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Ogilvy in Kolkata: A tour of its festive work

A look at five pujo campaigns from the WPP-owned advertising giant which stood out.

Most creative folk and advertisers in Kolkata reserve their best work for pujo. Many stand out in the crowd of print, outdoor, and television, and some take a different route altogether. Amongst the bay of agencies squabbling for space, here is a look at five campaigns from Ogilvy Kolkata.

KFC

The original fried chicken wanted to be a part of an authentic Bengali celebration. What happened? Short digital films, no longer than 25 seconds, told stories of friends who bonded over Pujo moments and buckets of KFC.

The message? There is no shortcut when it comes to celebrating Pujo in all its glory. Just as there can be no shortcut when it comes to preparing fried chicken by KFC. They are both authentic and uncompromising.

Pantaloons

Every year, Pantaloons tells a human story around Pujo and pays its usual tributes to families, friends or neighbours. While there was nothing wrong with these little slices of life, the set format of storytelling was beginning to alienate the younger generation.

That’s why, this year, Pantaloons chose to let its hair down and own a different language. A language peppered with hip-hop, the language that the youth relates to. The recently launched Pantaloons film celebrates non-stop pandal hopping and Pujo shopping.

Coke

Coke’s participation in Sharodiya festivities was doubly significant this year. After all, it was all set to launch its internationally renowned ‘is cooking’ platform in India.

The need of the hour was a milestone that would immortalise the pairing of Coke and food for the days to come. That’s when the idea of designing the Pet Pujor Pandal and unique packaging for this year’s Durga Puja came into being.

The Pet Pujor Pandal played host to more than 40 celebrated restaurants in Kolkata. All possible cuisines that Bengalis are known to relish were brought under one roof. But such a feast would be incomplete without music. That’s when Coke Studio Bangla entered the scene, along with a handpicked pantheon of Indian musical divinities, like Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Shreya Ghoshal and Fossils.

Asian Paints Sharad Shamman

This year’s Sharad Shamman film pays a musical tribute to the changing tones of Sharodiya. The film opens in the 80s, marked by retro music, complete with disco riffs and octa-pad beats. Likewise, we get a glimpse of the 90s with pop-rock signatures of the times. The song progresses into the 2000s, with the first flushes of electronica.

Each decade is represented by an Asian Paints can of the times. The message at the end of the film is quite clear. While styles and customs change, Sharodiya sentiments remain the same. It is this sentiment that has earned a place for itself in world history.

Cadbury Celebrations

Every year during Durga Pujo, the streets of Kolkata drown in a cacophony of brand voices. The sheer volume of billboards and banners smudge the skyline out of sight. But let Nabami arrive, and you will see most brands taking down their communication, leaving the city to cope with Dashami blues.

Cadbury decided to respond to Dashami blues by painting the city purple. Instead of taking out ad spaces from Shoshti to Nabami, Cadbury Celebrations has reserved hoarding spaces for the day of Dashami. Why? So that Bengal can take heart at the end of its most anticipated festival.

Through the course of short films and copy-led hoardings, the campaign urges Bengal to resolve differences between opposites – a fan of Mohun Bagan and a devotee of East Bengal, an irritable old man and precocious neighbourhood boys, a high-ranking officer and a junior constable

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