Does HE Magic Duo campaign stand out as a deviation from cliché deodorant ads?

Deodorant ad films have mostly been about women swooning over a man after he applies the deo. However, FCB Ulka’s latest ad campaign has crafted out a clutter-breaking campaign to connect with the youth, while staying away from the traditional plot line. The ad films have a humorous plot line to promote the latest feature of the HE Magic Duo that comes with two distinct fragrances in one single pack. The ad films position the brand as a true innovator that has brought a very fresh and unique concept in the fragrance industry.

Conceptualized by the Mumbai branch of FCB Ulka, the three ad films are based on young protagonists caught in tricky situations, where bizarre lies are the only way out for them. Such lies that are far from believable for anyone, which is when, the innovative product, ‘He Magic Duo’ gets introduced as the alibi to leverage the campaign idea of unbelievability. The phrase ‘God Promise Bro’ very efficiently and convincingly helps unveil the product in the films and adds a fun, memorable moment for the viewers.

The campaign has been well integrated and is running successfully on major Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telegu and Kannada TV channels. The TVC is also being endorsed on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and have other 360 extensions. 

We asked experts in the industry about their view on the ad.

Speaking about the deodorant category, Shrenik Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, White Rivers Media, said, “Deodorant as a category has played on primarily these three appeals: Humour, Sex or Rational.”

According to Gandhi, the effort and the intent of the script were right, but the production could have been better.

“The tag line ‘God Promise Bro’ is pretty good and might fly with the youth, but the TVCs of competitor brands have been much stronger and the category is too competitive to miss a shot,” remarked Gandhi on the HE Magic Duo ad campaign. 

Jagdeep Kapoor, CMD Samsika Marketing Consultants, says that the ad grabs attention through an unbelievable situation narration followed by the two fragrance benefit the product has to offer. “It brings about a fresh young appeal with a tinge of humour which would attract the young target audience,” remarks Kapoor. 

Speaking how it breaks from the cliché deodorant ads, Kapoor says, “It cuts the clutter by not just showing sexual attraction that other ads show.”

“The TVCs have excellent ‘memory assets’ like the ‘God Promise Bro’ tagline and a new unique proposition. The only thing I'm unsure of is brand cut-through. I may not remember the brand name despite the executional cut-through,” comments Kiran Khalap, Co-founder, MD, Chlorophyll Brand Consultancy.

Ananda Ray, Creative Head, Rediffusion, says that he is not sure if these ads truly deviate from the cliché deodorant ads because commercials in this category have already broken from the cliché long ago. On the contrary, Ray says, “These ads actually borrow from clichés already used in other categories.” 

“I'm not sure of the logic of comparing an untruth with a truth. I would rather compare a seemingly unbelievable truth in order to reinforce that a product truth that seems unbelievable. Having said that, I believe these ads should create considerable brand awareness because they are snappy, quirky and fun,” remarks Ray. 

Sunneith Revankar, Associate Creative Director, Happy mcgarrybowen, says the whole 'Impossible/namumkin/Kuch Bhi' device creates a lot of room for humour in the commercials.

"While a little bit of craft is lacking, they're definitely effective when it comes to talking about the leading feature of the product. We've all seen commercials where a hard repetition of certain terms is used as a tool to create recall. While those have enjoyed great success, this, in my opinion, is a smarter take on the category. Even the tag sticks with you", says Revankar.

Watch the ad films here: 

Canteen: 

Classroom: 

Vampire: