Jimmy and Jammy have grown up; JimJam's new spots evoke childhood nostaliga, goes beyond being a kid brand

Everyone loves a good heist flick: `The Italian Job’, the `Ocean’s’ series, `Inception’ for Hollywood lovers … `Kaante’ for Bollywood lovers... It’s a fun list of movies to watch. It’ll all leave you with a sly grin on your face.

But if you were a school-going kid during the early 2000s and paid attention to the TV ads, your favourite heist moments, even now, would have come from two boys: Jimmy and Jammy.

The duo conned people out of their JimJam(s), Britannia’s flavoured sandwich biscuits, one advertisement at a time. That creamy vanilla in between two biscuits topped with jam and sugar crystals… heaven. The ads were simple, made you chuckle and, somewhere, you wanted to be them.

While the ads did great, JimJam, over the years, has developed a cult following. Yes, even now when yours truly comes across a JimJam pack on a store shelf, he’s taken back to his school days. Nostalgia is the key USP for JimJam.

So, that’s why we (afaqs!) were quite surprised to see Jimmy and Jammy all grown up in two new spots. Trust me, I felt old seeing the duo all grown up. We couldn’t even recall when we last watched a JimJam ad.

Sambit Mohanty, creative head, McCann South (the agency behind the ads), said that there is a change in the focus from kids to young adults and adults, and hence the grown-up duo.

Actors Kunal Roy Kapoor and Varun Sharma play Jimmy and Jammy in the two ads. And while the duo may have grown up in the JimJam world, they've not given up on their con skills because “Hum JimJam khane ke liye kahin bhi jaa sakte hain.”

Vinay Subramanyam, VP marketing, Britannia, said, “JimJam is one of Britannia’s most iconic biscuit brands. It is a huge favourite in the minds of the consumers and has been an integral part of growing up for most people. Jim Jam reminds us not to grow up too much! Kunal Roy Kapoor and Varun Sharma make their debuts as Jimmy and Jammy. They play the role of two very likeable conmen who can do whatever it takes to get their hands on JimJam. After all, #AnythingForJimJam!”

If you visit the Britannia India website, it says that in 2002, Britannia lovingly baked a Treat for little pranksters. An irresistible range of yummy, creamy biscuits to fuel their tricks. For over a decade, kids have hatched many clever conspiracies to bite into a Treat. Its lip-smacking flavours, cool shapes and soft cream made it famous with the kids and in the market.

The most popular flavour remains the original vanilla one, but there’s more too: Treat Chocolate, Treat Orange and Treat Strawberry.

If only we’d never grown up.

Credits:

Client: Britannia

VP marketing: Vinay Subramanyam

Marketing team: Archana Balaraman, Pawan Jagnik, Dinesh Kumar, Kunal Venkatraman

Agency: McCann Worldgroup, Bangalore

Executive chairman and chief creative officer: Prasoon Joshi

Head of creative: Ashish Chakravarty

Creative head, south: Sambit Mohanty

Executive VP, south: Dileep Ashoka

Creative team: Sambit Mohanty, Ajith Emmanuel, Vaishali Rao, Nilesh Kulkarni, R. Unnikrishnan, Arjun Sharma, Gokul Deep

Account management: Sharon Ann Varghese, Ashwin Rasquinha, Raka Chatterjee, Vivek Ranganathan

Planning: Rasika Fernandes, Hardik Foflia

Films: Karan Prabhakar

Production house: Soda Films

Director: Rajesh Krishnan

Producer: Ameya Dahibhavkar