Surf Excel Matic–As Good As Mom’s Hand Wash
By Malay Desai By : Lowe Lintas + Partners HUL’s top detergent brand for washing machines has launched a new campaign which communicates that clothes washed in this product are as good as those washed by mothers with their hands. In the film, aftera child comes home with a heavily soiled shirt, his granddad asks him not to worry as ‘mummy’ will hand wash it. The child still insists, and they get on a video call with his mother, who suggests they use Surf Excel Matic to solve the problem. They manage to do it, and show it off to her when she returns home later. The OOH ads for this campaign show the mother and child posing against a washing machine with the copy ‘As Good as Mom’s Hand Wash’. Do we like ? Mothers are the gold standards of many things in Indian advertising –they do the best bum-cleaning of munna, they cook the best dal, they’re the best house-keeping staff and as the latest ad campaign from Hindustan Unilever feels, they are the best personnel to wash our clothes, because they do it by hand.In wanting to portray a case for ‘mom-free washing’, HUL’s agencyjust put its foot very close to its mouth. The laundry segmenthas recently stepped into the equal sexes world, years after showing middle class bahus as de-facto managers of boys’ and men’s dirty linen. Lloyd’s washing machines, after a horrendous misuse of Shruti Hassan, have launched a film where a wife sarcastically whips her hubby by calling the machine ‘unisex.’ Earlier this year, Surf’s competitor Ariel with its agency BBDO pushed us to think hard upon whether laundry is just a woman’s job. Internationally, P&G has made stellar films that stand clear on women’s rights – its London 2012 film ‘Moms’ and the more recent ‘#LikeAGirl’ campaign are case studies. And then, we have this film. ‘Koi baat nahin, mummy ragad ke dhodegi beta’, goes a dialogue. ‘Mummy ke haatho jaisi safai apse nahin hogi!’ goes another. The mother, a working woman who’s free to give dhulai instructions while at office, is the washing incharge of home, but to show that times have changed,the film tries to say ‘it’s the men now who must take the onus.’Conveniently, there is no father in the picture, but a father-in-law, who eventually does the incredible task of putting powder in a machine and turning it on. Major win for equality! The result –the kid victoriously announces toward the end that they’ve done ‘aap jaisi safai’, further rubbing in the stereotype. What’s worse, just in case you think the TVC promotes the thought of men washing clothes,the uncluttered OOH campaign will ensure the ‘washing is your mom’s job’ message. HUL, in trying to wash your hands in the flowing river of feminism, you soiled your clothes. That said, if a brand’s research tells you that it’s indeed mothers in-charge of laundry in majority homes, should the resulting campaign harp on the stereotype, or disrupt and show a new path? (To watch this film,feed this link in your browser - bit.ly/ExcelMatic) Social Newsfeed YOUR REGULAR DOSE ON THE SHIFTS IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA UNIVERSE YouTube for kids coming to India If you are a parent of 4-year-old, you either get the scares when he/she fiddles with your phone’s YouTube app or you already know of ‘safe video zones’ where no obscenities crop up. There have been quite a few apps of late that promise all of YouTube’s content, minus the ‘kissing-hot-naked’ and other scandalous recommendations that prop up on our accounts. YouTube too, knowing this, launched its kids app in the US and has been lapped up. There have subsequently been a lot of channels, which only create content (nursery rhymes et al) for kids. In a recent interview to Medianama, the founder of Chuchu TV, which claims over 18 lakh subscribers, has said that YouTube Kids App is expected to launch this year end. Kiddo brands, prepare now. Daddy bloggers likes this Desi Dubsmash gets bigger We know Dubsmash is getting increasingly popular at home not only looking at the sheer number of Hindi and Bollywood dubs on the app, but also stuff like the Desi Dubsmash Facebook page, which is reaching 5,000 fans and more importantly, regular entries by young and old Dubsmashers. A recent video compiled by the page has garnered over 5,50,000 hits on YouTube and has only spurred more entries. The app is also proving to be, as we reported here recently, a fun way to engage with the audience as it requires minimal efforts on the part of the user and still creates fun. When you want to go down the rabbit hole on an off day, do check out the dozens of Dubsmash India channels that have propped up. Gabbar Singh likes this Kabaddi arrives on social First, a disclaimer: this writer is associated with handling the social media duties of one of the Pro Kabaddi League teams this season. So it also means I will have an inside view of how the competition, dubbed the second most watched sporting event in India last year after IPL, is taking to social. For starters, I know Twitter India has made efforts to touch base with teams and is encouraging the use of its streaming platform Periscope and other tools. There are many more kabaddi players on Twitter than last season, and most teams, S1 winner Jaipur Pink Panthers included, are going all out to woo their fans with tickets, merchandise and give aways. For a sport that’s finding its feet again in India, social media shall play a critical role in hero-building. Are you watching? Pro Kabaddi League likes this
Tags : AD View