New Delhi: A new Cadbury ad, wishing luck to the Indian women’s cricket team, has become a huge hit online for being a charming modern reboot of a famous 1990s campaign.
The campaign is based on the iconic 1993 ‘Asli Swaad Zindagi ka‘ ad, in which a male cricketer hits a century, following which a girl runs towards the field, dodges on-ground security, and breaks into a jig with abandon.
In sync with the times, the new ad reverses the roles. Instead of the man doing the six-hitting and the woman cheering him on from the crowd, now a man comes dancing on to the field during a women’s cricket match after a batter hits a six. The ad concludes with #GoodLuckGirls to wish the Indian women’s cricket team ahead of their ODI series with Australia that begins on 21 September.
It’s a powerful image and has become quite a talking point on social media. Users are spreading the word and sharing the video, talking of the ad’s women empowerment message and gushing about its nostalgia value.
Oh wow!! Take a bow, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Ogilvy 🙂 A simple, obvious twist that was long overdue, and staring right at all of us all this while! pic.twitter.com/Urq8NXtg7W
— Karthik ?? (@beastoftraal) September 17, 2021
Join Cadbury Dairy Milk in celebrating and cheering for our girls who are making spectacular success stories and emerging as powerful role models for the youth.#CadburyDairyMilk #GoodLuckGirls #KuchAchhaHoJaayeKuchMeethaHoJaaye pic.twitter.com/b0g4dRo9DJ
— Cadbury Dairy Milk (@DairyMilkIn) September 17, 2021
The ad retains its 1990s vibe by using the same background score, and matching the choreography step by step. And people seem to have connected with it, just as strongly as they did 28 years ago.
If there's one thing you do, it should be to watch this
Cadbury Dairy Milk wishes #GoodLuckGirls to all those hitting it out of the park
https://t.co/HDB2kTUmDF— Rana Safvi رعنا राना (@iamrana) September 17, 2021
The new Cadbury's dairy milk ad manages to be nostalgic and modern. Clever idea. Reinvent the wheel, but only slightly. https://t.co/nMt1mQwF2n
— Brown Sahiba (@Rajyasree) September 17, 2021
Swagata Banerjee (Creative Director) and Samyu Murali (Art Director) are the lead creatives of Ogilvy on the 2021 campaign. Veteran ad man Piyush Pandey had scripted the original ad released in 1993.
Pandey, Ogilvy’s chairman global creative and executive chairman for India, believes it was an act of courage by Cadbury as a client to attempt to rework such a successful ad film.
“It needed a brave client back in 1993 to go ahead with the original Cadbury cricket film that became so popular. It needed an even braver client to attempt something with an iconic film and make magic out of it. I am delighted that the team at Mondelez and at Ogilvy has made this magic, made it relevant, exciting and so did Cadbury, in its bold and front foot fashion,” he said in a press release.
Sukesh, Harshad and Kainath, chief creative officers at Ogilvy, said in a joint statement: “The excitement and the stress in our heads were competing with each other. To recreate such a big hit is like setting yourself up for a million opinions. The only reason we went ahead was it felt right and it felt awesome. We loved the idea from our gut. Luckily, so did the client. Hats off to the all-girls team who thought of it and hats off to Bob from Good Morning Films for making it so well.”
Anil Viswanathan, senior director (marketing) at Mondelez India, said: “From acing in the corporate world to winning Olympic medals, women are at the forefront of creating new milestones every single day, and our film is an ode to each one of them. As a brand that has always promoted gender inclusivity, contemporising an iconic campaign is our way of recognising the changing times and extending support to all the women trailblazers.”
This is not the first time the Cadbury ad was re-created though. As part of their campaign ’90s ka nostalgia, 90s ke prices’, Uber Eats had also paid homage to the classic ad.
(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)
(This report has been updated with a quote from Mondelez’s Anil Viswanathan)
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