Kinetic: Taking ‘panga’ with pink

Kinetic is out with a commercial for Flyte, it’s scooter range for women, and the ad blatantly targets rival TVS Scoopy Pep’s ‘pink’ positioning of not too long ago

Pink may be Aerosmith’s favourite colour, but it’s definitely not the flavour of the season with Publicis Ambience. The agency has just released the launch ad for Kinetic SYM Flyte, a new women’s scooter range, and its communication directly targets that of its rival, the TVS Scooty Pep.

You may recall the commercial for Scooty Pep released in mid-2006, featuring brand ambassador Preity Zinta driving to college on a pink TVS Scooty Pep. A group of boys point to the pink (a ‘girly’ colour) scooter and try to pick on her, telling her that black is the ‘in’ colour and she must wear black from then on. Later, the boys find out that Zinta is their teacher, and as she punishes them in class, she speaks into the camera, “Pink se panga mat lena (Never challenge pink).” The ad was such a hit that Scooty Pep even launched a new variant, the Pink Scooty Pep Plus.

Even though Scooty Pep has now shed its bubbly pink premise in advertising for a more sober, mature one, arch rival Kinetic has decided to take TVS down memory lane – the Flyte ad trashes the ‘pink’ concept rather blatantly.

The ad, created by Publicis Ambience, features brand ambassador Bipasha Basu (Kinetic’s answer to the Scooty-Zinta partnership). The TVC shows women in a factory, dolled up in pink costumes, singing a jingle, “We’re bubbly like our scooters, we’re girly like our scooters.” The women even wear pink makeup and climb onto homogeneous pink scooters in an almost robotic way. Enter Basu, who pulls out the electrical wires of the place, creating havoc. She then explains that today’s girls aren’t delicate and girly like dolls, but instead are smart and confident.

As the women struggle to regain their balance, Basu vrooms out of the crumbling factory on her Flyte, saying that her vehicle is smart and confident, not bubbly. To conclude, she asks the viewer if she is ready to ride the change. (Submit your opinion on this ad.)

Prasanna Sankhe, national creative director, Publicis Ambience, says candidly that the Kinetic ad is indeed a potshot at Scooty Pep’s erstwhile positioning. “Bipasha represents the confident, ambitious, smart and bold girl of today,” he says, and adds that girls are no longer stereotypically cute and delicate. “Our film is a statement on Scooty, as we question the very premise of a girl being of a certain type,” he says.

Shivpad Ray, assistant general manager, marketing, Kinetic, says, “Research showed that women don’t want to be cute, bubbly any more… they want to go beyond the conventional and in Bipasha, we found that woman.” In fact, with Flyte’s alleged superior features, Ray hopes that the scooter will soon become for women what a Dhoom bike is for men.

Kinetic Flyte targets SEC A girls aged 18-23. “Our ad is a reflection of the change in the way girls in this age bracket think,” says Ray.

It is interesting to note what Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann-Erickson India, and regional creative director for South and South East Asia, has to say on the matter. (McCann handles TVS Scooty Pep and was responsible for the Zinta ads). Joshi says, “Well, any statement made on our brand by another is quite flattering to begin with, even as we have moved out of the cute, bubbly area of branding.”

Joshi doesn’t shy away from saying that if a woman wanted a more ambitious, macho machine, then she would head straight for a men’s bike brand.

While the battle of the sexes has been a debatable topic as old as mankind itself (call it womankind, if you must!), the battle of the two competing brands has just been announced. Only time will tell which brand emerges in the ‘pink’ of health.