Web film: Durex – Do the Rex
By Malay Desai From: DigitasLBi Durex India’s new film is a two-minute music video starring actor Ranveer Singh. Launched on a microsite and later on social media, it features a rap song titled ‘Do the Rex’ and a dance sequence with recurring signature moves. Beginning with Singh in bed with a woman and moving on to his shoot, it shows the actor celebrating his intercourse. His gestures and moves are later shown as becoming a trend among young folks, as also two news anchors. The film ends with a hand picking up a Durex condom from a bed table, the song title with a hashtag and the brand logo. Do we like Shut your children’s eyes while you raise your eyebrows, a Bollywood actor is out loose, waltzing away in a manner your wives will frown upon but secretly love. After years of metaphors and hush-hush tones in ads of adult products, our conservative wardrobe has been broken apart emphatically by Durex, the MNC which also sells us Dettol, Strepsils and Veet. The two-minute music video arrived last week with an integrated social media and PR campaign, and did its job within 48 hours by getting its TA to love it/hate it and share it. It’s a fresh feeling for the TA after all, which has watched and admired funny/clever condom ads made in other countries all this while. The star of the campaign is its celeb endorser, a first for Bollywood (if we count out Manforce Condoms’ Sunny Leone from being an A-lister), Ranveer Singh, who has taken it upon himself to personify ‘over-the-top’ in all his recent public appearances. The signing itself is the reason why some reams of press are lauding the move, and we too must give it to Singh’s bravado. Staying true to the ways of its endorser, the film is loud, in-your-face and overtly dramatic. Packaged as a ‘celebration of sex’, the ‘do the Rex’ dance, coupled with its mischievous Hinglish lyrics (‘khushiyon ka chhaata’, we heard) it wants to show the delight after a sexual experience. And although it might be in direct contradiction to what men actually do after sex (definitely not wear Aviators and rap), the song is packed with fun. Singh has reportedly penned AND crooned the song himself, and is hereby forgiven by this writer for his obnoxious dance moves at the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch. The production and costumes have packed in much cool-th here.. and that’s pretty much the vital factor for a web film to travel to Facebooks across the world. Mikey McCleary’s tune and Bosco-Caesar’s dance moves too deserve credit, even though all conversations about this ad so far have circled only around Singh. Now that condom conversations are trending (not only on Twitter), it’s time for John Abraham, Ranbir.. and also theladies to join in the fun. After all, it’s all about market penetration. (To watch this film, head to YouTube. com/DurexIndia and to look up the conversations around it, search with the hashtag #DoTheRex) Social Newsfeed The #Elections2014 netas follow list We went fishing when the Dance of Democracy started but that doesn’t mean we don’t give you our must-follow list like we do for all major events. With three weeks or so to go until the horses are unlocked to trade , here are accounts you must follow (beyond the obvious ones): @GulPanag after joining AAP has used the medium to her benefit . So has @abdullah_omar, who’s interesting to follow through the season. If you support Derek O’Brien’s Trinamool alignments, @quizderek is the chatty Bengali you must not ignore. For Mumbaikars, the Thackeray cub @AUthackeray talks of things beneficial to the city, so does @MayankGandhi, the AAP campaigner from the island city. If you’re a Congress supporter (or troll), look up @priyankac19 from the party’s youth cadre to watch her battle trolls everyday. If you haven’t voted yet, google.in/elections will give you a neat list of candidates from your area and their credentials. @KapilSibal likes this Now app just for classical music Meanwhile the app universe is getting more glocal day by day (no that’s not a typo, it’s global + local). The latest we hear is that there is a new mobile-only music streaming app in the market… which is not in the same bracket as Hungama, Saavn and Dhingana because it features just Indian classical music. Boasting of a music library of classica l, fusion, folk and other things desi, it has more than 80,000 songs from 4,000-plus artists. Initially started as a free service, we now see that it is going premium – asking for Rs 149 a month for downloading songs on your phone. If you’re a connoisseur, we don’t see that pinching you in your wallet. Now what we’d love to see is that the app gets so popular, there would be artists paying it to spread their works to an audience. All for classical music, right? Shubha Mudgal likes this Social power for the blind to appreciate poems And in more feel good updates, we can report that an industrial automation company, Omron, has set out to create the world’s largest audio library for poems for the visually impaired. The National Association of Blind Delhi aren’t taking this too badly as they’re associated with this CSR initiative. The company has taken the project seriously, as we thought from its website that’s powered by a Facebook login. To submit a poem, one simply has to record and upload. The site lets you explore others ’ poems as well as vote for the best ones. We like that the initiative has got a boost thanks to the company’s endorser Farhan Akhtar submitting the first poem… as also imminent voices such as Anupam Kher, Sona Mohapatra and Rahul Bose having done the same. For a case study on CSR through social media, know this! Ravindra Jain likes this
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