An Ode to the Vodafone AD

I want to be a Zoozoo too... !!!

Created by Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), an international marketing, advertising and PR agency founded in 1848, the Zoozoo ads have managed to create quite a stir in this billion-plus country.
These ads, first aired during the Indian Premier League version II, still have quite a hold on the box watcher, from 6 year olds to 40 years old Saas-bahu watching aunties alike. Ive literally seen 50 year old housewives sitting in front of the TV say.. "Arre ye to wohi ad aa gayi..Zoozoo wali..bade mazedaar hai ye". My mouth agape, I was awestruck at such a statement coming from a person who I thought was still wondering why her 'bahu' didn't match up to the standards set by the quintessential Tulsi Virani.

Even if you don't happen to be sitting in front of the TV much, you might have seen this Vodafone advertisement now and then. Vodafone, after taking over Hutchison Essar, played well by spending a lot on marketing and advertising. Hutch did too. No doubts about that. With India being the fastest growing mobile market in South Asia, and now the world's second largest mobile market after China with over 261 million users, this investment seems more than justified. Every month, something close to 10 million users are added to this network. Growth, which is not expected to slow down, is now moving more towards the rural market too. The ramifications of this unprecedented growth can be gauged from the ubiquity of the cellphone. From school kids, to sabzi wallahs, electricians, daily wage labourers, small traders, housewives, even the garbage man. Who would not want a piece of such a huge money-pie? Or even the whole pie ?

Now there was a purpose behind me writing an ode to an Advertisement. You seldom see Indian ads being intelligent and funny at the same time . Mostly you can no longer tolerate an ad when it is shown the second time. Atleast, that being the case with me. With the ZooZoo ad I can definitely say that Indian Advertising has come on its own.

After O&M created the famous 'pug', Vodafone could graciously stand up and give competition to Bharti Airtel's Rehmanisms ( referring to the use of A.R Rahman's composed music for Airtel's ads ). To come one up on Airtel, O&M created a new set of characters called 'ZooZoos' for the latest Vodafone campaign to market their value-added services. Its always been about a brand story and connecting with the people. Airtel did it by roping in Sharukh Khan and creating a feel good 'yeh mera India..' story.

O&M decided to build a consistent brand story, one that they thought would connect better than the 'pug'. ( I had literally had enough of that 'kutta' and would cry hoarse whenever I heard "You..and I ..in this beautiful world.." ) So they created a special world of ZooZoos in which all the product stories get told, a world which is real yet different, something between animation and reality, warm and lovable and primarily connects better with any audience.The Zoozoos are innocent people who laugh loud when they laugh.

These ghost-like characters with egg-like heads and ballooned bodies which might appear animated, are actually real people dressed in white attire. The bigger zoozoos are women while while the smaller ones are children. The body was made by stuffing with foam in some places ( to get those bulging tummies) while the head was done up using Perspex and using wrinkle-free white fabric. The films were shot at lower frame rates and The detailing of the sets was kept to a minimum by using a neutral tone of gray. Rather than using animation, each expression was made of rubber and pasted on the head as and when it was needed.

These ads conceptualized by O&M, were shot by Bangalore based Niravana Films in Cape Town, South Africa. But the man behind the character is National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather, Rajiv Rao. He was the guy who coined the name, thought about the story lines and was behind the whole idea. The USP behind these ads was that there were always new storylines you could look forward to. Something you hadn't seen before. Recently they even managed a comeback of sorts with ads for occasions like Independence day.

Ogilvy & Mather incidentally is behind some of the ads I have loved the most, the Fevicol ad and the Amaron ad. They have a wonderful website. You should have a look at their work here.

The response to the Zoo Zoo has been nothing short of amazing. From a huge fan following on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Orkut, to having personal merchandise carrying their pictures, they are the new stars of the world between the serials.
Vodafone even won the first PETA Glitterbox Award 2009 for replacing the pug with more humane alternatives in their ads. Now that is two birds with one stone.!

As the chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, David Ogilvy puts it, " If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs, but if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants. " True, very true!

Hair today..gone tomorrow !

DISCLAIMER : This post borders on egotism. Those who detest this word in any form should refrain from reading the following paragraphs. Positively! No exceptions.

"Hairrased" !

Yes, that is exactly what I fell everytime when I hear the words " Karan...Go get a haircut " ringing in my ears.

Its that time of the year again when my hair is all long and curly.. long enough to get noticed by my mother. My mane...well as of today, isn't long enough for a ponytail though! But what the heck..people still object. On 2nd thoughts I might just agree with them.

Ok.Why is this 'going-and-getting-a-haircut' such a big issue with me?

1. Boys/Men never like to be told some things.. 'get a haircut', 'go take a bath' being some of them. Strange species we are.
   
2. I am not really good at managing long hair.
3. Just before going to the barber, my hairstyle suddenly starts suiting me and I want to keep it. Let it grow. Even when I am sitting in the saloon chair, I have 2nd thoughts. One or two strands of my hair fall on my face and it starts giving this whole drooly look in which Karan Sakhuja looks just the perfect guy.

I remember my school days when we weren't exactly aware of what 'handsome' looked like. So when we were told for a haircut, I would rush to the barber. He would always ask me which way I wanted it done. I would tell him the lines that by means of repetition had got stuck to my tongue.

Like a parrot I would say, " Bhaiya, bilkul chotte kar do. "
Barber : "Kitne chotte karu? Machine lagani hai ?" (referring to the now-obsolete mechanical hand operated-trimmer)
I : " Haan bhaiya. Crew cut kar do. Peeche se seedhe rakhna. Cut mat lagana."
Barber: "Wohi apka usual cut karna hai? Ho jaega!"

It would take the guy 30 odd minutes and he would be done, finishing his job by smearing my neck with the Shower-to-Shower powder packed in that yellow plastic bottle and then brushing off all the cut hair from my face as well.Tingly!
I would then get back home rubbing my hand over my head and feeling the sharp ends of the hair. My friends always said it felt more like the back of a porcupine. Well, what the heck! With that cut, I at least managed to stay away from that barber shop for another 2-3 months. Heaven!

How I always detested the fact that my hair were the perfect length just for a week or so. Either they were too short before that week or they would start coming onto my eyes after that week and I would look like a monster. Bah!

"Karan... haircut". Oops.. I probably sat on the PC for a little too long. Somebody seems to be calling out. Huh?? Its 1.45 in the night.. why can't people just leave me alone ?? I better get myself all geared up for that meeting with the barber bhaiya! ;-)

Filmi Romances Part 1

In the last few weeks, I happened to watch a measurable amount of TV. And that was because I was in such a perpetual state of ennui, that I didn't even want to get my computer out of its snuggly carry bag. So I went to the kitchen, made myself a nice sandwich and sat down in front of the tele.

Flipped channels and settled with Swades on SET Max.

Now whenever I see this flick, life suddenly starts looking much better. I have no clue what Ashutosh Gowariker did while filming it, but the guy genuinely made a masterpiece. What could have been any other film like the thousands that are rolled out week after week from the factory called Bollywood, this one manages to be so different, so sublime and yet so apt in its appeal that it takes the pain of a Hippo sitting on me to beileve that it wasn't a success. It did get the critical acclaim of a Slumdog Millionaire but nothing like the 'Superhit' tag that Om Shanti Om with its shitty storyline had got. Not even an iota close to that.

There are a myriad aspects of Swades-the-movie that I would love to discuss, that I find striking everytime that I am onto this movie, but this time, I would stick to discussing the part which had me shutting my ears to my friend's phone call for a treat. And that part of it revolves around the Sharukh Khan-Gayatri Joshi (Mohan Bhargava and Geeta in the movie) chemistry.

Lets get straight to 'Sharukh-in-his-vest avtaar' first.

The chemistry between Mohan and Geeta is astoundingly subtle. Dressed in their simplest, with the dreamy village setting, the naughty inuendos and it just can't get any better than this.

The best part is that their romance never gets overly sentimental. Its ethereal, and makes you have that really good feeling in your heart.

Geeta is the simple village teacher we all want to fall in love with.

Coming back to the movie:

It all starts at a book store where Mohan subsitutes for his friend at the cash counter. Unsuspecting as he is, he is dumbfounded by the beauty of Geeta while she is scolding another customer. Although Geeta misguides him, he does manage to reach the village where she stays with Mohan's Kaveri-amma. Geeta isn't the reason that Mohan is back in his village. He wants to take Kaveri-amma back with him to Amreeka. And that becomes the point of contention between Geeta and Mohan-'who gets to keep Kaveri-amma?' While both try to outdo each other in getting a response from the old lady, Mohan gets to experience first hand the life in a small Indian village. Gowariker sahab does very well in giving out important social messages through Mohan's interactions with the people that he meets and the trivial things that keep happening everyday.

The village postman cum postmaster who doubles up as the man running the PCO/STD/ISD shop , and another man who wants to go and open up a highway dhaba in America, become his companions for most of the movie when he is not with his 'girl'.

Although Mohan feigns nonchalance at first, his meeting with a low-caste farmer to whom he had been sent to collect rent for his farm, breaks his semblance. The 10 minutes of the movie after his dinner with the farmer's family, who despite their meager means still treat him to good food ( Atithi Devo Bhava ) makes the NASA-returned 'desi' realise that despite everything, his heart still beats for India.

Now the film gets to the underlying message, "For change to happen, we must change". So many issues that we as Indians brushed under the carpets for years are tackled in a very non-didactic manner in the movie. The villagers keep treating Mohan as a guest from 'saat samundar paar' but it is he who manages to get them to stop ignoring the problems they face everyday. Then there is the usual debate between following tradition or blindly aping the West. Gowariker sahab has done a wonderful job by ensuring that nowhere in the movie does the protagonist lose his strength. The film never gets into becoming one big boring lesson on the ills that plague Indian society or a civics chapter from a 10th class book. Very few directors are able to retain that kind of power with the characters. The director has also done well with the use of people as imagery to recapitulate the important social messages he wishes to highlight.

Mohan touches the issue of caste system with ease. Education for children has also been highlighted throughout the film. Mohan tries to find Geeta students for the school where she teaches and goes on to enlighten villagers in a way that almost makes S-I-M-P-L-E appear too difficult to spell.

In the end he goes on to make the lazy, always procrastinating, 'sarkar karegi -type' villagers to help him construct a mini hydel power plant and produce electricity for the village.

Mohan is depicted as the Indian who goes to earn a foreign degree, do that million dollar dream job and still has his heart fixed deeply in his country. He embodies every 'desi' who wants to do something for his 'Des'.... apna Des... Swades.