A WEDDING TO REMEMBER FROM TANISHQ

Tanishq the jewellery brand from the house of Tata (turnover of  Tanishq  expected to be about Rs.10000 crores for the current fiscal)  has been heavily trending on social media after it launched the latest television commercial.   The reason:  The ad. is all the about the remarriage function of a dusky bride . How do we know that it is her remarriage? Enter the cute  little daughter of the bride telling her mother that she wants to join her in circling  the havan!

Our society is moving towards a liberal view on the  issue  of remarriage for a widow or a female divorcee thanks to higher literacy rate, employment opportunities for women giving them security and economic freedom. Adding momentum to this are Initiatives by legislatures and social organisations  in the direction of women empowerment .

The growing number of matrimonial websites, and weekly classified ads in leading  newspapers  dedicated to remarriage are  a pointer to this change.  But this subject is not completely out of the taboo inherited.  Also, there is still  a long way for this to percolate to all sections of the society.

A dusky bride in a remarriage ! Even in a fairness cream commercial a dusky female appears only for a fleeting second only  to quickly morph into a fair complexioned lady.  It is always  portrayed  that a dusky complexion earns negative reviews in the matrimonial market for a prospective bride. The director of this TV commercial is Gauri Shinde of English Vinglish fame.   In an interview to Press she has taken a stand that the choice of a dusky model is not deliberate !

Without joining the current debate centering around this TV commercial, let us find out a few bright spots:

1. Kudos to Lowe Lintas the ad.agency for boldly thinking of a concept far away from the beaten track .  No doubt the theme is socially relevant but it requires gumption to deploy it to promote a high profile brand like jewellery.

Interestingly, amongst many families, there is a practice to see the auspicious day and time to buy gold jewellery. There is also this practice of buying the jewellery from fixed shops that are considered lucky. So much for the sentiments surrounding the jewellery purchase.! The client and the director also should be congratulated.

The former for going with the agency’s approach  and the latter for a very neat and lucid  execution of the theme.

2. It may not be deliberate yet  the dusky bride tremendously enhances the impact of the theme.  In her place, had the director chosen a fair complexioned woman, the impact would have been far  less than what it is now.

3. The commercial has gone viral in social media.  This has cascaded the reach of the main campaign enhancing the awareness for Tanishq brand.  The inference for this trending is  that the campaign has earned the empathy of the target audience – both male and female who can be defined as educated, resourceful, aspirational and  progressive in their  social outlook .

4) There is no information on research done before selecting this theme. The agency must have done its home work before embarking on this initiative.  It would benefit the advertising fraternity if the agency comes forward to share the growth in consumer franchise that Tanishq  has gained as a result of this campaign.

5) The success of this commercial should inspire agencies and clients  to come out with creatives that are fresh and  not  on much travelled track.

Tanishq – Bold and hence it is beautiful !