The pursuit of happiness

Brand: Coca-Cola

Company: Coca-Cola India

Agency: McCann Erickson

The Campaign

The ad opens on a girl riding a bicycle who gives a high-five on the raised hands of strangers hailing an autorickshaw or a taxi. Similarly, a tired Santa finds a bottle of Coke as a return gift under a Christmas tree, a diner gives away a bottle of Coke to the doorman while leaving the restaurant and a young man is shown feeding stray dogs. All through, the song ‘Haan main crazy hoon’ plays in the background. The film ends with the voice-over: “Kya aap duniya ko khush karne ke liye crazy hain?” (Are you crazy enough to make the world happy?). The campaign's punch line is 'Khushiyaan lutao, crazy kehlao' (Spread happiness, be called crazy).

Our Take

It’s déjà-vu just too soon. In last week’s column, we discussed how Snickers went haywire in its execution of the desi version of one of its more popular and successful global campaigns. Pitched as the natural extension of Coke’s happiness anthem of last year, ‘Umeed wali dhoop, sunshine wali asha’, this new campaign, though technically and contextually sound, doesn’t really make the impact one expected it to make. In spite of being more focussed than last year’s happiness anthem in terms of its message and brand communication and towing Coke’s global branding around happiness over the last one year, the TVC lacks the punch that one was waiting for and also doesn't fare as well on the recall value, unlike so many

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