Nomad Food Project’s new campaign gives a ‘sanskari’ touch to western bacon

After giving the much-western bacon a desi twist through its ‘Bacon Thecha’, Nomad Food Project is now attempting to give bacon (and the brand itself) a ‘sanskari’ look. In its first-ever digital video campaign, the brand has presented the western food product in a more Indianised version.

Nomad Food Project, a new-age food startup that shot to fame after its entry into ‘Shark Tank India’ on Sony Television, has Indianised bacon through its Bacon Thecha. While the pork (meat) may not be popularly known across the country, ‘Thecha’, a traditionally Maharashtrian condiment made of garlic, green chillies and groundnut, brings it closer to home.

The brand also has other bacon products, like Chorizo Jam, Bacon Crack and Bacon Marmalade.

Now, through its ‘Sanskari Bacon Ad’, Nomad Food Project is consciously attempting to familiarise Indians with the foreign food product. The idea is to make bacon look as Indian as possible, and push consumers to integrate it in their Indian meals. The brand, in the ad, also suggests ways in which that can be done.

“We wanted to present bacon in India in a way it's never been done before. So, we presented a desi take on bacon. The meat is a very western concept to the Indian palate. So, we added a ‘sanskari’ touch to it,” says Advaith Inamke, co-founder, Nomad Food Project.

The entire film has been created in-house in a budget of around Rs 15,000. Co-founders Inamke and Aditya Rai wrote the script together. Their friends stepped in to act. It was shot by a videographer friend in a relative’s house in Pune. And, the entire film was shot in just two hours.

“These days, brands spend a lot of their budgets on ads. We wanted to wrap it up in a small budget. So, we called over a couple of friends. They were just excited about having Hindi lines to say,” Inamke mentions.

From the word go, the ad has an Indian touch. Whether it is the cast’s attire, the background music, the props or even the use of Hindi. In fact, bacon is the only English word in the entire script.

The treatment of the film is worth mentioning. With the help of a vintage filter, it has been made to appear like a 1990s Doordarshan ad. What’s more, the ad pays an ode to some popular 90s ad taglines through their dialogues. For example, in an ode to Boost’s popular tagline, the ad ends with the entire cast saying together, ‘Bacon is the secret of our energy’. There’s a similar reference to Complan’s promise of increasing kids’ height.

“We had grown up hearing these dialogues. We just plugged in bacon into them,” Inamke adds.

Inamke says he wanted to replicate the contrast and the drama of the food products in his advertising. “The products are very dramatic and contrasting in taste - pairing bacon with something as spicy as green chilies and garlic. So, we wanted our ads to have that extra dramatic surge. The vintage filter adds to that contrast - a vintage ad presenting a modern bacon.”