Campaign: When I Grow Up
Brand: Paperboat
Company: Hector Beverages
Agency: In-house

The Ad
The film opens on a young man coming down the stairs with an office bag slung on his shoulder. He sees a dustbin on the landing, and his eyes light up. Imaging it to be a wicket on a cricket pitch he bowls at it, misses, and then smiles sheepishly. We next see a young woman along the white marker dividing the two sides of the road. She starts playing hopscotch on the road. We then see a young man cajoling his friend to share his drink—he is sipping from a Paper Boat bottle. As the video continues, we see montages of adults playing out their favourite pranks from childhood—raiding the fridge at midnight, sticking colored ring-shaped papads on their fingers, licking a plate empty, pressing all the floor buttons on the elevator. The film ends with a young woman setting afloat a paper boat on a roadside nullah and up comes on screen ‘Happy Children’s Day’. The last shot is of the Paper Boat logo with the tagline ‘drinks and memories’.
Our Take

Released on Children’s Day, this film takes us back to childhood — big dreams, silly pranks, funny acts, honest thoughts…the list goes on. As we grow up, these remain just memories, at times not even that as we become serious, responsible adults. So Children’s Day is the perfect day to go on a nostalgic trip and revive old childhood memories. The idea is to talk about how childhood is not a phase. It’s not bound by time. It’s something that stays with us, all the way till the end.
What this film does is not just talk to yesterday’s children but today’s too. With the target customer anyone who is young at heart whatsoever her age, the video, conceived in-house, tugs at everyone’s heartstrings taking them back to childhood.
Since its launch, Paper Boat has been doing things differently. In a category full of glass and plastic bottles or rectangular tetra packs, it came in a smartly designed pack. The name itself stood out. The flavours were Indian. When it came to advertising, it has mostly refrained from mass media, though it did some print ads. This time, it has this film and a second one called ‘Jab Bachchey They’ on YouTube only.

—Banasree Purkayastha