Amul Macho ad "not so obscene": ASCI

The controversial Amul Macho TVC has been given the green signal by the ASCI. The agency and the client are wasting no time – they are already planning a sequel to the ad

Executives at Amul Macho can heave a sigh of relief. The Advertising Standards Councils of India (ASCI) has turned down a complaint about the Amul Macho ‘Crafted for Fantasies’ TVC being ‘indecent’ and ‘obscene’. If the complaint had been upheld, the ad would have been in violation of the ASCI code.

After reviewing the complaint and evaluating options, ASCI’s Consumer Complaint Cell (CCC) has given the ad the go-ahead. A letter from ASCI to Amul Macho executives and the agency on the account, Saints & Warriors, says, “As per their (CCC’s) decision, the complaint has not been upheld. The CCC concluded that the advertisement was not so obscene as to give rise to grave or widespread offence.”

Pushpinder Singh

Pushpinder Singh aka Pushpi, the founder of Saints & Warriors and the man behind the idea, is having the last laugh. “Even when the ASCI issue cropped up, we were quite certain that a fair decision would be taken,” he says. His conviction stemmed from his belief that the ad had been received well, proof of which lay in steadily increasing sales for the brand since the release of the ad. “People wouldn’t have bought the product if the ad was vulgar in any way,” he asserts. Further, the ad evoked extreme reactions on a poll conducted by a show on CNBC-TV18. “The ad did its job,” deduces Pushpi. The ad is likely to air for another month. Pushpi is hoping to get the commercial on Doordarshan soon, which will enable Amul Macho to target its core TG: men residing in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

What’s interesting is that a sequel to this ad is in the pipeline. Reveals Sandeep Sakseria, director, Amul Innerwear, “This sequel will make use of the same ‘Crafted for Fantasies’ idea, except that it will be one up on that. We will unleash it on television screens around Diwali.”

Sakseria is pleased with the fact that “the eminent persons at ASCI saw the merit in the idea”. According to him, the ad has been seen at least seven times by C&S viewers, 12+, all-India.

Saints & Warriors won the Amul Macho account about six months ago, armed with ideas to make the communication for the brand clutter-breaking. The ad in question has a newly wed woman entering a ‘dhobi ghat’ (a place where clothes are washed, generally near the banks of a water body), as other women eye her curiously.

Regardless of their stares, the woman opens up her bundle of clothes and pulls out the first garment – Amul Macho innerwear belonging to her husband. She then starts brushing it, and through her expressions, it is clear that she fancies that the man is still wearing it. The women surrounding her are also taken in by her fantasy, so much so that when she raises a bat-like object (used to thrash the dirt out of clothes), the women wince at the thought of the ‘man’ being thrashed like that. The ad ends with the young woman stretching the underwear in her hands, while the super and voiceover conclude, ‘Amul Macho. Crafted for Fantasies’.

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