Cola War Preview

As the Indo-Pak cricket battle reaches into one-day series mode, the battle on the Cola front continues to heat up with the mercury rising in most parts of India. Cola drink manufacturers are warming up in the ring with new advertising strategies and targeted TV commercials.

• Pepsi’s Oye Bubbly campaign, with animated navels asking for more Pepsi from SRK, already seems to be a major hit among the youth.
• After watching, Coca Cola’s campaign featuring the inimitable Aamir Bhabhi, for a moment I wondered whether Aamir is endorsing Coca Cola as a brand or is Coca Cola endorsing Aamir Khan as a person with great acting skills !
• Thums Up seems to have dumped Salman Khan in favor of Akshay Kumar, whose billboards challenge you with the words – Hai Dum !
• Mountain Dew readily accepted the challenge and as usual came up with a commercial that took a dig at Thums Up by featuring an Akshay Kumar look-alike sliding down the Himalayas (?) and sketching the words ‘Do the Dew’ against the snowy background.
• The campaign I liked the most was the 7-Up qawwali campaign directed by Farah Khan (whose hangover of Main Hoon Na still persists) and created by ad agency J Walter Thompson. It features Yana Gupta and brand-mascot Fido Dido and has a lot of repeat value (Whenever this ad appears, I don’t change TV Channels.)

Unfortunately good advertisements don’t translate into good products or services. I am sure the pesticide scam is still fresh in the mind of an average Indian.

So while it will be interesting to watch which Cola drink, would Indians prefer to guzzle down their throats this summer, I would personally prefer to witness this battle gulping down a bottle of Amul Dudh Cold-drink (Energee) ...

Remember the famous Dudh Campaign that exhorted people to drink milk:

Garmi mein dalo dudh mein ice,
Dudh Ban jaye very nice,
Dudh, Dudh, Dudh, Dudh…. Wonderful Dudh !