center fresh yeh wala

The business of advertising is funny and good advertising is even funnier. David Ogilvy once described good advertising as the one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself, and here is a new ad by Ogilvy India which sells itself by drawing attention to other ads. In the latest commercial for liquid-filled chewing gum brand, Center Fresh from Perfetti Van Melle, Ogilvy has taken a jibe at how various ads sell products.

Titled ‘Yeh Wala’, the ad opens to a boy who screams in pain while brushing his teeth. The door to his washroom bangs wide open, as an inquisitive reporter accompanied by a cameraman suggests him to use ‘Yeh wala’ toothpaste. A jibe at a very popular toothpaste ad. Next it moves on to a guy being recommended ‘yeh wala’ cream, to the audience being suggested to buy ‘yeh wala’ TV and so on, till finally the ad zips up their mouths in the characteristic style of Center Fresh. the voice over suggests to give them ‘yeh wala chewing gum’ to have them keep their mouths shut.

‘Yeh wala’ buzz on social

The campaign is being promoted on social media through the clever use of #YehWala hashtag for a contest. The contest gets the social media community to get their creative juices flowing. Fans have been invited to write funny taglines under a specific given theme, starting the tagline with the campaign hashtag #YehWala.

Run simultaneously on Facebook and Twitter, the campaign asked participants on Facebook to comment on the post in the Center Fresh Facebook timeline, while on Twitter they had to tweet with the hashtag. The brand also provided visual hints on the ad theme for the day.

An ad for an ad

Well aligned with the brand proposition of “Zubaan pe rakhe lagaam“, Center Fresh has yet again managed to bring cheeky humour to its communication, a characteristic feature in all its advertising. What stands out in the campaign is that the message has been well extended onto social media with the use of a related hashtag #YehWala. Having a similar hashtag as the ad campaign for social media promotions further boosts the brand recall.

Also, leveraging social media by involving users in the mad ad world of funny taglines and getting them to relate with ‘yehwala’ concept has been a good idea in the campaign. Driving eyeballs to the ad while dropping hints for the contest sure is a creative way to spread the word!

Smart ad that should hopefully go down well with the advertising industry, especially for those brands and agencies whose ads have inspired this one. What are your views?

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