Soft drinks, hard battles

The star-studded bubbly ads for fizzy drinks are not always in good taste, reports Chitleen K. Sethi

WITH the lazy crazy onset of summer, bottles pop up to fizzy times. If the first set of the cold drink ad campaigns for the season is anything to go by, the summer promises to sizzle with cola wars. Top Bollywood stars are hooked, booked and are all over the small screen, coaxing you to buy their drink this season.

The much seen Oye Bubbly`85Pepsi campaign is definitely unsavoury. With navels (this part has been clipped) and tomato slices turning into lips`85the ad leaves a sour taste in the mouth. With so many Shah Rukh Khan films focusing on his dimpled naughty look, he looks stale in the ad even with a hair colour change. Blame it on an overdose of Shah Rukh and a silly concept of har koi muh utha ke chala aata hai, but this ad is a flop. Isn’t it high time that Pepsi’s advertisers brought in younger new faces than trying to make 40-year-olds look like teenagers?

Much better is the Aamir Khan ad for Coke. Though it might initially seem that the company has gone overboard making Aamir Khan dress and look like a woman, the ad is sure to tickle the imagination of the viewers. And, of course, the be-Indian-buy-Indian message being sent out at the cost of a foreign-returned Indian reflects the flavour of the season.

The Everest Challenge Hai Dum ad for Thumbs Up, featuring Akshay Kumar, is well made. Taking the viewers to a really cold place, the ad has the desired effect. But now it is more interesting to watch the Mountain Dew spoof on the Thumbs Up ad. The Mountain Dew threesome hook the Akshay Kumar look alike to a snow sledge and show him half dead at the end of the trip down the slope. Ending with lagta hai uncle ko hamari baat jum gayi, the message is clear: bring in the young to look like the young. Well this is just the first of the anti-ad campaigns and one can imagine what to expect this summer.

A remarkably good advertisement has been created for Limca. Though when you first see it, it seems like the old Liril ad. But then you realise that all that freshness and water being splashed is supposed to denote the cooling effects of Limca. The best part of the ad is, of course, the last drop of Limca waiting to fall into the mouth. With the viewers waiting with their own mouths half open, the ad certainly has them involved. Nice ad but too close to Liril for comfort.

Something else worth a notice is the Rasna Cola ad. The ad is based on the concept that this Cola is true, while others are not. The oh-so-cute Hrithik Roshan of Koi Mil Gaya is doing it in all earnest. Would such a campaign work or not is yet to be seen?