Battle of the bulge

The Hindu : Metro Plus Chennai / Miscellany : ROHINI MOHAN: "We pat it affectionately after a heavy meal. We adjust our pants around it. We look at it disapprovingly when it heaves up the staircase or squeezes in between narrow armrests. There are all sorts of thoppais — small, medium, large and planet-size. And ad agency Lowe knew this when it put side-splitting images of the thoppai (paunch) on air.

With a clear home flavour, Lowe has come up with the "Battle of the Paunch" ad, targeted at catching the attention of us local fellows. The client, SSD Oil Mills Co. Ltd. focusses only on the Southern oil market; so Lowe decided to appeal to the sensibilities of this target consumer by weaving in colloquial usages, and snapshots of obviously south Indian lifestyle.

Given that the focus area of the Rs. 200-crore-turnover, 22-year-old SSD Oil Mills Co. is Tamil Nadu, the "Battle of the Paunch" ad has a Tamil script. The voice-over, Deepa Geethakrishnan, Group Creative Director of Lowe says, was especially chosen for the local accent and flippant delivery.

"The company is not a new entrant in the market," says D. Ramammoorthy, Managing Director, SSD Oil Mills. "But coming from Tirunelveli, and having only a limited reach, we were very small players. Only stockists and loyal buyers knew us." After he approached Lowe to re-launch Supreme Oil, he says the brand recall has definitely shot up. "I don't have the sales figures yet, but I can tell you the initial sign of the ad's success - stockists, and distributors have begun to purchase more stock to meet the increasing demand."

The "Battle of the Paunch" ad is a series of shots of tummies sticking out of elevators, floating in swimming pools, and making shirt buttons pop. "The song is so catchy," says Virendran, PRO for a major IT company, "I keep looking down at my thoppai and laughing to myself now!" Krishnan, an ad-man himself, says that this commercial might even contend for a few awards next year. "It's so basic. That's what makes it brilliant," he says.

"It was just about finding the most visible sign of unhealthy eating," says Deepa, "And there were large tummies everywhere!" Brands of sunflower oils have always focussed on heart ailments, cholesterol and other grave health concerns. These warnings, though true, were quite alarmist. "Anyway, no one can actually see cholesterol, even if the ad had a little cartoon oil drop playing the part," says Deepa.

So Lowe's fantastic strategy for Supreme Sunflower Oil was to make the invisible enemy visible. You can't help laughing at how a young woman stares with disgust at a man's tummy spilling over his bike, and a little girl comfortably asleep on a rising and falling thoppai. The paunch is used as a symbol of ill health, and the reactions an unfortunate reflection on the importance given to appearance.

Despite belonging to the well-established Lowe, Deepa says the Chennai team has access only to local clients, because most big clients go to Mumbai. So, "we have to work a lot harder to think up innovative ideas for new brands that are limited in reach, and targeted at people from a specific region. It's a challenge," she says. The commercial asks the lady of the house to sit up and notice her man's thoppai. "In India, over-eating is a sign of happiness!" laughs Deepa, pointing to her team member's paunch as he squirms, "We decided to draw attention to the medium the food is cooked in. We call it thoppai control oil." If all the images don't drive the point home, here's the ad's sign off: "Andha thoppaiya konjam koraingale... pleease." "