Why does Metro Shoes’ new ad tell the story of an inter-faith couple?

Sexagenarian Metro Shoes has a new festive collection. Logic and expectation dictate a splashy ad with an in-your-face-like focus on the new line.

Instead, the 68-year-old brand decided to turn the category codes on its head and tell the story of an inter-faith inter-continental couple for Durga Puja.

The brand and creative agency Talented worked in tandem and stepped into the idea that Indians from most walks of life had walked in a pair or two from Metro Shoes. The brand zeroed in on a brief about the opportunity to take consumers on a journey where they walk into someone else’s shoes.

“Someone who might be on a new life stage experience. What if could be an interfaith intercontinental marriage?” quips Binaifer Dulani, Talented’s founding member, and creative.

She’s the child of an inter-faith marriage and naturally contributed relevant relatable insights to the making of the ad.

So did Talented’s founding partner Prashant Gopalkrishnan who’s in an inter-faith marriage. The ad’s first scene where the lady’s voiceover talks about not taking her husband’s name is the founding partner’s story.

Getting the nuances right was a priority but even a bigger one was to not – even by accident – have a cultural trope in the ad. In this case, it was the Bengali family, and how they talk, appear, and show up.

The ad was shot in Kolkata instead of a set in Mumbai because “you will never get the culture of the place right… You will always be looking through the eyes of somebody who's not native into that place,” remarks Gopalakrishnan. He says a lot of inputs came from the crew of the production house Little Giant Films too.

Because such an idea is not the usual kick a footwear brand ad has to offer, translating it to the stakeholders so that the final version offered is something everyone agrees to must have been quite the challenge.

“When we were writing the film, we were clear we did not want to alienate anyone who does not know or subscribe to Kolkata or Bengali. It is a film for a progressive India. It needs to speak to everyone,” remarks Sandipan Deb, a creative at Talented.

Unfortunately, such campaigns are not the usual bread and butter for a brand, it is the in-your-face CTA now kind of ads.

“A brand needs both,” quips Dulani and says it is absolutely needed for us to do communication that is extremely CTA-led and sizzles around new collections because they are very important for the business.

There is a 15-second cut of the main ad on Metro Shoes’ YouTube channel. While yours truly is not a huge fan of it, Gopalkrishnan reveals it was a precursor to the main ad.

Dulani believes each story deserves its own treatement and while some work best in short-videos “some stories cannot come down to 30 or 15 seconds.”

A refreshing ad this was indeed but would Talented have considered a celebrity? Says Dulani, “I think a lot of times a celebrity can do justice to a campaign" and harks the agency's recent work for Goibibo starring actress Kareena Kapoor and her character Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.