I just watched the latest advertisement for Cadbury Five Star - Do Nothing. Surprisingly Cadbury has taken irrelevance and being in-the-face to the next level!
Sad to think that this is the brand that gave us some memorable advertising campaigns like Cadbury Cricket. The advertisement starts with an old lady on a bench. Just a few feet away is an upstart youngster nonchalantly eating a Cadbury Five Star.
The old lady's walking stick falls on the ground, and she asks the youngster to pick it up. The youngster responds 'yes Maa Ji" AND DOES NOTHING.
The old lady resignedly gets up walks to the stick and picks it up. A large piano crashes and hits the bench that the lady was occupying JUST SECONDS BEFORE! The bench is blown to smithereens.
The old lady is shell shocked — the thought "what if" races in her mind. "I could have died". She looks admiringly at the youngster and says "thank you beta, For doing NOTHING."
The youngster breaks out into a smile " you are most welcome" is his cheeky reply.
I am surprised and mildly shocked. Cadbury is mocking the tradition of respecting and helping elders. And it is glorifying, condoning, justifying and even rationalizing the act. It is saying that if the youngster had helped the old lady, she would have died. This is absurdly twisted logic.
Wish Cadbury came out with a better campaign. Doing nothing and consuming Cadbury is a great concept. You don't need a reason to eat Cadbury. Brilliant idea, Eat Cadbury -Chumma or like they say in Tamil Simply like that. But the execution stinks to high heaven.
Hallmark Greeting Card Company had popularized the concept of No Occasion Day. On that day people sent each other cards chumma simply, in other words just like that!
Come on, Cadbury. You have a harrowed reputation to protect. Don't sully it with such advertisements. Give us campaigns that we are proud of and which we show in our classrooms to inspire youngsters to take up marketing/ advertising as a career. Not campaigns that mock our traditions and values.
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