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In 2002, Perfetti Van Melle came out with an advertisement for their Center Shock chewing gum that ‘electrified’ its protagonist and said ‘Hila ke rakh de’.
The ad campaign showed an old and dusty salon with a bald barber reading a newspaper. A customer walks in to get a haircut and shows the barber a magazine picture for reference. The barber, in order to get creative with his talent, gives the customer a Center Shock chewing gum and instantly his hair looks spiked up in the most bizarre fashion. The barber then unveiled the reference image of a model having a similar hairstyle.
Abhijit Avasthi, who was back then the associate creative director of Ogilvy & Mather said, “Center Shock was one of those projects that just fell into place. It was path breaking and courageous in many ways.”
At a time when gum and candies were portrayed to be sweet and enjoyable, Perfetti Van Melle disrupted the market with extremely sour products. Avasthi believes, the fact that they wanted to launch a sour gum was very brave of them.
The brief of the ad too was very interesting as Avasthi recalls. Ashok Dhingra, the then marketing and sales head of Perfetti Van Melle, came down to the Ogilvy office in Mumbai and met Piyush Pandey. He carried a jar of Center Shock and put it on Piyush’s table. He told the team in clear words “I have made the product and now you taste this product and make an ad”. That was the brief.
The team shared how Dhingra never weighed them down. There was always creative freedom.
How ‘Hila ke rakh de’ happened
Avasthi recalled, “When Piyush had one gum, the first thing he said was ‘I don’t know the story but the baseline should be ‘Hila ke rakh de’”.
When Avasthi had it, the one thing that came to his mind was, it wouldn’t be a surprise if someone pops in that gum and gets their hair up like Einstein. With this basic thought, the creative team then polished the idea to come to the final draft.
Prasoon Pandey, managing director, Corcoise Films and director of this ad campaign shared, “It’s crazy how humour and sentimental stories are perceived. If I narrate a sentimental story and you don’t cry, somehow it reflects on you being emotionless. But if I narrate a humorous story and you don’t laugh, then it reflects on me that I cracked a poor joke.”
As Prasoon worked on the script, he realised the catch lies in the scene where no one gets to see the magazine reference picture. It is only when the final hairstyle is made, he reveals the picture. This was a switch that made it appeal to the human mind.
The set design and its briefing
Then Prasoon’s team started adding layers to this film with minor details. The barber’s character was meant to show the customer’s arrival at the shop as a rare occurrence. “Hence, he was shown as an idle person, reading a newspaper in the first scene,” Prasoon shared.
The barber’s salon was also shown to be asymmetrical as old, rustic and small town market shops.
Art Director Suzanne Caplan Marwanji, who did the set for this ad was given an exercise to do. Prasoon recalls he narrated a scenario of an old homoeopathy shop that was run in a small town. Marwanji started drawing counters and shelves accordingly on paper.
Prasoon then asked to revamp the set to be a barber’s place by the second generation heir. Marwanji, even though doubtful, kept on drawing as per the storyline requests. After rigorous back and forth, this is how the set was designed.
The search for the protagonist
Prasoon shared how they were testing a lot of people but something told him that Varun, a young man who assisted him in his earlier days, will be fit for this role.
“Varun was a character who was already like the protagonist of the ad. He wouldn’t have to act. But when he came for the test, he unfortunately didn’t give a great shot,” he added.
The director still had hopes in Varun but was scared whether the client would buy his belief in this guy, for he wasn’t an actor. Ultimately all fell into place and Varun agreed to do the role.
Prasoon said, “Today as well, I can’t imagine the commercial with somebody else.”
The ‘Lights Camera Action’ of the gum
At the set, Prasoon and team knew that if Varun was told he was being filmed he would get conscious. Hence, Jahangir Choudhury, who was the cameraman, was told to keep the camera rolling at all times.
“We told Varun that we are all taking a small break to discuss something and till then he can be on the set. After a while when all of us moved away from the scene, he did as expected. Inadvertently, he started adjusting his shirt and hair in the camera which added flavour to the ad,” added Prasoon.
The music was to be added by Ehsaan and Loy later but Prasoon also called Chetan Shashital alongside them because he knew that man had a magic potion. He could do wonders with anything.
When the duo made some samples of hilarious music, Prasoon and his team were all in splits, laughing at the idea of how the ad will turn out to be.
The ad’s shocking launch
The ad was out and things went wild for the brand, Prasoon recalled. The demand was such that Dhingra called Prasoon multiple times to tell him how the company had to increase production lines for Center Shock.
In a time of pleasant and fruity chewing gums, here came a brand that threatened their audience outright by saying ‘Hila ke rakh de’. But, it happened to appeal to the masses.
Avasthi added, “This happened because it broke all set norms. This was a product that shakes the hell out of you, the actor wasn’t really an Adonis, the place was a rundown barber’s shop, the product experience wasn’t a pleasant one. Hence, every mould in the category was changed for good.”
This was the launch that set Perfetti for success to dominate the Indian confectionery market. Even though the brand had been around for more than five years, they hadn’t tasted this kind of success before, Avasthi concluded.
Watch the ad here:
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