#BlastFromThePast is Storyboard18’s weekly column where we ask young creative professionals to pick old ads that they replay time and again, spots that give them writing inspiration, and commercials that never get old.
This week Jay Morzaria, creative head, Rephrase.AI, picks three interesting ads that were quirky for their time and the impact they have even today.
Read on.
Got Milk (1993)
When we talk about “impactful” campaigns, this campaign definitely has to make it on that list.
But beyond impact, I think this campaign taught us to take risks and break rules.
A typical advertising narrative for a product like milk would have consisted of a child drinking milk and becoming stronger, or an old couple revealing the “secret” to their good health.
However, the folks at the California Milk Processor Board (the client) and Goodby, Silverstein and Partners (the agency) instead chose to focus on the frustration of not having milk when you really need it; something that was culturally relevant for a market like the USA.
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It went so far to break traditional rules, that even the line “Got Milk”, although catchy, is grammatically incorrect.
The line was casually suggested by Jeff Goodby as a title to a presentation they were making to the client. Attempts were made to correct it, but Goodby just liked the catchiness and brevity of it. An instinctive call was taken to roll with it.
And guess what? It worked!
Here is a clip from the documentary Art & Copy, that shines some light on what went behind the scenes:
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The campaign became so iconic that it was an inspiration for yet another marketing genius, Steve Jobs. Here’s what he said to Apple employees while announcing the philosophy behind “Think Different”:
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Fevicol – Dum Laga Ke Haisha (80s)
While Fevicol ads are often quoted as examples of great advertising, one of my favourite ones remains the very first ad crafted by Piyush Pandey after he shifted from account management to the creative team.
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And more than the ad itself, I gained a lot of respect for the persistence demonstrated by Pandey to do something good despite all odds.
You see, he was handed brands that were “boring” for his fellow creative colleagues. Here was a desi Indian adhesive brand with limited budgets that belonged to a category where there was no benchmark for creativity and innovation.
Yet, here was a man who refused to believe that brands can be boring. A person can be boring, and a brand is merely a reflection of that.
The result? This ad laid the foundation for a campaign that not only created a benchmark for the adhesive category but for Indian advertising in general.
Today, people look forward to Fevicol ads.
In a budget as tight as Rs 1 lakh, the ambitious ad came alive after a lot of good ol’ desi jugaad.
Fun fact: The ad features the popular filmmaker, Rajkumar Hirani!
Another fun fact: All the actors in this ad came for free! I wonder how they got convinced.
Apologies for the shameless plug, but here are more details of what Piyush Pandey revealed about the campaign in an interview to me:
Diet Pepsi: The choice of the new generation (1987)
The 80s were the time when the Cola wars had begun. And since then, Pepsi has remained a huge spender in terms of getting some of the most popular faces as brand ambassadors. In this one, they got the 80s poster boy, Michael J. Fox, trying desperately to score points with a beautiful neighbour who has just moved in.
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The ad got so popular that it was later recreated in India with Aamir Khan, Mahima Choudhary and Aishwarya Rai in 1995!
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