The channel is Star World.
The background is white.
A metrosexual type man, a foreign looking woman.
She has a blood red mirchi in her mouth.
He is licking drops of water off her back.
Instinctively, I finger-flick to another channel. It could be an ad for some fancy perfume. On the other hand, it could be a condom.
Children sit right in front of the idiot box and then later want to deal with their never-ending questions.
Sex education is essential but we don't need a child prodigy in that particular area.
A few seconds later I flick back and to my shock, it's an ad for LIRIL soap. Um, what exactly were they thinking???
Goodbye waterfall
So, the girl and the waterfall became repetitive and boring. The success of the brand became a millstone around its neck.
They tried girls dancing in deserts, on glaciers and even an orange variant. It must not have worked, so they decided to do something drastic.
"The new Liril Soft Aloe Vera and Lemon campaign focused on naughty intimacies among married couples instead of the erstwhile iconic `waterfall' campaigns, " notes Hindu Businessline.
Why this won't work
A brand - like a city - is built on a certain heritage.
Yes, it can be tweaked to a certain extent but if you want to simply throw it ALL away, why not just launch a new brand. Why use the name Liril at all?
a) The ad looked/ felt/ jingle was not Liril. There was some la la la going on in the background (I think) but not evocative of the original tune at all.
b) Selling point was no longer freshness but lemon + aloe vera ie freshness plus soft, supple skin.
As a soap, it may have been quite nice actually (the packaging and shape looked interesting) but it was not LIRIL.
Secondly, the 'married' couple bit did not come across. Which married couple in India looks/ behaves like THAT?
Thirdly, what was this obsession with fair skinned/ light eyed models? How was the Indian consumer supposed to identify with the situation??
Lastly, the red mirchi made absolutely no sense. Was the soap fresh, or hot?
For all those reasons, I thought the ad would bomb. Reminded me of the classic 'new Coke' fiasco which actually led to the old Coke being brought back with a vengeance! Bet the old girl under the waterfall would have made a similar comeback in 6 months time...
Phir bhi
I must however commend Hindustan Lever for taking the risk of doing something different. That particular attempt might have failed but some of their other advertising experiments were worth noting.
The 'do bucket paani hai bachaana' campaign for Surf and the Lifebuoy ads where kids could clean up their neighbourhood were both very bold departures from conventional soap/ detergent advertising. They were in fact what you might call 'socially relevant'.
These ads were being noticed - and achieving a positive impact. An impact which could, eventually, get reflected in sales figures. But probably didn't - in the short run.
Which meant things would have soon be back to 'safedi ki jhankaar' type advertising.
Sometimes I wonder what would happen if soap/ detergent advertising was banned from television for a year. Would we stop buying and become filthy/ unhygienic cretins?
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