Desi cool

‘‘Today’s kids are tired of being kicked around for being Indian,’’ says ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar, ‘‘In my time, we all went to convent school and spoke in English and cringed when we had to speak Hindi, even if it was our mother tongue. All that has obviously changed.’’

That is why Pepsi, a brand Kakkar has been associated with for more than a decade, replaced the yuppy Yehi Hai Right Choice, Baby with the more heartfelt Yeh Dil Mange More. The copy stuck to the Hindi-English combination made popular in the early ’90s by the Mudra campaign Humko Binny’s Mangta, but the emotion was more basic.

Rival Coca-Cola, too, has gone the desi way, from the Coca-Cola Enjoy line of the early ’90s to Thanda matlab…, with its heavy Indian fizz now. Explains Prasoon Joshi, National Creative Director, McCann Erickson India, which handles the Coke account, ‘‘Indians are more confident of their own language, customs and traditions now. English has become a boardroom language, while Hindi is the language of the heart.’’

Abhijit Avasthi, Generation X’s golden boy and Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather, however, believes that ‘‘as long as you connect well and tell the consumer about the product, the language doesn’t matter.’’ At the same time, he admits clients have finally rid themselves of the colonial mentality that English is the language of the people.

Interestingly, Indian advertising’s grand-daddy Alyque Padamsee, while acknowledging that television and Bollywood have created a win-win situation for Hindi supremacy, says that language ads work only if the products are Indian. That he is slightly off the mark is evident from the popularity of the Chlor Mint (a Perfetti brand) television commercial. The site agency-faqs.com’s advertising section, for instance, is heavy on positive feedback for the all-Hindi McCann Erickson ad, which shows a local paanwala looming over a wet-behind-the-ears customer who dares to ask, ‘Hum Chlor Mint kyun khate hain?’

It was this same target audience which once needed a subtler yet powerful approach to Hindi. Rewind to 1994-95, when MTV piggybacked into India on the then DD bandwagon. ‘‘We launched and soon realised it was a Western beam targeted at an Indian audience,’’ says Cyrus Oshidar, Vice-President, Creative, MTV.

‘‘We knew we couldn’t build brand loyalty in that format, so we changed the language and made the colours more chatak (brighter) in a year.’’ Today, 70 per cent of MTV caters to its Hindi audience and a measly 30 per cent to the English segment.

As a switch it might have been revolutionary, but long before Fully Faltu — in fact, way back in the ’50s, as Padamsee points out — Lintas copywriter Balwant Tandon created the hugely successful Dalda ad with the tag line ‘Mamta ki kasauti par khara (tested on mother’s love)’. Tandon went on to create many Hindi ads, and proved to be something of a role model for later generations.

‘‘Every man and his dog is talking about Hindiisation, but we did it 10 years ago,’’ protests Jude Fernandes, president of Mudra, Mumbai, referring to the Binny’s ad. ‘‘In fact, we have a policy of recruiting bilingual creative personnel. We need to think and feel in the local language. That is why most of McDonald’s campaigns have been conceived and executed in Hindi.’’

Which is all very pious. But marketing professionals are quick to admit that it was the sudden rush of a global positive-feel for India — thanks to successive international beauty crowns and the near-misses at the Oscars — that has given Hindi its acceptability. ‘‘Though I don’t agree there’s a wholesale trend in Hindiisation, the fact that we have gained acceptance abroad has made Hindi hipper,’’ says Sanjay Sippy, Creative Director, Grey Worldwide.

It also helped clients shed inhibitions about the language. ‘‘If it’s a mass brand for India, (it makes sense) to connect to real life situations set here,’’ says Yubaraj Bhattacharya, group Accounts Director of the agency Leo Burnett, responsible for bringing Pillsbury atta, Tide and Fiat into your drawing room. ‘‘In these cases, an international situation doesn’t work, even if the brand is international.’’

The reason for the late homecoming is also due to the fact that foreign brands have been wary of investing ad spends on local advertising. ‘‘The test launch phase has ended and now the brands want to flourish, so they do everything it takes to get the big pie,’’ adds Agnello Diaz, Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett.

Finding a platform for the ads was no problem at all, for alongside, television had seen an exponential boom in Hindi programming. ‘‘Hindi has always dominated ad revenues because of its huge reach,’’ says G Krishnan, CEO, Aaj Tak and Living Media. ‘‘Aaj Tak has a reach of 19 million (according to TAM week ending December 7), which implies a higher sales-trial ration for the advertiser. The channel has proved to be a cost-effective medium for advertisers and many print advertisers have moved to the electronic medium after advertising on Aaj Tak.’’

Nor is the boom limited to the visual media. Many popular Hindi newspapers and newsmagazines have increased the number of their live editions in the recent past. ‘‘This has fuelled the media planners’ need to expand the range of Hindi ads in the print medium,’’ says Ramesh Narayan, chairman of the planning committee, Ad Asia 2003 and chairman, ABBY Awards Committee.

Also, print has been accused of being partisan to English. But as Balakrishnan (Balki to the fraternity), national Creative Head, Lowe, insists, there is a lot of Hindi advertising in the English print medium too, stating the example of big brands such as Bajaj that do not go without Hamara, making Hindi an integral part of the campaign.

In fact, it is when ad campaigns have tried to cash in on the Hindi boom without going all out that the effort has fallen flat. The Nokia ad featuring a mobile-wielding dog turning into a handsome man is a case in point. ‘‘It’s a forced effort,’’ says Avasthi. ‘‘I’m not in favour of translation because it is essential to both conceptualise and execute in Hindi.’’ According to Bhattacharya, India is one of the few countries regarded as a unique part of Asia for international products.

Well, as the saying goes, it happens only in India. Kya bolti tu?