 "What's your take on: Coca-Cola 'Signs'")
(‘What’s Your Take On’ is a weekly feature, where we ask adland for their take on campaigns from across the globe. We trust you’ll enjoy the read; should you wish to give us your opinion on a commercial, mail us on**mukta.lad@web18.in**and we’ll holler the moment we have an ad for you!)
The FIFA World Cup kicks off today, and the proverbial fever seems to have taken entire countries by storm. In the barrage of World Cup advertising that has been doing the rounds, it was only fitting to have a football commercial up for review this week.
We sent Coca-Cola’s ‘Signs’ to three copywriters and asked them for their views. Here is the ad:
Here is what Nikhil Guha, creative group head, Havas Worldwide; Lucille Pereira, creative supervisor - copy, Digital L&K Saatchi & Saatchi and Pranav Nayak, young creative partner, Creativeland Asia had to say about the commercial:
What did you think of the ad? Yay or meh?
Nikhil: Definitely yay! It’s a superb insight. Any sports fan (fleeting or fanatic) will relate to it.
Lucille: The score is 50-50! Part yay, part meh!
The insight is brilliant… it’s true, fans are crazy enough to find signs in just about anything.The passion for the game is what makes this ad endearing!
Pranav: With all the entertaining World Cup ads coming out, this was a meh.
[caption id=“attachment_87524” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Pranav, top left; Lucille, right; Nikhil, bottom left[/caption]
What did you like about the ad?
Nikhil: The signs! Some of them were really funny- the Coke bottle projecting the shadow of the Cup, the South Asian guys seeing their football hero in the cloud and the sign on a piece of ham.
Lucille: ?Its heart-warming tagline: This is the World’s Cup!
Pranav: They took a true sports-related insight and stuck to it. They didn’t overload the film with Neymar, Ronaldo, The Hulk and the likes.
What about the commercial appealed to you the least?
Nikhil: That guy with the number 8 shaped chest hair. Now, that wasn’t needed, was it?
Lucille: ??The fact that some of the signs were so forced… made it seem a little too gimmicky!
Pranav: If the idea was to build tension with every situation, the ad never really took off. And after two-three situations, the film hit a downward slope. Besides, some of the ‘signs’ were too forced for my liking.
What do you think was the client’s brief on this one?
Nikhil: Brand Manager: Guys! the World Cup’s coming. Everyone will be making commercials. Especially, those buggers at Pepsi. They’ll probably sign up Messi & Co. and do a sappy song. Let’s outdo them!
Agency people: Challenge accepted!
Lucille: Client: ?Coca-cola MUST cash in on the FIFA fever. Can you get the entire world in it?
Oh, don’t forget happiness. Fit all this in and we’llsignthe… *agency rushes out in a ‘Eureka’ moment*
Pranav: It would have been really cool if it was as simple as: ‘Let’s make our World Cup film better than Nike’s.’
If you had to take the insight of ‘It’s a sign’ for another product, how would you do it and for what product?
Nikhil: A black cat crossing the road. A broken mirror. Walking under a ladder. The twitching of the right eye.Most of us believe such signs bring bad luck.
I’d make an insurance ad, where a guy dances through all these, singing Pharell William’s Happy.
Ending super:Sign up with us. Forget the signs.
Lucille: Going by how much Indians, especially Mumbaikars, love signs… I’d make this ad (issued in public interest, of course)
Man sees a ’no urinating’ sign, gets excited, looks around to see if anyone is watching, and relieves himself right in front of it.
Man sees a red signal, looks around to check if traffic cop is watching, and zooms ahead.
Man sees a ’no crossing’ sign on the railway tracks, checks to see if train is approaching, and darts across the tracks (while the ‘rail ki patri, par na kare’ jingle plays in the background)
No parking, no spitting, no travelling on the roof of the train, no diving… The list is endless.
The ad closes with this line:
It’s a sign…that you should break all rules.
Risk everything, live dangerous.
(Just kidding, we’re watching you!)
Pranav: This can be a nice insight for a bank offering housing loans. Instead of doing a montage, I’ll go with three-five 30 seconders.
It will be a series where the protagonists get a divine sign, which indicates that they should buy a house.
The VO can probably be:Don’t ignore the signs. Sign up for a loan and spend the rest of your life paying EMIs you can’t afford.
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