What's your take on: HBO GO - Happily Married Parents

_(‘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!)

This week, we got three writers from advertising to review one of many HBO GO’s new commercials - ‘Happily Married Parents’. See the film here:

We got Gauri Gokarn, senior copywriter, M&C Saatchi; Adwait Kulkarni, copy supervisor, Ogilvy and Sophia John, copywriter, Jack In The Box to give us their opinion on the commercial. Here is what they had to say:

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What do you think of the ad? Yay or nay?

Gauri: I give it a snigger and then a yay!

Adwait: Definite ‘Yay’!

Sophia: This TVC leaves me unsure of what I’m feeling. It’s nice but I’m not all gung ho about it. At the end of an ad I want to smile and this one did not provoke enough of a reaction out of me. I guess the others in the series were more successful in accomplishing this.

What did you like best about the ad?

Gauri: The humour…it’s when your brain says ‘AWKWARD’ and it actually turns into something worse.

Adwait: That some copywriter out there finally got a chance to use the ‘f’ word in a commercial. Also, that the insight is bang on; watching TV with parents can be dangerous.

Sophia: It’s relatable as we’ve all had those moments of parents choosing crucial moments in a TV show to deliver a lecture. Very annoying, that. I feel embarrassed for the kids!

[caption id=“attachment_83140” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Adwait Kulkarni, left; Sophia John, top right; Gauri Gokarna, bottom right[/caption]

Is there anything you didn’t like about it?

Gauri: Surprisingly nothing. I love the casting, the setup, everything. I actually went and saw all ads in the series, which is saying something.

Adwait: Not really.

Sophia: I wish it had been broader in its message. There can be multiple reasons for someone wanting to use this service. Not everyone is concerned with parental interference. It’s certainly not top of my mind. But then this ad is probably targeted to a younger audience.

What do you think is the one-line brief on this ad?

Gauri: Hi we want to make an ad for HBO Go; it’ll help people watch TV from anywhere…isn’t that awesome?

Adwait: Client: “Use the F-word in this commercial. Also, maybe you want to say ‘balls’ too? Enjoy your early birthday gift “.In all seriousness, though, I think it must be “Remind our young viewers of the many reasons why they should choose HBO Go over regular TV.”

Sophia: Offer the younger generation the chance to watch TV uninterrupted by parental unawesomeness.

Does HBO Go appeal to you as a service? Give us a funny awkward moment you’ve had while watching TV with your parents.

Gauri: Of course it appeals to me; how can it not? I don’t have a funny moment though, because in my home, we do the opposite, we either run for the remote or suddenly remember the all-important thing in the next room or have a bursting bladder whenever a ‘scene’ airs on TV.

Adwait: I definitely think the service is great. I haven’t watched TV with my family since CVO had a screening of Raaz when I was in ninth grade. I don’t want to get into details of what happened, suffice to say my raaz had been revealed.

Sophia: It appeals to me, but not because of annoying parents or awkward moments. I share a comfortable, friendly TV equation with my mum who is my usual TV companion. We have a truce when it comes to TV at least. So my reason to get this would be time since I rarely get to watch TV at home due to a lengthy commute.

If you were asked to make a TVC with the same insight – of being able to watch TV without parents interrupting you, how differently would you do it?

Gauri: I would probably do it with music… The whole room goes quiet, the sideways glances and suddenly opera music starts playing reaching a crescendo, before the awkward scene comes to an end. Then all’s well in la la land.

Adwait: I’d probably have a guy watching Discovery Science while his parents are in the room. The show that he’d be watching would be a very boring one, probably a feature about how ball bearings manufactured inAustria are the best because they help in the conservation of the ozone layer, or some such crap. After 30 seconds of mind-numbing inanity comes a line as a super:

“Basic Instinct on HBO. As seen with parents.

Switch to HBO Go”.

Sophia: I would show the house as a kingdom with the parents as royalty, always decreeing insane rules and mercilessly ordering their ‘subjects’ around. Then I would present the mobile as the kids’ own (expandable as they choose) space, free to do as they please.