After successful communication messages and high recall for Olper’s, Tarang and Dairy Omung, one would expect the same from Engro Foods when it extended its portfolio in 2009 with the ice cream brand called Omoré.
I remember the agitation the Karachiwalas had when it was first only launched in Lahore. But the flaw in their creativity and advertising instantly ruined the product for me. The fact that the idea was so casually copied from the old Coke ad was a major put off.
And just when we thought Pakistani advertising couldn’t really get any worse, Omoré came up with its ‘Frooze Magic Hat’ commercial. From concept to art direction, the entire TVC is baseless. The first question that pops in my head is – where in the world do kids take ice cream in a lunch box? And why is the teacher wearing a gown, as if in a courtroom?
But this is just the beginning. Classifying a kindergarten teacher as a villain is just plain appalling. The concept of kids not listening to their teacher, eating in a classroom and the teacher being squished by a giant whale is a highly irresponsible approach and may even be insulting to a lot of people too. Is this the message we need to be sending out to our children?
In a country where teaching is already an underpaid and under appreciated job, we could’ve done without one of these asinine magic ideas. I mean if you’ve had a bad experience with your kindergarten teacher, it’s really not a good idea to retaliate through your own product. The inspiration of ‘magic’ could have definitely been conceptualised and executed in a more positive way.
“No Shashka, Just Chaska” doesn’t get any better either. They’re trying to mock the dancing and the flash mobs where women dance senselessly trying to sell a product. But why mock and end up doing the same thing? Our advertising industry needs to stop dancing to sell products. Business owners need to realise that their product and the way they design it is a reflection of their business. If you don’t care about your design then your design is telling people that you don’t care about your business.
As Robert L. Peters once said, “Design creates culture. Culture creates values. Values determine the future.”
It is about time business owners, brand managers and advertising teams realise what impact advertisement has on a society. Advertising concepts need to be well thought out and questioned over and over again as to whether or not it serves the purpose and retains it’s value – or else, you lose the future of your product.
The writer is a New Media Design Manager at Dawn.com
