Throwback Thursday: When Aishwarya Rai and AR Rahman came together for a Titan Diwali ad
On Thursdays, we revisit old ads from the yesteryears to see how much has changed in the ad sensibilities over the years
Diwali is the time of the year when we partake in the simple joy of gifting. Nothing warms the heart more than seeing a delightful smile on your loved one's face when they unbox a present.
These days, a simple electronic gift card saves us from the tedium of finding the right gift. The giftee can buy anything of their choice and we are spared from disappointing them with a bad gift.
On the upside, it may be convenient, but it is also quite impersonal.
Back in the days, when we weren't so tech-savvy, people had to work hard toward finding the perfect gift. The process may be tedious, but the end results are fantastic.
One such commercial that perfectly captured the many emotions of gift giving -- the excitement, the surprise and the joy -- was Titan's early 90s Diwali ad, which is etched deeply in the minds of Gen X and the millennials.
The joy of gifting
"Titan had always invested in conducting massive amounts of research to understand who buys, why they buy, who decides, who goes to the shop, who pays, and for what occasions they buy, and they studied the results to plan their product as well as their ad campaign," wrote Vinay Kamath in his book TITAN: Inside India's Most Successful Consumer Brand.
One of the points that emerged during the research was that people were buying Titan watches to gift to family and friends.
The company decided to keep this thought at the heart of its campaigns.
Ogilvy & Mathers was tasked with the job under the guidance of creative director Ashok Sarath. "So there were these nice films that were scripted and made which focued on the emotions of receiving and giving a Titan watch as a gift. The basic idea was to capture the moment of gifting, [with the attendant] emotion of being gifted something so special," said Sarath to Kamath in his book.
The theme of gifting went on to become a recurring motif in Titan ads and the tagline "Rediscover the joy of gifting" stayed with the brand for years.
When Titans came together
The promotional Diwali ad for Titan Quartz brought together some big names even though they were relatively obscure back then. The critically acclaimed cinematographer Rajiv Menon, who worked on Mani Ratnam films like Bombay and Guru, shot the ad in Chennai's Prasad Studios.
A fresh-faced Aishwarya Rai starred as the young wife. By then, she was riding high from all the popularity she garnered in the Pepsi ad, which sparked a lot of curiosity about her. Rai had already raked up the reputation of being "that girl from the Pepsi ad." This was her second ad film.
The iconic Titan tune may have been Mozart's (symphony 25 to be precise) but it was adapted by none other than A.R Rahman who was yet to earn his stripes in the film industry. Rahman was hitherto composing scores for ad films and documentaries before Roja happened in 1992.
The premise of the ad was quite simple as one can expect from the 90s spots. A husband places a gift on the bed for the wife to find. As she gets dressed, she spots the gift, opens it and is delighted to find a Titan watch. "Could any Diwali gift mean quite as much to her as much as a Titan Quartz," said the voiceover.
Despite its simplicity, the ad had great recall value and reportedly did well for the Diwali season, helping Titan sell a lot of watches.
