By Sangeeta Tanwar
Advertising

Kabhi Kabhi Vodafone can do without the pug

The boy and his pug are missing from the latest Vodafone ad, but O&M’s Rajeev Rao says this is a one-off incident

The song, Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein, from the Amitabh Bachchan starrer, Kabhi Kabhie, never ever lost its popularity. That’s probably why O&M chose the song to promote Vodafone’s music service, which has a library of 40,000 songs.

Rajiv Rao, executive creative director, O&M, says, “While working on this campaign, we brainstormed on many popular numbers of yesteryears. Selecting the song was in itself a great exercise. Finally, we zeroed in on Kabhi Kabhie as it was still popular and also an Amitabh Bachchan number.”

Kabhi Kabhi Vodafone can do without the pug
Baby listents to the music
Kabhi Kabhi Vodafone can do without the pug
Entertaining guests at home
Kabhi Kabhi Vodafone can do without the pug
Hums the song to partner
Kabhi Kabhi Vodafone can do without the pug
Passes on love for
the song to his son
begins with the shot of a baby listening to the song, Kabhi Kabhi, which is being played on a gramophone near him. In the next shot, the baby has grown into a young boy, who’s singing the song before his parents’ friends. Slightly older, he’s shown singing Kabhi Kabhi at his school’s annual function. He grows up, but he’s still singing the same song, even when he’s romancing a girl in a boat. In the next shot, he’s married, with a child of his own. He is still singing Kabhi Kabhi, while his son lisps the song along with him.

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The brief for the TVC was very simple – to promote Vodafone’s music service, which has a library of more than 40,000 songs.

Rao of O&M explains, “All we wanted was to encourage people to listen to more songs and not just their personal favourite.”

Unlike the earlier TVCs for Hutch and even the re-branding TVCs for Vodafone, the little boy and his pug are missing from this commercial. Rao confirms that this is a one-off incident, and the boy and his pug are still very much there. The new TVC is strictly for a single product, while the boy and his pug are used for the network campaigns, explains Rao.

The TVC has been directed by Prakash Verma of Nirvana Films. He says, “It’s always a bigger challenge to work on a simple idea.” In this case, the task was to make the film look real and authentic. This is why it was shot like a home video.

“The song belongs to the 1970s, and to bring in the nostalgic feeling, we placed an Ambassador car in the garden when the young boy is entertaining the guests at home with the song,” says Verma.

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