Recall that eminently hummable jingle from a Bajaj bulb commercial, Jab Main chotta baccha tha?? Nothing great about it, except that the protagonist appeared to be 60-plus, singing peans about? no, not an Ayurvedic balm or a new dental service? but our everyday electric bulb.
In the final execution though, the creatives at Leo Burnett fell into the trap: the last sequence showed the gentleman sneaking into the kitchen to bite into the doctor-forbidden goodie, as his dismayed wife snaps on the overhead light.
Why is it that elders in our ads are always doing things forbidden? Else, they are always nitpicking, crabby and, if nothing else, dispensable.
How predictable! Just as predictable as those pranksters in Asian Paint commercial who declare they dig chocolates and not amle ka murabba, while pointing out different colours on the walls to the out-of-fashion grandma. Worse was Star Care?s ad that morphs a dead man with the tagline, ?India?s biggest challenge/ Let?s shorten the queues?? The offending piece was purportedly made for an NGO, Population First, as part of a public awareness drive. To be sure, there are certain category of products, life insurance in particular, that lend themselves naturally to an older generation. Remember that SBI Life (O&M) ad that features an elderly couple, the lady at a sewing machine when the old man presents her with a diamond ring and the woman mumbles ?is umar me kahan pehnungi heera.? Prompt comes gallant husband?s rejoinder, ?Heerey ko kya pata tumhari umar.?
However, the point is, elders don?t make good subjects for admen because they?in general perception?don?t wield much influence in household purchases, except when it comes to personal things such as toothpastes or creams, or, and here comes the big surprise, when it?s a big-ticket purchase related to real estate.
These are indeed the findings of a Starcom Worldwide study commissioned to a Mumbai-based consumer diagnostic company, The Key. The main finding of the survey is that marketers in India perceive elders to be a ?homogeneous, ailing, financially restricted group that is extremely resistant to the changing times.?
(See accompanying piece, ?Different strokes?, on page 4 for details.)
One needs only look at the marketing or communication brief for any category or brand targeted at an average Indian household for proof. The demographic definition virtually ends at 45 or, at best 50 years.
?You?d be surprised to learn that in some categories, anybody above 30 is dubbed elderly,? concedes Samit Sinha, managing partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting, expressing concern that because of our new thrust on young India, where 50% of the population by 2015 would be post 1991-born, marketers are not specifically focused on the elderly, not realising that many among them would not just have a propensity to spend, but may also have the money and time resource to do so.
?Being less flirtatious at that age, they are more engaged with the media, yet they are not regarded as an important target for a wide variety of products and services,? says Sinha.
Sinha adds that exceptions include products ?necessarily targeted at them, such as a Zandu Chyavanprash, or an ICICI Prudential policy.?
But did you know that the old travel more than the young? In the West, they even have a name for this class of travelers?empty nesters?and have special holiday packages designed for them.
In contrast, in India, the old are influential only if they are ?rich? (Starcom finding). And, these cliques don?t just stop at products. They also extend well beyond?into services. So we have a 70-plus widow, the resident of a plush house in, say, Sainik Farms in south Delhi, who has a nice retirement income (her only son is settled in downtown California), who may occasionally like to go for a quiet dinner with friends but there isn?t one place she can think of that caters to her age demands in terms of accessibility, sixties music, or where the menu also features a low-sugar, low-sodium range of delicacies.
There are men?s only and women?s only and kids? only sections at apparel stores; have you ever come across a seniors? section? Not even at an outlet of a top national retailer.
Refer to box on page 1 for the number of life insurance brands that still subscribe to this age metaphor. Note that there is hardly any FMCG brand in the list, except for the HelpAge pizza delivery ad. Even the much acclaimed, Shoaib Akhtar challenge ad for Stronglas was true to type. The elderly woman was featured solely as a foil to the hunk cricketer.
The Starcom research found that there are three behaviour-changing events in a senior?s life: the birth of a grandchild; the death of a spouse and children leaving home for studies or marriage. These are significant milestones, and if marketers were to zero in on these three events, they would probably have an award-winning ad.
A very moving HelpAge India film on the loneliness that engulfs a bereaved spouse is currently on air, made by an independent film maker Bappa Roy (ex-O&M, Lowe hand), who said living in Mumbai had sensitised him to the subject but he felt discouraged when he didn?t find many broadcasters interested in the subject. ?Our consumption patters and demographics have changed and this reflects in the films that we make,? laments Roy.
Giving a slightly different take on the subject is Shoojit Sircar of Rising Sun Films who also made a public awareness film on the same subject, featuring an elderly couple two years ago. ?When we do commercial films, it?s the client who calls the shots. Personally, I won?t execute a film that projects the elderly in such a tragic manner?ailing, without life, without mirth.?
?I do recall O&M?s SBI Life ad that didn?t have this hook, although that too hawked an insurance product,? he recalls.
In terms of categories, health and natural products are always top on their provisions? list, confirms Anuj Saxena, managing director, Elder Healthcare, part of the Rs 500-crore Elder group.