Power to the People

Brand: Havells

Company: Havells India Ltd

Agency: Lowe Lintas

The Campaign

The film revolves around a god-man (baba) in a flowing white gown who is struck by lightning on a dark, stormy night and thereby acquires a magical power of creating electricity. He can power every electrical gadget that comes his way. As he walks through a dark road, the streetlights come alight. He twitches his fingers and an electric sub-station revs back to life. Soon there are hundreds of men and women following him astounded by his “electricity making” skills. The voice-over cuts into this magical scene to say, "Kaash bijli baba har jagah aa sakte. Tab tak use Havells. Save bijli, please baba" (If only bijli baba could visit everywhere. Till then use Havells to save electricity and get the baba's blessings). The ad ends with a shot of various Havells product with the tagline: Committed to saving energy.

Our Take

There's many an ad that talks about energy saving in a moralistic tone thus forcing the viewer to switch off (pun intended). This Havells ad breaks away from that with its 1000-watt bright story. With a dash of its characteristic quirky flavour, this Havells commercial uses a preacher to spread the message but without any preaching.

Havells had earlier come out with the hangman ad to promote its energy-saving CFL bulbs. If that ad used dark humour to get the viewer's attention, this ad pulls a smart but subtle one to get the message across. For a country that

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