The house of GIANT mangoes

Remember the days when a girl twirling around in her spotless white frock with a bunch ladies crooning ‘Washing powder Nirma, Washing powder Nirma’ in the background made memorable advertising and sold tonnes of detergent?

A large chunk of brands that Gen Y (people born in the 80’s and early 90’s) grew up with developed a distinct personality using just one tool from the marketing armoury – good ol’ advertising. There was Britannia with its ‘Tink tink ti tink’ , ThumsUp asking us to taste its thunder, Maggi that could be had in ‘Just 2 minutes’, or Cinkara that could revive any ‘bechara, kaam ke bojh ka maara’.

Cut now to the present, where marketers are FAR better equipped to attack the simpering targets – you and me. Behind every tree, bush and mouse click are brands waiting to ambush us with pop up ads online to ad flyers with our credit card statements to free cookies, complimentary shampoo sessions and foot massages at malls to Hrithik Roshan wanting to drink only Bournvita in his super hero blockbuster ‘Krissh’ (which, by the way had 36 other brands that were peddled by our masked super hero!!).

Hey, but this isn’t really news to any of us, right? Spot on.

What ‘I sighted’ today was a crazy blend of the 80’s and 90’s delivered in typical post millennial fashion. Frooti (yes, yes, you’re now humming ‘Mango Frooti, Fresh and Juicy’ in your head) just launched their new TV commercial with a complete guerilla approach to the whole affair.

Taking a leaf out of reality TV, dozens of unsuspecting passersby were ambushed (yes, again) by giant, 9 foot high mangoes falling from trees right at their feet. The looks of shock / surprise / nonchalance (!) recorded using 8 hidden cameras, and each episode integrated seamlessly to form one whacky ad. No script, no models, no tall tales, just pure mango pleasure (as Frooti’s competitor would’ve said). 

Check out this link to see the actual commercial: Frooti goes guerilla! 

Really smart combination of old world TV advertising with the flavour of the season; spy cams; to communicate the brand essence ‘surprisingly juicy mango juice – Frooti’.

So if you thought hidden cams in changing rooms were your only worry, think again, you might just unwittingly star in “Attack of the killer mangoes – Episode 2”.