Be it Holi, Eid or Independence Day, festive or occasion-based advertising has long been used by brands to trigger curiosity or purchase. It’s only when brands are able to craft communication around insights relevant for the event or the season that they are able to break clutter. BrandWagon asked senior creative hands to talk about the brands that they think have used the festival of Holi effectively. As expected, HUL’s Surf and Ghadi detergent’s “consent” ads feature prominently in a majority of the responses we have received.
Here are glimpses from our dipstick.
Shray Chawla, senior creative director, Dentsu Creative India
Parachute Advansed | #KhulKeKheloHoli
Holi as a festival is not supposed to be celebrated but is supposed to be played and you can’t be clinical with it. A pinch of colour here, a pinch of colour there is not Holi and this film by Parachute Advansed beautifully brings it alive. But an idea is only as good as the execution. If it weren’t for Pritam Pal Singh’s lyrics and the nuanced performances of Sudhir Pandey and Neena Kulkarni, this film wouldn’t have been so memorable.
Surf Excel | #RangLaayeSang
One cannot talk about memorable Holi ads and not mention Surf Excel. Their marquee and the most memorable piece of work still continues to be the 2019 #RangLaayeSang film. While the troll army definitely tried to boycott Surf Excel over this ad, the amount of positive word of mouth the brand gained is clearly visible in the YouTube comment section.
Ghadi Detergent | #SaareMaelDhoDaalo
Consent has always been a big conversation point during Holi. Under the garb of being playful, people often forget the concept of personal space boundaries. And because of this, ‘bura na maano, Holi hai’ becomes more of a licence to do anything. The ad somewhat hit the nail on its head and talked about this problem with utmost honesty and simplicity.
Vishnu Srivatsav, national creative director, 22feet Tribal Worldwide
FBB | #BuraNaKhelo
Truth is, there is a darker side to Holi that we choose to ignore and the image of handprints (presented in the ad) on clothes is such a stark reminder of what women go through every Holi. The ad presents it as a powerful piece of communication.
Budweiser | Be a King
Visually, the ad is quite stunning, vibrant, and funky and captures the spirit and the joy of Holi perfectly. It portrays tradition, but it’s very cool and contemporary at the same time.
Holy Holi for ASVOFF fashion film festival by Manish Arora
Conceptualised by fashion designer Manish Arora, the film is about the Varanasi widows who are not allowed to play Holi. A powerful and poignant piece of filmmaking by Bharat Sikka, it is visually perfect, tonally empowering, musically powerful, just a brilliant piece of visual storytelling.
Rajshekar Patil, executive creative director, VMLY&R India
Facebook | More Together
A warm extension of the ‘More Together’ campaign that doesn’t resort to tear-jerking plots. Putting the product at the heart of the story is always a challenge but this film does this organically.
Seagrams Colors TV
Why make people cry when Holi is a festival of joy? This film answers to that with the usual brand of Seagram’s humour.
JioMart’s Big Holi Sale ad
Love the way this digital-friendly film made me smile in a short duration. It’s an unabashed product plug but does this with an uncle character who usually goes unsung.
Preeta Mathur, executive creative director, 82.5 Comm India
Parachute Advansed | #KhulKeKheloHoli
Why should old age play a spoilsport on Holi? This story tugs at heartstrings with the childlike enthusiasm of the old man to be smeared with colour all over. The ad connects to the brand’s promise of protecting your hair while playing Holi.
Ghadi Detergent | #SaareMaelDhoDaalo
This ad called out spade a spade and I loved it for this. For long women were subject to brash behaviour on Holi with the often misquoted phrase ‘bura na maano holi hai’. The ad has a powerful message and a nice plea by a detergent brand on Holi.
Surf Excel Holi 2020 | #RangAchheHain
An emotional advertisement that I remember even three years after, and shed a tear when I first saw this one. ‘Jo apno ko kareeb laaye woh rang achey hain, daag achey hain’—hate divides, Holi unites.
Rohan Joseph, senior creative director, Madison BMB
Surf Excel | #RangLaayeSang
The campaign is an endearing illustration of how Holi can transcend beyond being just a festival of colours to something much larger, like bringing people together by melting their differences. What makes this campaign strategically brilliant is the way it takes the brand’s core philosophy of ‘dirt is good’ to a whole new level.
Facebook | More Together
This is the first time Facebook was rolling out a campaign of such magnitude in our country. The brief was clearly to tell a story that wasn’t just intrinsically embedded in the fabric of India but also to let every Indian believe that India is at the heart of Facebook.
The film shows a group of close buddies taking matters into their own hands when they realise that their friend who is away in Romania will not be able to enjoy his favourite festival that year. Instead of giving up, the friends use the Facebook Network to ensure that their pal in Romania has the most unique Holi experience ever.
Ghadi Detergent | #SaareMaelDhoDaalo
I love this ad for its audacity— this film takes on the dirty side of Holi and gives it a hard-hitting twist. Never putting colour on a woman without her consent is a statement that needed to be flagged and this ad does it emphatically.
—Compiled by Akanksha Nagar