Snickers has released a new commercial in India and its an adaptation of the successful ‘You are not you when you are hungry‘ idea, executed globally. In fact, its a replica of the famous Aretha Franklin/Liza Minnelli commercial.
The Indian version uses Rekha and Urmila Matondkar to play the Aretha Franklin and Liza Minnelli roles.
Agency: BBDO
As far as insight goes, Snickers & BBDO have hit upon a gold mine. ‘People consume chocolate bars to satiate small pangs of hunger’ would be an observation. But when you say, ‘when small hunger pangs strike people tend to be irritable and act weird’ is an insight. The idea lends itself to myriad executions and some of them have been outstanding: the Twitter campaign in UK and the tactical ads during the recent US Elections, come to mind. In the Indian version, there is an attempt to get memorable one-liners going (‘dimaag ka korma’ and ‘paseene ki dukan’), but somehow it seems like a notch lower than the US version in the zing factor. The reason: translation could be one. In English, when you say (with the right mocking tone): ‘you are acting like a diva’ – the message is clear. One is irritable, demanding, showing unreasonable behaviour and difficult to be with at that moment. But when you say, ‘you are acting like a heroine‘ it could lead to interpretations other than what’s meant (being unreasonable, hoity-toity). Some even refer to good looks as ‘looking like a heroine’. Some comments over at Twitter & YouTube saw it as a sexist statement. And what did you make of the casting? Especially, Urmila playing the part played by Liza Minnelli? Do comment in.
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