The last few days have been pretty eventful in the field of Indian advertising. With Bajaj announcing the phasing out of its Scooter segment, the Indian Television was filled with echoes of “Hamara Bajaj”. News channels conducted talks on the changing face of the advertising scenario in India, people began to reminisce old times and it was nostalgia all the way. While we do mourn the death of our favourite brands, it is interesting to see that the attachment is more to the advertising campaign than to the product.

This might actually be a good time to look back at some of the most successful and memorable campaigns on the Indian television – something we all grew up with. Some of them are still alive, while others have metamorphosized into something more “trendy”; and there are some whose brands have gone into extinction.

Gold Spot: The Zing Thing!

Back in the 80s, Parle had a huge presence in the soft drink market with its orange carbonated drink, Gold Spot. Extremely youth-oriented, this brand established itself in the minds of all the Doordarshan viewers when the “Zing Thing!” campaign was launched. The campaign continued till 1993, when Coca Cola bought this brand and later phased it out nationally, to make way for Fanta. Today there may not be a dearth of soft drinks (orange flavoured, at that!) but very few would be associated with campaigns as memorable as this.

‘Hamara’ Bajaj Scooters

Kids of the new millennium will never understand how anyone could deify a scooter the way the last three generations did. Launched in 1972, Bajaj’s first big scooter brand – Chetak – was the fashion statement for the next two decades. Followed shortly by Bajaj Super, the company established itself as the scooter brand of the country. And then, renowned Indian ad guru Alyque Padamsee came up with the slogan “Hamara Bajaj”. This integrated the entire segment with a nationalistic sentiment. Young men loved to boast about how they stood in long lines, paid the amount in dollars and hd to then wait for a few weeks more before becoming the proud owners of a Chetak. While the men of the 70s and 80s grew up glorifying the scooter, the men of the 90s grew up singing the jingle. So much so that when the product was phased out last week, there was as much of a sentimental outburst from them as there was from their fathers. This is definitely one of those campaigns that this generation will not forget.

Pepsi – Nothing Official About It

The big global soft drinks entered India at a time when India was undergoing a major change. A new, economically liberated generation was rising. Westernization as a concept was setting in massively among the youngsters. Pepsi chose this as the opportune moment to position itself as a rebellious, trendy drink for youngsters. With the “Yehi hai right choice baby” tagline, Pepsi had established its presence. But then, 1996 was a year to remember – the Cricket World Cup was to be held in India for the second time. And to Pepsi’s chagrin, Coke was the official sponsor. But then, this was the masterstroke – Pepsi came up with this ad showing the “official” cricket (white clothes, gentlemanly behavior, etc.) and the “true” cricket (on field fights, coded uniforms, etc.) and then displayed the tagline. With this daring and catchy campaign, Pepsi formally launched the Cola wars in India.

The Hutch Puppy

When it comes to innovative ad campaigns, few can beat Hutch. Simple, smart, memorable ads depicting a pug following a kid to the most unlikely places possible really caught on to the imagination of the people. A creation of Ogilvy & Mather, the ad did not waste time in trying to prove itself superior in technology as compared to its competitors, but went straight to the deliverable (i.e. connectivity), presenting it in an extremely charming format. While Cheeka, the Hutch dog, attained cult status, the ad will remain permanently etched in our memory. While the zoozoos (which work on the very same principle as the Hutch Puppy – simple, cute, straightforward) have replaced the Puppy now, it may be a matter of time before we see it back on television.

The Britannia Jingle

The jingle with four magic notes that became part of our commercial breaks – “Ting Ting Ti-Ting” – was the handiwork of Louis Banks, celebrated jazz and contemporary musician from Darjeeling. Britannia came up with a number of products, and the ads were all ordinary. But the one signature of Brand Britannia was the jingle, and this has probably not been matched by any other till date, at least on Indian television. In fact, Banks (the composer of the “unofficial Indian Anthem”, Mile Sur Mera Tumhara) says that he’d like “Ting Ting Ti-Ting” as his epitaph!

Kinetic Luna – “Chal Meri Luna!”

Kinetic Motors launched Luna, their flagship moped, in 1972 – around the same time as Bajaj’s launch of Chetak. While Chetak was a style statement, Luna gets the credit of revolutionizing personalized transport in India. Affordable, light, and of low maintenance, Luna was the common man’s vehicle. The 80s campaign “Chal Meri Luna” was the last successful campaign of the brand (there were few others which did not do well). The phasing out of this product signaled the end of the segment.

The Liril Girl

This has already been talked about in great detail, but no article on popular ad campaigns in India is complete without a section dedicated to one of the most successful campaigns on Indian television. Touted as the most well-researched campaign of its time, the ad was supposed to have been based on the two words most associated with freshness – lime and waterfall. Launched in 1975 when the Feminist Movement was at its height in the West, the ad featuring a green bikini-clad Karen Lunel playing around in a waterfall ran on Indian television for a whopping 12 years before being replaced by another ad with the same screenplay but featuring Sonali Mehta, in 1987. Yet another brainchild of Alyque Padamsee, the Liril Girl was a mantle donned by cine personalities such as Pooja Batra (1993), Preity Zinta (1997), Tara Sharma (2002) and Deepika Padukone (2004). The Liril jingle remained the same in almost all of the ads, notable exceptions being the 1996 and 2004 ads.

(Paul N Savio is a PGDM (2010 batch) student at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.)

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