For Aamir, it’s 'Ten'da Matlab Coca-Cola

Khan and Coca-Cola have completed 10 years of togetherness. As the ‘perfectionist’ finally features in the Open Happiness commercials for Coke in India, afaqs! explores his journey with the brand over the years

In 1999, when film star Aamir Khan changed his style of acting with ‘Sarfarosh’ and ‘1947-Earth’, little did he know that a soft drink brand was waiting in the wings for the applause to fade, while eyeing him as potential material for a commercial. This, despite the fact that a few years earlier, Khan had been associated with the brand’s arch rival, Pepsi. A commercial for Coca-Cola – our brand in question – followed, which had the romantic Khan in ‘Pyar, Mohabbat, Coca-Cola’, co-starring actor Twinkle Khanna.

What started off as a brief affair has turned into a decade long marriage, with its ups and hiccups - a steady union nevertheless. For Coca-Cola, the journey with its steadfast brand ambassador Aamir Khan has been a long and eventful one. Khan, who was last seen in a Coca-Cola ad extinguishing the pesticide controversy two years ago, was missing in recent pieces of communication including ‘Jashn Mana Le’ (featuring Hrithik Roshan) or even the corporate thought ‘Little Drops of Joy’. Now, he will be spotted in two commercials for Open Happiness – Coke’s global positioning imported to India earlier in 2009.

10 years and counting

This is how it all began. After ‘Pyar Mohabbat, Coca-Cola’ in ‘99, the brand roped in Aishwarya Rai in 2000, along with Khan (incidentally, both earlier associated with the Pepsi ‘Sanjana’ commercial), and the duo created magic with the online dating TVC: Jo Chaho Ho Jaaye, Coca-Cola Enjoy!.

2002 witnessed the birth of the hugely popular series, ‘Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola’, which started off with Khan as a Mumbai ‘Tapori’ asking for his ‘Thanda’ drink at a local eatery. Subsequently, a series of commercials had Khan donning various regional getups and roles, including Akhtar Hyderabadi, a sharp UP-ite (‘Paanch’), a Jatt (Yaara Da Tashan), a Bengali Babu, a Sherpa, and Manno Bhabhi, among others.

The drama continued till 2005, when the playful ‘Thanda’ campaign took a backseat to the solemn Piyo Sar Utha Kar – a brand thought aimed at empowering consumers, with Khan as the man with the message on how the act of consuming a drink is akin to acts which require people to look up with optimism in life. However, the campaign didn’t enjoy the same visibility and patronage as the Thanda one.

“I thought ‘Piyo ...’ could have been a fun, bubbly, youthful campaign if it was done in the Coke tone of voice,” observes Naresh Gupta, executive vice-president, planning, Publicis India. “By making it serious, it went away from category codes and hence, was disconnected from consumers.” Sumanto Chattopadhyay, executive creative director, South Asia, O&M, echoes the same sentiments, saying, “Instead of talking to the youth as one of the youth, it turned a bit holier-than-thou.”

In 2006, the brand veered back to Thanda, although in a different context – Thande Ka Tadka, which had Khan mistaken for a Japanese tourist by a con restaurant owner. The next year had the perfectionist actor playing the role of a train attendant (Sabka Thanda Ek) in an ad which made use of the insight that people burp on consuming soft drinks.

The end of 2007 saw Khan siding with Coca-Cola, addressing the pesticide controversy in the cola category. “That Aamir stood by the brand, without thinking of how it could have hurt his own image, speaks a lot about how good the two are together,” says brand consultant Harish Bijoor, chief executive officer, Harish Bijoor Consults.

After a hiatus of two years, Khan is back for Coke and here’s how.

Opening Happiness

Earlier in 2009, the soft drink major imported its global Open Happiness thought (an extension of the Coke Side of Life), featuring cricketer Gautam Gambhir for the first time. Now, Khan’s contract with the brand has been renewed and the actor’s loyalty comes with a price: according to sources, a whopping sum of Rs 10 crore has been paid to Khan this time around.

The obvious question would be: why was Aamir Khan missing from the introductory ad for Open Happiness?

“Our first creative was about enjoying sports as a game together and hence the Gambhir fit. We didn’t require Aamir for that particular story,” says Kashmira Chadha, director, marketing, Coca-Cola India. Ashish Chakravarty, creative chief, McCann Erickson Delhi (the agency on Coke for the last couple of years), adds, “The Gambhir ad was more of an introduction to the concept. The launch ads are the ones we have released with Aamir now.”

Under the guidance of Prasoon Joshi, executive chairperson and regional creative director, APAC, McCann Erickson and the man behind the big Coca-Cola campaigns, the agency has rolled out two commercials to be aired during the IPL matches – Bike and Chess – under the Open Happiness series.

Bike shows a man bringing home a new bike. As the entire neighbourhood partakes in his happiness, a plump neighbour even test-rides it. Khan plays the role of a narrator/observer, popping a bottle of the soft drink and declaring that whenever one enjoys the simple moments of life, he’ll find a bottle of Coca-Cola around.

The Chess commercial has two old men playing a game, while observers get involved and start siding with the one who’s losing, giving him advice on how to turn the game around. When the loser turns winner (and does an impromptu victory jig), Khan, the messenger, concludes, “Aap Muskurayenge, Bulbuley Gungunayenge.” (When you smile, so do the bubbles in a bottle of Coca-Cola).

Abroad, the interpretation of Open Happiness (OH) is about escapism or fantasy. The Indian take has been tweaked: the way Indians celebrate is different from the way the world celebrates.

Here, it is all about coming together and sharing – before one knows it, personal happiness becomes a whole community’s celebration, as the new bike becomes an event for the neighbourhood to rejoice, or the board game has everyone helping the loser (incidentally, Carrom was the game of choice, but was ruled out because of its association with the Munnabhai movies).

“These insights are uniquely us,” says Chakravarty on the Indian factor and OH. Further, the use of the word ‘Bulbuley’ has a certain sound/expressionism to it, he says, which paints a picture of bubbles singing with joy – an almost poetic point of view for Coke.

The films have been directed by Shoojit Sircar of Rising Sun Films. Five more films in this series featuring Khan will be rolled out in due course of time.

Message in a bubble

Khan is known for playing the central character across the Coke films, to a point where audiences look forward to his next act/getup. The Open Happiness series, however, has Khan more in the background – as a narrator of events and as a messenger of the Happiness story. The McCann team maintains that the first couple of films in the series are more explanatory about the OH concept, and hence the requisite role for Khan.

But some industry observers are ‘openly unhappy’ with the new rendition of Khan in Open Happiness. Gupta of Publicis says that while the ads are nice, “this treatment of Aamir lacks the freshness the earlier ads had.” Further, he feels it was a slip-up to not feature Khan in the earlier OH commercial that had Gambhir.

Chattopadhyay of O&M agrees that Gambhir’s star value cannot be compared to Khan’s. “I suppose this message could have been conveyed with Aamir once again playing a character – that of a senior citizen perhaps – but I guess the ‘masti’ or fun of his role-playing might have over-shadowed the message,” he allows.

His words seem to be rather close to the truth: Chakravarty of McCann admits that the commercials are in the feel-good space, but had they been cheeky or irreverent right away, one wouldn’t have been able to put forth the concept of Open Happiness before consumers. “Aamir carries credibility to the message and his words carry weight. Therefore, he fits in perfectly as a narrator,” shrugs Chakravarty.

‘Happy’ with the advertising?

While some feel the two year break between Coke and Aamir was almost a relief for viewers (and the ads with him therefore look fresher now), there are those that missed him in commercials like Jashn Mana Le. But in all fairness, ‘Thanda’ did raise the bar for Coke, admits Chadha of Coca-Cola India, which can be strenuous to live up to.

Agnello Dias, founder and chief creative officer, TapRoot India, cuts the brand some slack. “Aamir’s association with Coke coincided with his sudden rise as an actor. In fact, during the years when Aamir was a rare bird doing one film a year, it was the ‘Thanda’ campaign that kept his equity alive in the minds of his fans.” So, he concludes, it would be unfair to expect the circumstances, the context as well as the resultant magic to stay unchanged.

Dias is not alone. Bijoor muses that at the age of 44, Khan is past his prime but still constantly reinvents himself, much like Coca-Cola, which has been around for sometime but still stays young. “I think with the renewal of the contract, Aamir will benefit immensely from continuing to associate with a young category such as cola,” he says. Furthermore, he adds that the formula of knitting people together is the right one for the brand.

Finally, Chadha of Coca-Cola India asserts that optimism, happiness and the quality of bringing people together are what Khan brings to the Coke table. Now, it’s all up to consumers to take a swig of the latest Coke-Aamir story.