Dettol’s new ad campaign for its antiseptic liquid has quickly become a talking point on social media. All thanks to a four-year-old boy.
The commercial is built on a simple, emotion-driven narrative. It correlates Dettol with the universal instinct of a mother’s care. And, it centres on the idea: “Nothing protects like Mom & Dettol.”
However, this isn’t something new. ‘Mom & Dettol’ is the brand’s long-standing messaging. But, what could have been just another Dettol Antiseptic Liquid commercial has struck a chord with the audience. Not because of a monologue, music, or the mother. It is the silent pain of a four-year-old that has left the internet teary-eyed. His performance has captured attention online.
The ad film, directed by Amit Sharma and conceptualised and written by Prasoon Joshi, is set against the chaos of a wedding, where Delhi-based child actor Avyaan Sapra brings an emotional depth to the story. His character, while running around, takes a fall but quickly brushes it off, insisting that he is fine in front of others. For the next few seconds, he is seen looking for his mother.
And, as she gently tends to his wound, his brave facade begins to fade. His eyes well up, yet he continues to reassure her that he is alright. And, the background track, sung by Javed Ali, adds more weight to the emotions. This moment resonated with viewers, many of whom shared in the comment section how emotional the commercial made them.
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The art of emotional storytelling
There is something almost unfair about emotional storytelling in advertising. It works almost every single time.
The Dettol ad is simple, there is no flashy plot twist or over-messaging. Just a child and his raw emotions. And somewhere in that honesty, the brand quietly slips into your subconscious. But this isn’t the first time. We have seen this in the past.
For instance, Fortune’s Ghar Ka Khana ad shows an old woman repeatedly trying to feed her hospitalised son home-cooked food, but failing because of hospital protocol. Then there is Dominos’ #MaaNahiBhoolti where a son drops his mother at an old age home, assuring her that he will regularly call and visit. Days pass, she repeatedly asks the caretaker, but is always left disappointed. In both these ads, the audience empathises with the old women and their emotions. Today, both commercials aren’t remembered for the brand or the product, they are remembered for their emotional storytelling.
But this kind of storytelling has its difficulties as well. It demands a little control or restraint because the moment it tries too hard, it risks falling into the category of cliche. The Dettol film, like the ones mentioned above, works because it trusts its audience to feel, without spelling everything out.
The biggest strength of this storytelling is that it gives hope for long-form advertisements, which nowadays are restricted to 30 to 60 seconds. In a time when audiences’ attention spans are shrinking, they work as a pause button. After all, algorithms can push content, but they cannot manufacture raw emotions.
Brand: Dettol
Agency: Chrome Pictures
Director: Amit Sharma
Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)