Raahil’s blog: Let the actors do the acting and leave the cricket for the cricketers

On 19 April, Hindware rolled out an ad campaign conceptualised by Mullen Lintas consisting of four films to highlight its association with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Punjab Kings.

 

Through two films with each of the teams and the players, the idea is to push the message of Hindware producing 5-star hotels like bathrooms in regular households.

 

The films for Punjab Kings feature Arshdeep Singh and Rahul Chahar visiting Shikhar Dhawan’s house, while the RCB films feature Glen Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj visiting Virat Kohli’s house. Singh, Chahar, Maxwell, and Siraj are left mesmerised by the Hindware products and forget they’re in a house. They think they have checked into a 5-star hotel and use the cordless handsets to fulfil a request each.

 

Now, to the problems I had with this campaign (if you haven't guessed them already):

 

1: Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan are likely to have homes that are like 5-stars and the staff to match.

 

2: The acting of the players. No wonder Aamir Khan, R Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi are upset about cricketers turning actors in these ad films.

 

3: Who are the cricketers calling using the phones in the bathrooms? Is it a central line that is answered by Dhawan and Kohli respectively?

 

A question I pose for readers.

 

Wouldn’t this ad film do better if cricketers, especially the likes who are likely to have 5-star homes, weren’t used?

 

Regular actors who would have regular households would probably work better for me.

 

(The author is managing editor, Campaign India.)