Wednesday, May 21, 2008

All’s Lite and Diet!

With brands, ad-land goes green too...

It was a couple of years back that Pepsi came out with Diet Pepsi, and while the variant did make news, it did not become a rage overnight. But had the drink been launched in these times (read healthy, as everyone goes Diet and Lite, even airlines, for namesake!), the drink would have sold like hot cakes. But this isn’t about Pepsi’s timing, instead about the latest health obsession of corporates which is rubbing onto the advertising industry as well! Ad-frat is increasingly Tapping into the psyche of this new ‘Health Brigade’ coming out with innovative campaigns with an underlying health message. And there’s a new task at hand – to sell the health quotient. So we have a brand like Dabur coming out with energetic ads for its line of Real Activ fruit juices, Amul launching a low fat bread spread named ‘Amul Lite’ and even a chewing gum – Happydent White – promoting the ‘health’ advantage of chewing gums!

Among all food majors, NestlĂ© seems to be the healthiest of the lot, consistently unleashing new health-related ads. It started off with Maggi’s ‘Veg Atta Noodles’ with a tagline that said ‘Taste Bhi, Health Bhi’; and continued the trend with its 98% fat-free ‘Fresh n’ Natural Dahi’. More recently, they have launched the new ‘Kit Kat Lite’ – with 50% less sugar. Not just these, even 7Up’s mascot, Fido Dido, has switched onto the new 7Up Light.

However, the profitability of these health variants is still to be established. Ad guru, Prahlad Kakar, opines, “These health commercials indulge in ‘tokenism’ creating an impression that everyone benefits from it, whereas in reality, very few people actually do. So if a company says that their ACs kill bacteria and give out fresh air, it may benefit people who use it... but how about the environmental damage caused by these very ACs? Also, while packaged fruit juices may be nutritious, the fact is that they give just around 30% value of a fresh fruit. What we need is more responsible advertising on worthwhile causes.” We couldn’t agree less!

Edit Bureau: Rohan Sachdev

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

An
IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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