Played by Ankitha Jhaveri, the Rasna girl created by Mudra Communications went on to capture the imagination of millions of Indians, old and young and made Rasna a huge success. In one of their early ads, Ankita is waiting for her dad to come home from work. The doorbell rings and she says to herself, ‘Pappa aa gaye’ (Dad has come). Her mother offers him coffee. But her father says no. She offers tea, he says no. ‘What will Mummy do?’ wonders the little girl. She then offers Rasna to her mom, who makes Rasna for the tired father. The brand had numerous takes on the girl and her love for Rasna, for her birthday and other occasions. In a sense, the brand targeted young mothers through their kids.
Numerous other brands began using children in their advertisments in the ’80s and ’90s.
Kids come rushing home from school and yell ‘Bhook lagi hai, Mummy!’ (Mom, we are hungry). Mother tells them, ‘Two minutes’. And the brand Maggi 2-Minute Noodles was born with a bang. By targeting the right moment in a mother’s life – when she has to prepare something hot quickly for her kids – the brand went on to create a new category. It is difficult to change food habits, and we will see that in another chapter, but Maggi achieved a miracle through a combination of kid pester power, value for money and convenience of usage.
SHOOTING BABIES: How do ad film-makers capture that particular smile? That gurgle? Baby shoots are true challenges. A full day shoot may end up delivering just five seconds of useful footage. The baby sleeps, wakes up, becomes cranky. So all baby shoots have no less than three babies as stand by.
Categories like biscuits, chocolates and toffees had traditionally been featuring children to further their cause. Be it Cadbury chocolates with their ‘Sometimes Cadbury can say it better than words’ stories in the ’80s, or Melody which offered chocolate inside a caramel toffee, or even cream biscuits – the brands had their job cut out. Get into the house through the kids and you are safely in the kitchen and on the monthly shopping list.
While working on a confectionery brand in the ’80s, I was part of a serious discussion on the role of advertising and the best time to launch a kid-focused campaign. I said that the best time to reach a kid was when she was free, maybe during vacations, in summer or during any of the other breaks. The veteran marketer T Krishnakumar, who now heads Coca-Cola’s very large bottling business in India, destroyed my hypothesis by saying that the best time to launch a kid-focused product is when the kid is attending school. The argument went as follows: A child learns about a new product from the television or from a retailer. He then has to tell someone. When he goes to school the next day, he has ten or twenty eager listeners, eager to learn something new. If the kid is going to be the viral mechanism for the new product, it stands to logic that a kid does not see the ad for a new product – of interest to him – as an ad. He or she sees it as valuable information that could be traded in school.
So it was propounded that when advertising to kids, we need not apply the minimum threshold principle to advertising. The levels of advertising for products aimed at children could be much lower. But if we advertise during the period when the kid has the maximum audience, we will be able to amplify our message that much more. As Spanish poet, philosopher and novelist George Santayana has said, ‘Children are natural mythologists: they beg to be told tales, and love not only to invent but to enact falsehoods.’
There are the other categories of products that use children as an entry ticket into homes. Colgate is the biggest toothpaste brand. They realized that mothers are always worried about the brushing habits of their kids. Hence, for over five decades, Colgate advertising has always had a strong and sometimes subtle endorsement of the child in the home. While the advertising message may have focused on the dentist and the endorsement he gave to the Colgate brand, the ads often ended with a kid saying, ‘Is ka swaad mujhe behad pasand hai!’ (I love its taste). The brand has a nice taste just to ensure that kids continue brushing for a few seconds more. In fact, toothpaste brands like Forhans lost out because they did not figure out the need to make their offering ‘tasty’ for children.
In the ’90s, Colgate attempted to accelerate penetration by coming out with a sachet packet. It was around this time that shampoo brands like Velvette and Chik were runaway successes thanks to their sachet pack. Colgate came out with a small pack; featuring a camping situation, they launched ‘Colgate ka chota packet’. The effort was to accelerate the movement from tooth powders and other home remedies, like coal dust, to toothpaste. Unfortunately, the sachet strategy did not work for Colgate. I suspect consumers did not see toothpaste as an occasional use product. Shampooing is not a daily habit in many Indian homes and so a sachet of shampoo could be bought for that special occasion, once or twice a week. Consumers probably thought that if they were ready for a toothpaste, they might as well buy the big tube and not go for a small sachet. Interestingly, even in the case of hair oils, the sachet strategy has not worked as well as it has worked for shampoos, probably for the same reason.
In the ’80s and ’90s, another category started advertising in films and on TV, aimed at kids and mothers. This was the school accessories category. Brands like S Kumars came on TV to sell their school uniforms. So did brands like Bata with their school shoes.
The flux of ads featuring ‘kids as kids’kept growing to include categories like jams, soft drinks, snacks, biscuits, sweets, etc.
In the ’90s, consumer researchers coined a new term to describe why ads and brands were targeting kids. They called it ‘Pester Power’. Research said that in many Indian middle-class households, children were gaining a stronger voice. They were sometimes better educated than the mother, and probably had a more working knowledge of English. All this added to their credibility in their homes. In 2010s, while kids do pester, they have to contend with mothers who are better educated than the previous generation, at least, in middle-class urban homes. I wonder if this will reduce pester power in the coming years or will the educated mothers be even more vulnerable, since it now transforms into emotional blackmail as working parents are unable to give enough attention to the child.
One of the most interesting demonstrations of the role of a kid in the purchase of a high value durable was shown in one of the early Maruti Esteem ads.
The little boy has been picked up from school by his father. His dad is enjoying the drive and asks him about his report card. The kid mutters the marks, which are not too good. But the father smiles and continues to drive. The kid concludes, ‘Dad’s always in a good mood when he is driving his new Esteem.’ Made in 1995 by Kunal Kapoor, the film scores because of the great use of father-son bonding over a ride. Apparently, the sudden showers in Ooty, where the film was being shot, restricted the shoot time, but the director did manage to bring out the best the car has to offer.
By no stretch of imagination can we say that kids in the 1990s played a key role in the selection of which car to buy, but marketers had figured out interesting ways of reeling in the pester power and pride of ownership into their narrative.
Obviously, pester power worked best for products that were not high value and were aimed at children. So products like snacks, sweets and drinks topped the list. But researchers also found that the child could have a ‘veto’ in other products like soaps, shampoos, toothpaste etc. In the case of durables like cars, motorbikes, television sets etc., pester power played a smaller role, but it was rearing its head simply because the kid sometimes had more knowledge.
The narrative of using a child in an ad had changed during the 2000s rather significantly. While there are ads which still present kids as kids in shades of ‘I love you Rasna’, there are many more where kids play numerous other roles.
Research done in Asia speaks of how there is a new breed of mothers that is creating tremors. Called ‘Tiger Moms’, these mothers want the best for their kids and are willing to fight like a tiger. In China, the single child policy has also led to the rise of ‘Little Emperor’ kids. These kids, now a second generational product
of the one-child policy, have six adults doting over them, wanting to buy them clothes, gifts, toys etc.
In India too, we are seeing the rise of the ‘Nawab Kids’. These children are a product of parents who grew up in a liberalized India, who did not have to wait in a line to buy a scooter or a motorcycle. These parents want their kids to have everything that they had and more.
An ad done for Whirlpool in the 2000s captured this ethos well. The Whirlpool mom is putting clothes into the washing machine. She picks up her daughter’s white skirt and holds it close to her heart and starts dreaming. Her daughter is on stage playing the key role in the school play, that of a princess and gets crowned. Her dream breaks when her family enters the room to see her dancing with the skirt.
The film was a big hit and when we sat down to analyse the reason for its success, one of the planners pointed out that the film captured the emotions of the mother of the 2000s. She is living her own childhood through that of her daughter.
Kids are today the centre of the universe for their parents. As my wise aunt used to comment, ‘Those days we used to have many kids and they grew up on their own. We never realized how they grew up. Nowadays, you have just one or two kids. The attention we gave to five or six children is now focused on the one or two you have. And you people spoil them silly.’
Kids are kids no more, and mothers don’t want them to be kids. The Bournvita ad released in 2013 shows a mother running with her child, so fast, so hard, that it takes him superhuman efforts to beat her. And she is happy when he is finally able to beat her. I remember my old boss, R Narayanan, challenging his children that he will give up smoking the day one of them could beat him with a better timing on their morning runs. And they did, even before they hit their teens.
Research done in 2013 by Cogito Consulting points to some interesting lessons. While the ‘basic’ child remains spontaneous, honest, simple, whimsical, curious – there is no getting away from the fact that the eight-year-olds of the 2010s are behaving like mini-adults. Thanks to the commercial culture and technology that propagates a different set of values, they talk and act like grown-ups. Not only do they, almost, know all that the adults know, they also want to do all that they do – late-night movies, sleep late, eat out at fancy places. Teenagers are not their role models anymore, they model themselves after adults.
While Indian kids are today more grown-up in their attitude, they are also more open to expressing their opinion with strong likes and dislikes, increased self-orientation, ready to cut the umbilical chord, greater goal orientation, increased aggression and an inherent sense of self-confidence.
In this context, it is interesting to note that India had its first Kids Fashion Week at The Grand Hotel, New Delhi in March 2015. We are already seeing cosmetics being aimed at children with endorsement from Disney and Barbie. Footwear, clothes, cosmetics, what next, I wonder.
So much focus on children is also creating its own problems for brands. The International Food and Beverage Alliance has come out with a ‘Global Policy on Marketing and Advertising to Children’1. The policy states that IFBA members commit either to: only advertise certain products that meet specific nutrition criteria based on accepted scientific evidence and/or applicable national and international dietary guidelines – since food company portfolios vary widely, each company determines its own nutritional criteria and makes these public – to children under twelve years; or not advertise their products at all to children under the age of twelve years. The policy covers TV and print advertising, third-party Internet and now, company- owned websites – including corporate and brand-owned websites – directed at children under twelve. For the purpose of this policy, ‘advertising to children under 12 years’ means advertising in child-directed media where 35 per cent or more of the audience is under twelve years of age. Members also commit to not engage in product marketing communications to students in primary schools, except if requested by, or agreed with, the school administration for specific educational purposes.
Global restrictions on targeting children is set to increase in the coming years. Brazil has even considered banning all ads targeted at children. An international scan would show that there are more ads that feature children in the social sector than any other sector, given the sensitivities involved regarding products aimed at children.
Just around twenty years ago, when our agency FCB Ulka was awarded the Faber Castell advertising account, Kavita Gadkari who was the planner on the account wanted to understand how kids interacted with crayons and colour pencils. She decided to organize a kids ‘come and colour’ party at her neighbour’s house since they had a six-year-old son. The party saw around ten kids coming in. They were given colour pencils, crayons and a large sheet of chart paper to draw what they pleased. The agency planners and creative folks were in attendance to help the kids and chat with them. They discovered that the children knew about the various brands of pencils and colours. They even knew the exact colour shades that were available in some brands and not available in others. Some loved the fact that their parents got them ‘imported’ crayons. The entire party was an eye-opener for the agency team to whom a crayon was a crayon and nothing more.
In the year 2014, Mahuya Chaturvedi and her Cogito Consulting team talked to kids about clothes and discovered that the passion they had for crayons had now expanded to things like clothes, shoes, cosmetics, bags and accessories. Children were now fashionistas with specific opinions on fabrics, styles and cuts. This is not true of only India. This had already happened in the USA some decades ago, as reported by James McNeal who observed that the most dramatic change in children’s purchases from 1984 to 1989 was in clothing. Clothing had become the second-most purchased product category – after sweets and snacks – among children2. This phenomenon is set to enter India as well.
I suspect if we do a smartphone party with twelve-year-olds today, in an upper middle-class society in one of the metro cities of India, we may end up with some very insightful usage information and maybe even a riot over who has a better smartphone.
The old days of ‘I am a Complan girl’, ‘I love you Rasna’ and ‘kids as kids’ are passé. Welcome to the era of kids as the digital native, hyper-competitive super adults.
The Tingling Freshness of Teens
A COLLEGE ROCK music competition is in progress, a teenaged boy is singing and he notices a girl in the audience. He calls out to her and she joins him on stage, they sing together to the thunderous applause of the appreciative audience. This ad featuring teenagers catapulted a toothpaste brand on a growth path. The brand, Close Up. The year, 1986. The promise was of fresh breath that will allow you to be close to the ones you like and love.
Close Up was developed as the world’s first gel toothpaste by Unilever in 1967. It entered India a few years later but languished because of its advertising that targeted older couples, walking down a beachfront, set to a soft international song. The re-launch of Close Up in fact started Hindustan Lever on its journey in the personal care category with many more successes to follow.
Close Up was not the first ad to feature a teenager. Probably the most popular ad of the 1970s featuring a teenager was the Liril ad. It launched a soap brand in 1974 aimed at the typical housewife. But instead of showing a loving couple or a star, it put a young girl dressed in a green bikini under a waterfall. It was a revolutionary ad for its time which catapulted Liril to the top position in the premium soap category, reportedly with a market share of 25 per cent. The advertisement shot in winter, live under a waterfall in South India, featured Karen Lunel who went on to become the heartthrob of millions. The film set to pulsating music played in movie halls around the country often to loud cheers from the youngsters in the audience. While the first Liril bar was blue in colour, it was later changed to green as recalled by veteran adman Alyque Padamsee. Karen Lunel was the face of Liril for the longest period, from 1974 to 1985. Alyque Padamsee observed that the Liril girl became a gateway for young women to get in
to Bollywood. He, however, laments that most of them were forgettable, except for a few such as Preity Zinta, Tara Sharma and Deepika Padukone1. The brand manager of Liril at Hindustan Lever, Diwan Arun Nanda walked out to start his own agency, Rediffusion, a year or two after Liril was launched. At least, he was bitten by the ‘freshness’ bug.
While Karen Lunel was having an exciting bath under a waterfall, the country was going through tremendous turmoil. Indira Gandhi had declared Emergency (1975-1977) taking away many of the fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution of India. So in a perverse way, the Liril ad celebrated the ‘Tingling freshness of lime’ in a country that was no longer free.
STARS ARE BORN: Innumerable stars are born through ad films. From the fabulous Aishwarya to Preity to Jackie Shroff to even Salman Khan, all of them faced the camera for the first time as a model.
When the Emergency was lifted and Indira Gandhi called for election, voters quickly asked for their freedom back, with lime and more. The new government that took over soon booted out Coca-Cola – and IBM, I should add – and that created a whole new game in the beverage industry.
The period immediately before and after the Emergency were testing times for the country with high inflation, high unemployment and a general state of dismay. The country that was born in 1947 and a whole generation of Indians who had idealistic fervour gave way to a new generation that was not willing to sacrifice their present for the sake of a better future. The time was ripe for the rise of a new hero stereotype, the Angry Young Man. Film historians tell us that this phase lasted almost ten years, from 1975 to 1985. In advertising, however, we don’t see much evidence of anger during that period.
Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles Page 3