Bates' Dabur Lal Dant Manjan campaign wins Finalist Award at NY Fest

The Dabur Lal Dant Manjan print campaign by Bates, Delhi, has won a Finalist Award in the Healthcare & Toiletries category at the recently concluded New York Festival. The campaign comprises three print ads with visuals of a hammer, a bottle opener and a saw, all set against the background of red, the distinguishing brand colour of Lal Dant Manjan. In all the three images, a set of white teeth is placed right at the point at which the tool is meant to perform its intended function. For example, in the bottle opener ad, the groove meant for removing caps from bottles is replaced by a set of chalk white teeth.

Talking about the brand proposition, Radharani Mitra, creative director, says, "The proposition is actually simple. It is to show really strong teeth to a clearly defined target audience that belongs to SEC C and D and would respond to non-verbal communication. Once we knew that, it was not so difficult to crack the idea. The three-ad campaign for Dabur Lal Dant Manjan has striking visuals that reflect the proposition of strong teeth in an easy-to-understand manner." The campaign ran in Maharashtra simultaneous with a TV commercial.

Bates is really gung-ho about another print ad it has executed recently for business weekly Businessworld. This campaign entails a series of five print ads with slice-of-life images drawing a parallel between life and business. For example, one print ad shows a boy aiming for a marble with full concentration with another boy watching him intently in the background. The body copy runs like this: "In life as in business, some rules are learnt so early that they seem almost instinctive. Equally some instincts are so accurate that we make rules out of them. However, so often, instincts and rules find each other at cross-purposes. Which is why the game of business is so simple and yet so complex. The dilemmas and paradoxes carefully outlined, every week. The base line reads, "Businessworld ‘Play the game'."

Explains Mitra, "The ad was conceived keeping in mind that Businessworld is perceived to be a quick read and a glossy look at the world of business, at best something to scan during your drive to work. Despite a huge increase in circulation, the issue was it was not being perceived as a serious business magazine."

Thus the objective of the communication was to arrest attention, by appealing to the heads of businesses. From that insight, the agency came out with the creative thought - ‘life and business can be metaphors for each other'. "There are parallels between the two," elaborates Mitra. "If we step out, conceptually, from the present moment and the state we're in, irrespective of how good or bad that is, then we can see the world of business for what it is."

Creative credits for The Dabur Lal Dant Manjan

Creative Director: Radharani Mitra

Creative Team: Sachin Das Burma, Sabuj Sen Gupta

Account Management: Ashish Marwah, Ruchi Sood

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