November 3, 2009 3:39:41 PM IST Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

Communication about a product through an advertisement is an arena that thrives on nostalgia, no wonder the current crop of advertisements that are being aired are built around a story. Interestingly enough the story is built up more so when a famous star is hired for an advertisement campaign. After all, the costs have to be justified, and it can only be done when the campaign narrates the story.

So, the new Airtel campaign featuring Shahrukh Khan is built around the nostalgia of the time that he had in Delhi, his friends, and how they are connected to each other thanks to the network that Shah Rukh is endorsing. It is also a subtle way in which the built up to FAUZI the television serial in which Shahrukh Khan acted to launch his acting career, is being built up to maintain the interest.

As a spin-off of this attempt first time in the history of Lux advertisement a couple i.e. Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai are featuring together, if one discounts the fact that Shahrukh Khan had been featured with all the past and present brand icons who endorsed Lux from time to time. Shah Rukh Khan Campaign however could not sustain momentum as it did not have a story built into it. Incidentally, the idea of narrating a story in a big way with Abhishek Bachchan when he featured in the Idea campaign which ultimately evolved into a social campaign, and even an academic journal of the likes of Economic and Political Weekly did a critical analysis on the Ad campaign.

As a matter of fact the art of story telling through an Ad campaign was started in a big way when Big B was roped in as the brand ambassador for Cadburys and every Diwali a new story was aired that added to the nostalgia of chocolates with the festivals. It would not be out of place to say that this Ad campaign featuring Big B was instrumental in a big way in changing the preferences from sweets to chocolate during the festival times. The absence of Big B from the campaign this year was a telling comment on how the story of Cadburys had lost its momentum this year.

There is indeed a synergy when a film star is used for a campaign and a story is built around it. After all, ours is a country that loves stories and the products that are positioned through these stories indeed have a higher quotient of success with the public than otherwise.


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