McDowell’s No.1 belts out a song and dance number among friends to urge folks to get the jab

“Ek ek ho jaaye, yaaron ke liye,” croons singer Abhishek Naliwal for McDowell’s No.1’s new campaign. McDowell’s No.1 is Diageo’s whisky brand.

While the “Ek ek” would allude to a drink on most days, this time, it is for the Coronavirus jab. The quicker the people are vaccinated, the more protected they become and can look forward to getting back to their old lives.

It is interesting to see an alcoholic beverage brand come forward and urge people to get vaccinated after we’ve been recommended to stay off the drink for a while post getting jabbed.

Pay attention to the lyrics and you will catch the pattern - they’re all references to memorable antics we’ve pulled on our friends from time to time. Amitabh Bhattacharya wrote the lyrics for the campaign and DDB Mudra Group made the ad.

The new music video is an extension of McDowell’s No. 1’s long-standing positioning around ‘yaari’, or friendship. It was in 2014 when the brand released a seven-minute-long film, a story of three friends, and Mohit Chauhan lent his voice to the ‘No.1 Yaari’ track.

The repositioning of the beverage through the 2014 campaign was to make it a drink that's consumed with your friends and rechristen the spirit of friendship as the spirit of brotherhood.

Amarpreet Singh Anand, executive vice president and portfolio head, marketing, Diageo India, said, “The world today is all about digital connections. We’ve lost the pleasures of real-world connections. Friendship Day is an excellent opportunity to remind people that the physical connections we missed over the last couple of years can be made possible only if everyone in their circle gets their jabs, thus, paving way for #YaariKaComeback”

“McDowell’s No.1 Soda has been an enabler of friendships for the longest time, and this fun song is the best way we could think of encouraging friends to come together and take a jab.”

Rahul Mathew, chief creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group, added, “We’re all living our friendships in the past. The fun we used to have, how we used to meet, the masti, the emotions… we’re missing it. And a day like Friendship Day will just accentuate this feeling for all of us. So, we thought it was a good time to remind everyone that life and friendships can only get normal when all of us get our shots.”

CREDITS

Creative: Rahul Mathew, Pallavi Chakravarti, Vinay Singh, Tushar Sawant, Yashima Yadav

Strategy: Amit Kekre, Ketan Rambhia

Business: Sujay Ghosh, Shikha Davessar, Kanchan Mittal, Alistair Saldanha

Films: Reema Asrani

Director: Mayank Yadav

Production team: Ketaki Guhagarkar Surve, Amol Vaingankar, Karnika Amin

Production house: Bubblewrap Films

Lyricist: Amitabh Bhattacharya

Music: Sameer Uddin

Singer: Abhishek Nailwal