Different Strokes

Asian Paints has taken my breath away yet again with their advertising… Their laal laal ad with Shubha Mudgal has turned traditional colour semiotics on its head.

And just when I thought this was advertising at its evocative best, I saw the pila hai rang khushi ka‘ ad – yellow, the colour of happiness.

Who would have thought so? I was watching this with a friend (who is a teacher at a primary school) and she said – ‘this is a lovely ad – a real feel-good ad’. I gazed at her in surprise (we researcher types think feel-good is a term exclusively for our use – when we want to tell our clients – your ad is conveying nothing, but the consumer is smiling, so keep at it). And she said defensively, ‘well, it makes me feel good. I smile when I see the ad’.

Manna to an advertiser’s ears.

When was the last time a brand / ad used colours so effectively? Coke, maybe – red again. Brooke Bond Red Label had tried this with mere laal a few years ago, but I think that fell flat on its palette….

Red symbolising not gore and anger and violence but energy and life itself….. (the colour of the heart is always red, as is the colour of love :))
And yellow – the sun, the sunflower, the daffodil, a bright smile, three cheers (think of it, some of the prettiest flowers are yellow)

Remember khushiyon ka rang – ads showing diyas filled with colour at Diwali time and colours flowing out of pots during Pongal?

Making consumers think of the joy of a freshly painted house – and the festivities around which house-painting is associated…. (and not the tedium of house-painting)

Now compare that with this :

Makes me ask : so?
And the ad with people with hands smeared with paint – what a mess !

I completely agree with this:

No paint-related advertising story is complete without reference to what has to be one of the most famous lines in advertising — `Whenever you see colour, think of us. Jensen & Nicholson.’
I guess people saw colour, thought of paint and bought Asian.