IIn a world of fast fizzy commercials and ‘skip’ buttons, brands are no longer happy to be mentioned at the end of a 30-second television ad. In the age of seven-second skippable ads, they want the first, middle and last word to be their brand name, as companies try to pry the recall value into the goldfish-like mind of an average Indian internet surfer.
That’s why the advertisement of Everest Chole Masala grabs your attention. It stands apart. Although it is almost six months old now, the ad has started running in theaters of late. It’s a refreshing reminder of the advertising world of the early 2000s. And Everest did it without hurting the throwback trend, unlike Creed or Cadbury.
The story is simple. Chef Ram Lal is making chickpeas (Chickpea Curry) To an angry army officer and his guests. But as soon as he comes out to serve a hot cup, he is blown away by the aroma emanating from the dish. Meanwhile the officer is getting more and more restless and starts shouting.bring ram lal chole (Ram brings out Lal chickpeas).” Ram Lal looks left and right, pondering it, but chuckles at Curry, too tempting to let it go, even at the risk of being shot by the brutal officer played by veteran actor Sharad Saxena. But also.
By the end, you won’t be able to find out if it’s an advertisement for a brand of chickpeas, some oil or spice until your eye sees a half-open packet in the kitchen. And that’s how producers retain the old-school charm of advertising, when advertisers can claim with some degree of truthfulness that advertising is an art.
men also need spice
Spice ads in India usually feature women feeding families and guests, celebrating some festival, or raising slogans in the kitchen. Here the officers of the army, their eaters and cooks are men. It is good to see Everest breaking the gender stereotype that all kitchen essentials should be sold only to women.
At a time when advertisements are constantly scrutinized, and criminals come under the radar, the use of the age-old forgotten trope of an uneducated uncle only adds to the allure of the advertisement. It can’t be fun with a regular guy losing his mind over something chickpeas Disobeying a man in uniform is far more shameless than ignoring a regular white-collar brown-haired man.
The chemistry between Ram Lal and the medal-winning army officer is hilarious – the cook’s expressions are priceless as does the officer’s pitch changes as he gets angry. Advertising is a reminder of the times when we could laugh at ourselves without getting angry.
Read also: Pepsi recreates Cindy Crawford’s ’92 campaign, shows Indian cola ads have lost their fizz
so funny
This kind of ludicrous humor is a bygone. Like the iconic Feviquick ad from the early 2000s, where a man sat by a lake by dabbing his stick with some Feviquick glue and punching a strangely rich man, who spent hours trying, sat by a lake.
This ambiguous humor can also be seen in advertisements for Perfetti’s Center Fresh, when anyone who sees chewing gum loses control of their tongue. In rural India where one person was held up as a makeshift ATM, it was particularly hilarious.
Naukri.com’s Hari Sadhu Advertisement and Havells since 2006got shockedThe series are other fine examples of the kind of tongue-in-cheek humor we remember in commercials today.
This article is part of VigyanPanti ChainWhich reviews Indian science aka ads.