I happened to see the new ad of Pizza Hut. Now, I am not very sure if the following is a figment of my imagination, so bear with me. Bappi Lahiri is a brand ambassador now (no, thats not where the imagination comes in). He is the only one visible in the edited version of the TVC, but in a larger version, i thought i saw Hari Sadu and the guy who spells out H A R I. Dont tell me you’ve already forgotten the naukri ad. In fact, the theme of the campaign is on the lines of ‘a happy ending’, and keeping with that Hari Sadu offers the guy his job back and apologises.
Like i said, I’m not sure if i’m factually right (in case anyone from Pizza Hut is reading this, yes, then i will know this blog is getting somewhere, please clarify), but it does throw up a lot of interesting opportunities for brands to work together on a commercial, if they have a similar audience to reach. I think this commercial has used the equity of Hari Sadu brilliantly. Its a bit like K Jo bringing back characters from his earlier movies (remember the star counting sardar kid of KKHH in K3G. hey, why isnt KJo getting sued?) except in this case, these are different unrelated brands.
Think of the possibilities. In a slice of life scenario, the number of brands that could appear contextually is enormous, imagine a scenario of the morning rush to office, from the shaving blade to the cereal breakfast to the soap to the apparel and accessories, to the vehicle to the radio station listened to on the way and everything in between, everything is a brand. And so, brands share the cost and come up with interesting, funny etc storylines that fits the ethos of all brands concerned. What do you think?
and until next time, have you seen the times jobs version of Hari Sadu?
Although the idea of different brands working together, say in a commercial, does sound appealing on paper, soon it would turn into a war for screen-space as each of the brands would want maximum time for their investments. Not to mention there might end up being a much more aggregated version of Cola wars… an Advertising World war of sorts (yes, this IS a figment of my imagination)
yes, brand egos would definitely be a problem, but it’d be fun if it can be worked out 🙂