The latest Fanta advertisement only indicates the lack of creativity and the bottleneck of desperation in the Indian advertisement industry.
The Models::
My immediate reaction to the ad was the very fact that Rani Mukherjee agreed to endorse a product with such an impeccably useless form of advertisement. Was it the lack of offers from Coke/Pepsi, or was it sheer desperation? The only thing that connects Rani to the product is the orange she wears. The dialogues she speaks are anyway full of crap, but the way she speaks them is so dramatic that it makes them sound even worse than they are. Her connection with the insignificant others in the commercial too is invisible. There is no real interaction between the models of the commercial.
Rani’s so-portrayed-friend is just there, to be there. She’s there to snicker on what Rani has to say. Lucky girl, to actually make money for just a snicker. All you unemployed people out there, you know where to knock now, don’t you?
The guy who passes the comment - ’’Sahi hai yaar’’, has no onscreen presence. Where did they pick him up from? He looks like a spectacle-clad nerd who was probably reading Darwin’s theory of evolution before they signed him for the ad. All he even does is say the stupid line and get over with it. I am reminding you, unemployed friends, no hope is lost yet.
The Concept::
Whoa, did I say something wrong? Concept? You don’t have concepts in ads where you have bollywood stars, duh. Silly little me, talking about concepts... Those are stupid goons who have concepts when they have Aamir Khan. Concepts don’t sell. Stars do. Right?
Wrong!
I’ve pledged to stay away from Fanta for the rest of my life just because of this incredibly infantile ad. (Confession: I’ve never been fond of Fanta anyway, so it hasn’t been a tough pledge so far).
The concept (giggling) is simply this - two girls on an airport. A guy whispers a comment to his friend about one of the girls who is ’vella’ enough to hear it, and even more ’vella’ to pay heed to it. She stops midway, goes over to him and tells him more ingenuine (?) comments that he could’ve used instead. The whole crowd gathers around as she sips on a Fanta and tells the guy off. At the end, everyone cheers her on as she dramatically delivers the slogan - ’’Dil Khol Ke’’.
Please, please don’t even try to convince me that the intention was to make Fanta a household name. For either we consumers are dumb, or the admakers are. Whatever way, it is but obvious to the whole world by now, that I am far from dumb (wink wink).
Bheja Phod Ke::
The only reason why anyone would even pay heed to this ad would be sheer love for Rani. Thats it. There is nothing more to the commercial or the ’concept’. In my opinion, Rani has seen better days and has not exactly taken a bomb of a decision by signing for Fanta. The ad in itself is absurd and baseless and says nothing new to anyone. Why anyone would climb her luggage and raise Fanta in the air to gather attention is beyond my understanding.
This ad remains to be a total waste of time and energy of the involved, and even more waste of money by the very fact that it is still aired.
Author’s Notes: I’m back and here to stay. Thanks to all those who’ve instigated me to get back here and knock your chappals off. You know who you are. God Bless you guys!