What the ad fraternity likes the most about Parachute Advansed’s latest ad

Parachute Advansed, the premium hair nourishment brand from Marico Ltd, aims to forge a deeper connect with women through its new, distinctive TVC campaign – Mere Baal, Meri Jaan. Conceptualised by team WPP, the TVC builds on modern beauty imagery while using real-life instances, where hair is fundamental to the expression of a woman’s emotions and frame of mind. 

The film plays alongside the background score of ‘Ae Dil Ae Nadan’, sung by Lata Mangeshkar for the film ‘Razia Sultan’. The ad film features heartwarming scenes that depict several women for whom hair symbolises their resilience, love, freedom, determination, happiness, motivation, hope and optimism, reflected in the way they wear their hair. 

 

The 2 minute film is airing on major Hindi channels along with regional channels of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. 

The latest TVC moves away from Parachute’s previous campaign iterations, where there is usually an admirer (male) or approval giver who validates the woman’s hair and how she wears it. Their previous campaigns – ‘Thoda Love Jatao’, ‘Magic of Warmth’ and ‘Khudse Love Jatao’ – were about people making connections or regaining confidence. During that period, the agency handling the brand mandate was McCann Worldgroup. 

 

 

 

Their latest campaign, however, explores the connection between a woman and her hair, thoroughly grounding the brand's positioning with the identity of its target audience. This campaign makes several departures from its predecessors, one of them being, depicting several female models in the film whereas most of their campaign featured one or two women at the most. This has given an ‘every woman’ appeal to the film that was lost when it featured high profile brand ambassadors like Deepika Padukone and Kriti Sanon. 

Marico has roped celebrity influencers such as Nupur Sanon, Kriti Kharbanda and Hansika Motwani, who have shared their stories of femininity and beauty on social media raising the conversations around the brand under the hashtag #MyHairIsMe.

The campaign garnered a reach of 21.6 million and 21.7 million impressions through these celebrities and social media influencers. 

Marico’s Parachute is a leader in the coconut oil category, with 59 per cent market share. According to a report by CRISIL, the company has been strengthening its position in coconut oil (Parachute, Oil of Malabar and Nihar Rigids) and Value Added Hair Oils (VAHO) (Parachute Advansed, Nihar Naturals, Shanti Amla and Hair & Care) reflected in increase in volume market share by 3 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, over five fiscals ended 2019. 

Speaking about the brand positioning, Koshy George, Chief Marketing Officer, Marico Ltd, said, “Parachute Advansed is a brand that stands for care and nurturance. Encapsulating these core values, ‘Love in a bottle’ continues to be the positioning of the brand. Over time, Parachute Advansed has built a strong emotional equity among today’s women. Synonymous with hair care, it truly understands the importance of hair in a woman’s life and in the expression of her identity, feelings and moods. If hair is so central to the identity of a woman, then nothing less than the love of Parachute Advansed will do. The “Mere Baal, Meri Jaan” campaign stems from the insight that for many women, it is not just hair. For some it is the symbol of joy, confidence, for some it is a beacon of change and for some it is a powerful expression. Through this campaign, Parachute Advansed aims to celebrate this symbolism and deepen the love for the brand."

Speaking about the campaign brief, Rohit Devgun, Executive Creative Director, Team WPP, said, “Our one line brief was to create an iconic piece which talks about this relationship that women have with their hair. The campaign marries the brand’s core pillars - nurturance, care, authenticity and beauty in a modern light by using heart-warming real-life instances wherein hair is fundamental to the expression of a woman’s emotions and frame of mind. For example, a woman who has recently undergone chemotherapy touches her newly grown hair - a symbol of hope and positivity; an athlete who ties her locks using a hairband - an act of resolution to attain her goals; a woman dancing in the rain with hair let down portraying her carefree and happy state. It goes on to depict several such women and how their hair symbolize their responsibility, love, freedom, determination, happiness, motivation, hope and optimism. The film ends with a voice-over that says “Mere Baal, Meri Jaan Hai” showcasing a Parachute Advansed bottle thereby sending a powerful message - hair is so precious, nothing but the touch of Parachute Advansed’s love will do.” 

Speaking about the film, he added, “We realised that hair is also what makes a woman who she is. Her hair defines her. They are part of her identity. So, we wanted to tell her that in the simplest possible manner. In doing so, we refrain ourselves from two things. One, we thought it would be nice to show hair and beauty in a more real manner as opposed to done up and cosmetic or brushed up. The idea required that. Secondly, we wanted to look at beauty from a woman’s point of view. When we talk about beauty, it's mostly from a male POV (Bollywood songs, for instance) and that is not always cool. So, we got into her shoes and wrote it that way. We are all brought up on heavy dosage of male POV when it comes to beauty descriptions, but if we are saying hair defines her, we have to vibe with her own thoughts.” 

Creative Speak 

Karthik Srinivasan, Communications Consultant, remarked, “I'm a fairly big fan of McCann's 2017 campaign for Parachute Advansed. It was called ‘Thoda Love Jatao’ and it focused, through the series of films, on relationships as a way to care for the other, through a head massage, of course. More than the first set of 3 films (in August 2017) that featured different kinds of couples (mother-daughter, husband-wife and MIL-DIL), my favourite was the one they did as a sequel, featuring a brother and a sister. It was so very natural and well-scripted and acted.” 

Continuing further, he said, “The 2018 variant of that thought, called ‘Khudse Love Jatao’ (Apni Shine Jagao) was far less convincing, featuring Kriti Sanon and a sitar. It was the standard fairness cream trope, but it was a departure from the caring-for-a-loved-one through their hair thought, and moved towards self-care that leads to success/happiness.” 

“The latest campaign extends that self-care, self-love thought even further with the ‘Mere Baal Meri Jaan’ line. The Hindi version is beautifully shot and very aptly makes use of Khayyam's iconic song from ‘Razia Sultan’. The lines in Hindi sound evocative and even take time to make politically correct statements like the woman who cuts her hair/lost hair (for whatever reason) vocalising her happiness when it grows back,” he added. 

Srinivasan feels that the theme of 'my hair is my life' (or identity) is extremely powerful and this is a far better iteration of the ‘Khudse Love Jatao’ theme. However, where it seems to falter is in the regional language versions, he opined, adding, “The Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam versions seem to have slightly clunky lines and the Hindi song continues to play in the background. Even without the song, with just the song's music, it would have worked better.” 

Nirmalya Sen, Founder & CEO, The Rethink Company, said, “To call this film an advertisement seems a tad unfair. For it goes beyond what we see advertisements do most often - unabashedly say what brands want consumers to hear. The idea of a woman’s hair being a canvas on which she paints her many emotions is not new to the brand. Or to the category. However, I see this transition from what the brand has always been – ‘baalon ki jaan to ‘mere baal, meri jaan hain’ as a move from ‘selling, even if beautifully’ to ‘not having to sell anymore’. Something only very strong brands and confident brand leadership teams can do.” 

Sen remarked that the writing is the “jaan” of this beautiful film. “The idea of using the song ‘Ae Dil Ae Nadan’ is genius too. If I had to make any change to this film, it would be to drop the words “Parachute Advansed’ and ‘Kyunki’ from the voice over in the end line. Overall, I think the film is a significant step in the brand’s journey from being a big brand to a ‘love mark’,” he added. 

According to Saurabh Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder, Think WhyNot Films, “Very few Indian brands enjoy the level of intimate relationship with their consumers which Parachute enjoys. This definitely poses a steep challenge for product innovators, but for the brand’s marketers, it becomes nothing short of climbing the K2. The ‘Mere Baal Meri Jaan’ ad seems to be the output of some real deep rooted insights. I went down the comments section, saw many praises, but one comment made me realise my first instinct on watching this ad was indeed right. The comment read – ‘Only ad that made me feel that the makers of the ad understand what hair means to us. My hair can make me sad and also happy. I feel so emotional after watching this ad.’ If allowed to be done differently, I would have placed more characters in a real world feel. Like done in some scenes, which indeed stand out as against the purely aesthetically shot. It will be interesting to see what comes next…a celebration of this relationship perhaps!” 

Campaign Credits

Agency Credits: Team WPP

Production House: Goodmorning Films

 

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