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The cola game gets a new twist this summer after a year of lying low. But there's no immunity from criticism.
There's not point jumping to conclusions without taking a closer look. First of all, Ash Cash is running a national TV ad campaign, so it meets the transparency condition. Quite cheerfully, in fact. This deal is open to everybody, and an effort has been made to inform the largest possible number of the offer (it's not the company's fault that India is still mostly 'media-dark'), even if young male eyeballs are disproportionately eager to trace the undulations of the lady in red chiffon. And if that's not reprieve enough, the TV commercial is not aimed entirely at fast-fizzle sales for the moment, with little lasting influence on the brand as it's held in the deeper recesses of the mind. Indeed, it is a cleverly conceived ad, even if the adfilm rendition suffers from the slight flaw of getting the subtleties of detail a little too mixed up for real coherence. Nice visual metaphors. Potent stuff. Maybe even fateful. Some playfully kept-simple phrases there. Nice use of Aishwarya Rai too. Dramatic touch, almost Shakespearean in sound. Aishwarya goes brilliantly with the main visual metaphor. To a T. But, but, but... why have some mystical force of fantasy doing the honours? Or is that just what an over-assuming Ash has led the poor unassuming porter to think while free rationalists hit palms to foreheads? As said before, Ash Cash has got all the narrative elements in place for a stimulating performance; a little tweaking could've given the commercial a lot more provocation power. But then, Pepsi has already twirled the cola scenario in some other direction; it's an old habit the brand has, of snatching ideas (or at least funny re-takes of them) and running away with them through kiddo-land to loud cheers from the galleries. Yes, this time, it has struck with 'Oye Bubbly', a characteristically crazy bout of lip-synching bellies, burgers, breastpockets, garages and whatnot. Like a mike-grabbing wise guy, Pepsi has opened its summer lovefest with the market by mouthing a mass desire for effervescence. Cola effervescence. Musical effervescence. Big mouth effervescence. What does Coca-Cola, the sober market mover, have by way of advertising response (if it isn't shy of having it called so)? The very latest spot in the blockbuster 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' television campaign. This appears to be about Cola-colonisation. It's just that it's not the ol' familiar colonisation as we know it. Our thirsty protagonist down from America, cola-colonised as he irredeemably is, must read his desi hostess's desi eyes---and get really down and desi if he is to savour any of the real thing.
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So,
the venerable Coca-Cola is running an Ash Cash promotion scheme. Doesn't
it care about smelling like roses? Shouldn't it get flak from people who
bellyache about the ethical and visionary deficit of such promotion
schemes? Is the world's biggest brand beyond all reproach?