Aishwarya Ramesh
Advertising

Cadbury 5 star asks viewers to do nothing again, in a new ad

It features employees working overtime, and subtly references those who try to 'butter up' their bosses to get ahead.

In India, working late is viewed as a sure-shot way of impressing your boss. This is what Cadbury 5 Star's newest ad references. There are three coworkers working late, but one of them is too lost in his 5 Star bar to pretend to laugh at his boss' jokes.

The clock has already struck 11:15 p.m., and our protagonist, who is eating 5 Star, is the only one who isn't laughing. He looks at his boss, with no particular expression on his face as he munches on his 5 Star bar.

Though his boss perceives it as nonchalance, the protagonist is caught up with the flavours of his 5 Star. This isn't the first time the brand has used the concept of the protagonist being 'preoccupied' with flavour, to the extent of forgetting the world around him.

The new ad features the same protagonist from the previous ad. The previous 50-second film builds on the '5 Star khao, kho jao' narrative used by the brand in its iconic campaign featuring 'Ramesh' and 'Suresh'.

The film opens with an old woman asking the protagonist – a young lad – to pick up her walking stick that's fallen on the road while she is sitting on a roadside bench.

The protagonist in this film, who is also lost in the chocolate bar, responds with 'Ji Maaji', but does not move away from the pillar he is leaning on, still lost in the flavours. As the woman gets up to pick the stick herself, a grand piano falls at the very spot she was sitting at. Giving it a quirky touch, the lady thanks the protagonist for not doing anything.

In the recent past, we've seen the theme of employees of a company cosying up to bosses in ads by companies like upGrad.

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