campaign, ‘We Are In the Making’, is Instagram’s first brand campaign in India and is a part of the platform’s new global brand campaign. The ad showcases the way people can explore who they can be with Instagram. It is based on the insight that young people want to express themselves but look for constant nudges of encouragement from those around them. The campaign features some popular emerging creators. What’s interesting is that the campaign primarily focuses on Reels. We don’t get to see other features on Instagram such as pictures, stories, live or IGTV etc.  Perhaps because Reels are hot right now and most of the creators are leveraging Reels to stand out. Overall, I liked the idea of highlighting the power of self-discovery and the spots are relatable.

Campaign: We Are In the Making
Agency: DDB Mudra