Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Pepsi protects investment in Saurav




What do you when a celebrity has run out of steam? Or, as in the current instance, a sporting megastar is no longer good enough to play in the top drawer, and you have a contract that commits you to pay him for the next few years?
Saurav Ganguly is no longer India’s captain, no longer in the Indian team, no longer in India’s probables. And he’s contracted to Pepsi. What does Pepsi do?
They talk to JWT, and JWT pulls off an absolute stunner.
Overnight, with a simple commercial, Saurav the superstar is transformed to Saurav the superfan.
The storyboard (http://www.agencyfaqs.com/advertising/storyboard/Pepsi/2375.html) clearly takes into account the fact that Saurav is no longer in the team -- he's not even dressed in national colours, but in mufti. Saurav, humility personified, says that he will practice hard and attempt to get back into the Indian team. But till he does, he will root for India, he says, and exhorts all of India’s billion cricket fans to join him in supporting India.
Pepsi is one of many brands to have signed on Saurav, and it’s the only one to have found a way to protect their investment in Brand Saurav.
The Subhas Ghosal Foundation is currently working on a book on Advertising in times of Adversity, which will study cases of how brands dealt with problem situations and, in some cases, asked for, and received, consumer forgiveness.
With the Pepsi commercial, JWT makes a strong case for consumers to forgive Ganguly.
I can’t speak for the country as a whole, but I can speak for myself, surely.
You’re forgiven, Saurav.
But I doubt I'll be yelling the crazy Pepsi chant with you.
One day, before the World Cup is over, I might even understand what the chant means.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well..I guess it is a proper timing that pepsi has opted and an appropriate platform for Dada to voice himself...One does feel empathetic towards him.There is no doubt that he is one of the most successful captains India has had but his so called Farewell should have been a much more dignified one..But the selectors must give him a chance to bounce back.Looking forward to seeing him back in the team..

Unknown said...

here's the crazy part. on my way to delhi last week i was chatting up with the auro driver who was driving me to the airport. we got talking about cricket and then about dada. guess what? he's seen the ad and claims it is one of the best that he's ever seen. he understands the situationa nd even goes on to comment on how dada "uniform nahi pehna tha" but dialogue say chhakka maar diya.

now that's something that might cheer up (us)depressive souls in advertising who have slowly started to believe that they cannot possibly create an impact on society in 60 secs.

Anonymous said...

Win-Win for Both Pepsi and Saurav!

Anonymous said...

I thought the ad was interesting.
Though if I waz Saurav Ganguly, I would never have stooped that low.

Anonymous said...

i feel sorry for Ganguly....his attmept to raise the sympathy of everybody is not in the spirit of the game.....its time he moves on...nobody can keep playing forever....he had his time and he shoudl accept it gracefully...such stunts will only spoil the wonderful memories we have of him as the captain of indian team

Ujwal said...

oops!! dialled a completely wrong number on me. appeared more as a looser's ad than anything else. Saurav after all his antics is now no longer associated with indian cricket. He has been trying hard to get in, but isn't getting selected. Trying to still associate himself with the team, and calling the team as 'his' team doesn't go down too well with me.

Anonymous said...

Ujwal,

It's a point of view, I guess.
What I found interesting was the fact that he is almost certainly out of the Indian team permanently, and Pepsi found a way to salvage their investment.
Imagine if they had continued to use him as a cricketer -- that would have been disastrous.
JWT found a way of using Saurav with credibility... and while you don't to think it works, there are people who do.
The jury is out on this one, and that's why the post. With enough comments, we'll get a better idea of the general view.

Anonymous said...

I feel he should be given a chance to play again looking at indian cricket teams performance in the past few months.Initially i felt saurav should be "RESTED" for few days but i feel he was a good captain.

Avid said...

It has been a huge battle post Greg-gate ... and after wathcing India go down de-moralisingly to the Aussies make the point even stronger.... Get Sourav back as Captain b4 it's too late for the WC-07.....

Greg has been given lots of hands to try out lots of thingys but none has bore fruits till date and if the experimentations continue it'll be too late b4 damage control is initiated ....

Dravid is a gr8 player but a useless captain ... he's calculative and shrewd but he doesn't have it in him to get the team together and motive them to win matches .......

Cricket in India ia a passion and who better than a passionate Sourav to egg the whole team to beat the shit outta the Aussies...

I root for Dada to get back into the team and i guess we all passionate Indian cricket fans shud voice our feeling towards getting him back and our Team on winning streaks again .....

Cheers :-)

Anant Rangaswami said...

Now we're getting to be a cricketing debate. In a funny way, makes the commercial more relevant, current and believable. The timing couldn't be better -- Saurav saying he will try his best to get back into the team in the TVC and India getting knocked out of the Champions Trophy. This is a storyline which has been bolstered by India's poor performance -- and now, more than 10 days ealier, Pepsi's investment is indeed looking good.

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