This ad is a safe progression of Mountain Dew?s earlier campaigns. A little refreshing but not really different
Campaign: Mountain Dew
Brand: PepsiCo India
Company : Darr ke aage jeet hai
Agency: Taproot India
The Campaign
The ad opens with Hrithik Roshan sitting alone on the beach while his friends in the water urge him to join them for a swim. But Roshan, who is afraid of the deep water refuses. He ponders over his fear of water and questions himself. He then takes a swig of his Mountain Dew. After a while, Roshan is seen atop a cliff, poised to jump into the ocean. His friends try to stop him but he takes the plunge, visibly thrilled to have overcome his fear. The film ends with a voice-over in Roshan’s voice: ?Darr se mat daro, kyun ki darr ke aage jeet hai.? (Don’t be afraid of fear because beyond fear lies victory).
Our Take
Mountain Dew was left high and dry as Salman Khan left for Thums Up in a homecoming of sorts, as he had endorsed Thums Up till 2003. So PepsiCo decided to take on board Hrithik Roshan for Dew, who, interestingly, had started out with Coca-Cola as one of his first endorsements. The fact that both Mountain Dew and Thums Up use thrill, action and adventure as major elements of their campaigns seems to have dictated the choice of Roshan as the new face for Mountain Dew. After all, it’s Salman Khan they’re up against.
This campaign, while maintaining Mountain Dews’ basic formula, has made it a little more believable for the consu-mers to relate with. So, instead of some macho boys skateboarding down a waterfall, or dropping down in a jeep off a mighty steep cliff, we have a hydrophobic Roshan simply fighting his fears, which are not in the form of testing topo-graphy or stormy weather, but the demons inside his head. Does it ring a bell? Yes, as fear of going into water was also a part of Roshan’s character in Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. It might be a gamble or it might be considered as the coming of age of a brand that primarily relied on testosterone-driven crazy adventure stunts to sell bottles of soft drink. The message has a cinematic connect, it is straight and clear, but to some disappointment, predictable. Mountain Dew has been using its ?defeat-the-fear? formula for far too long now, and while we see some attempt to break out of the mould in terms of making the TVC more real, more needs to be done. After all, breaking out of your comfort zone is what the brand itself professes, isn’t it? Overall, this ad is a safe progression of Dew’s earlier campaigns. A little refreshing but not really different.
Ratings
**1/2
