O&M's 'Life is Kabaddi' campaign for Pro Kabaddi jazzes up the sport

Mashal Sports, with the support of the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) and the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), has teamed up to launch Pro Kabaddi this year. The league will be aired on STAR Sports beginning July 26, and has launched a new TV campaign named ‘Life is Kabaddi’. Ogilvy & Mather has created the commercials.

Speaking about the campaign, Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, O&M, said, “ThoughKabaddiis our sport it is forgotten by today’s generation. The imagery of it being a ‘mud sport’ wasn’t helping either.Kabaddineeded a cool new look. We wanted people to reconnect with the game on an emotional level as well. We wanted them to believe that the game is much closer to them than they think. That’s where the ‘Life isKabaddi’campaign originates from."

The challenge to make ‘Kabaddi look cool’ was the biggest one, Avasthi said. Through the campaign, the agency aims to engage the youth at an emotional level with this intrinsically Indian game and make them see the game in a whole new light.

The campaign has two phases - the first phase had a teaser and a reveal commercial, both capturing the intricacies and power-packed moments of a Kabaddi game.

Watch the film here:

In the other part of the campaign, the films are a take on how situations in one’s life are akin to playing a game of Kabaddi.

In the first ad ‘Hunk v/s old men’, a ‘cool’ boy is shown to be walking down a street while eating some munchies from a packet. A group of old men are hanging out by the sidewalk, when suddenly their attention goes to the boy. One of the old men breaks away from the group and aggressively stands in the boy’s way; when he tries to move away all the old line up in front of him blocking his way. The ‘kabaddi kabaddi’ chant begins in the background. They start walking closer to him, making him retreat backwards. This happens till he steps on a plastic wrapper -a wrapper he has carelessly threw into the street. One of the men pointedly signals him to pick it up and throw it away, which he does. The VO and the end slate come in, announcing the commencement of the Pro Kabaddi League.

Watch the ad here:

In ‘Junior v/s Senior’, a group of school boys are hanging out, making fun of other boys. One of them nudges another, asking him to look at a junior who is being mollycoddled by his mother. The parents leave him, giving him a jar of home-made laddoos. The boys gang up surrounding him, telling him to hand over the laddoos. The boy looks them in the eye, and shakes his head. The ‘kabaddi kabaddi’ chants begins playing in the background, with the boy dodging the seniors, just as a teacher passes by. He walks off smugly, with the jar in tow, as he cheekily winks at the camera.

Watch the film here:

Credits

Client: Star Sports
Creative Agency:Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai
Creative: Abhijit Avasthi, Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Abhijit Karandikar, Nilay Moonje, Harshada Menon, Nishigandh Dhende, Devang Patel
Planning: Khushnuma Daruwala, Jasmeeta Agarwal
Account Management: Walter Noronha,Faisal Mahfooz, Saurabh Talpade, Yusuf Rizvi
Producer: Radhika Sawhney of Tubelight Films
Director: Prashant Issar of Tubelight Films