Slice-of-life: Advertising idea or executional trap? - Part II

(Continued from yesterday)

There certainly appears to be a consensus emerging from within the industry that slice-of-life, as a genre, is being done to death. "Slice-of-life has been extremely overused in Indian advertising," agrees Sumo (Sumanto Chattopadhyay, creative director, O&M India). "Clients somehow believe that more people will buy the product if you show more people consuming the product. But the story of one person's interaction with a brand can be as universal. Take the Pfizer films from last year. You can relate to those films even if you are not an elderly person."

"Wasted advertising" is how Rajeev Raja, executive creative director, Bates India, and Adrian Mendonza, vice-president & executive creative director, Rediffusion DY&R, see a lot of slice-of-life campaigns. "I don't think a lot of it washes with the consumer because first of all she has to remember the ad. Now she has seen these images a thousand times over, so what brand will she remember?" Raja questions the wisdom. "Spending so much money just to show x number of people consuming your brand is foolhardy," says Mendonza. "It cuts no ice with the consumer, and if at all the advertising works, it's only a function of media visibility and spends."

Slice-of-life, per se, is not a bad thing. Not always. "The treatment is justified in certain cases, when the brand has the kind of scale and there is a central theme or idea to the communication," Raja says, citing the ‘Desh ka Namak' campaign that Bates created last year for Tata Salt. "The theme we had was that of honesty and integrity that people of India display in their daily lives, and we linked it to "desh ka namak khaana". The campaign was slice-of-life, but was true to the brand theme." Mendonza too agrees that any slice-of-life campaign has to have an idea. "I think the ICICI Prudential Life Insurance campaign (‘sindoor') was also slice-of-life, but it touched the consumer by using sindoor as a metaphor for protection," he says. "I think that tied in very well with a concept such as life insurance."

Fundamentally, slice-of-life is nothing more than an executional device. But one that "often overtakes the idea, which makes slice-of-life a trap", feels Rohit Srivastava, senior vice-president - strategic planning, Contract Advertising. "It all depends on whether the rest of the thinking is in place, and whether the strategy has been clearly detailed." He uses the legendary ‘Hamaara Bajaj' campaign (the granddad of them all) and the Cadbury Dairy Milk commercial (‘kuchh swaad hai…') to make his point.

"Bajaj made a definitive statement about an Indian brand in an environment where competition from MNC brands was moving in. When Bajaj said ‘We know India', it was in a specific context. Similarly, CDM made a clear point about chocolates being all about letting your inhibitions go. Both were slice-of-life, but both had specific connects to the brand, the proposition and the consumer." What follows is that slice-of-life cannot be the strategy. The problem, however, is when clients and agencies allow the execution to overtake the idea. "When that happens, you get some good images overlaid with some music, but there's no point to any of it, so all you have is a blur of images," Srivastava says. "Slice-of-life, like claymation, humour and long copy, has problems pertaining to execution, but what makes slice-of-life more dangerous is that it's an easy crutch."

Now we're getting somewhere. A crutch? For whom? Well, the client… and the agency. "Clients are very comfortable doing montage films as it's an easy way out," Sumo is blunt. "You know these kind of films usually span all your markets and target audiences, so this way you cover all your bases." The fact that these commercials often appeal to the lowest common denominator also ensures that they come through research and pre-testing without too many knocks. "Now tell me why wouldn't the client be pleased?" Sumo asks.

For that matter, why wouldn't the agency? Raja, who insists on calling such advertising "lazy", puts the onus on the agency. "Agencies are not trying hard enough to fend off ‘anthem advertising'," he says. "It's the easiest thing that goes in the garb of an idea." He adds with a laugh, "Of course, if a client insists on such advertising, he deserves it, so give it to him."

Why a client would insist on slice-of-life isn't easily answered, but the genre has its merits. "It's easy to buy and difficult to find fault with," Srivastava shrugs. "It comes in handy in large organisations as it carries everybody and every opinion along, and hierarchies are not ruffled." And boats are not rocked. "I agree it's a non-controversial and safe option," Mendonza nods. "It certainly works well in places where creativity is approved by a committee." © 2003 agencyfaqs!